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People in my office suck

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Pilot, Nov 20, 2006.

Page 3 of 8
  1. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    I've had this problem for several years now. I get a cold or the flu at some point and even after the sickness leaves, I am left with a hacking cough that won't go away. It happened three years in a row, but not last year. It is a nasty, awful-sounding cough that keeps me from sleeping. Every time I breathe in, I have to cough. And the cough noise is horrible. Scares the hell out of people. I sound like I have typhoid and TB wrapped into one cough. If I am on a crowded subway, people hear that cough and all cram into one end of the car to get the hell away from me.

    I felt horrible for the people I was working with at the time, but there was nothing I could do about it. The cough wouldn't go away. All three years, I went to the doctor, and he tried everything he could to make it go away and it was impervious to his doctor tricks. They finally had to put me on oral steroids three years in a row, which are a last resort, because the downside of using them is huge. And that is the only thing that could conquer the cough. The third year it happened, I went to a pulmonary doctor, and she examined me and said, "Did you know you have asthma?" I was in my mid 30s and had no clue. I had always been susceptible to coughs that won't go away, and remembered playing sports in the fall and winter and having trouble breathing when I would run in cold weather. It is worst when I exercise in cold weather. It used to happen a lot when I played football, but I just fought through it, never questioning why. It had never occurred to me that it was asthma. The night I found out I had asthma, I called my dad and told him the doctor had told me I have asthma, and he said, "Yeah. They told us when you were a baby." Gee, thanks for letting me know dad. I now do things to try to prevent getting coughs, because I can't shake them without steroids. I get a flu shot and used inhaled steroids preventively. Once my airways get irritated, the asthma keeps them irritated and producing mucus, and it makes it get worse, until it won't go away on its own. So it is key to prevent even getting the cough in the first place.

    Your story about the guy with the cough made me think about myself. The doctor told me when I am like that, I am not contagious. But try telling that to people who hear you sounding like you are carrying the plague.
     
    The Big Ragu, Nov 20, 2006
    #25
  2. writing irish

    writing irish Active Member

    Sometimes I get a double cheeseburger, fries and a Diet Coke. Not because I'm worried about calories, obviously. I have fucked-up Irish teeth and do my best to avoid sugar to keep the situation in my mouth from getting worse. Just saying. For the record, I'm skinny.

    Fat people who are self-conscious about their poor eating habits and gorge in secret are sad. But the ones who inhale 3,000 calories in full co-worker view every day at lunch and then spend the rest of the afternoon farting and napping do freak me out.
     
    writing irish, Nov 20, 2006
    #26
  3. Herbert Anchovy

    Herbert Anchovy Active Member

    I worked with a bigun like this many years ago. There was always a jarful of candy on her desk, and the sports guys would raid it at night and she'd come in and shake her head and say, "All right now, who's had their paws in my candy!"
     
    Herbert Anchovy, Nov 20, 2006
    #27
  4. SEWnSO

    SEWnSO Member

    Years ago I worked with a dude that showered weekly (I think). His hair was so nasty that even his keyboard was slick and dander-flecked.
     
    SEWnSO, Nov 20, 2006
    #28
  5. Kaylee

    Kaylee Member

    This guy was actually a real sweetheart of a guy, but since we're talking about health afflictions...

    I once worked at a place that employed a real elderly features writer. He was still pretty sharp, and had seen just about everything. Great for telling stories. Thing was, he had a habit of loudly humming a tune and thumping his hand on the wall with the rhythm while taking a pee at the urinal. We all knew this because the architect of this building, who obviously had a great sense of humor, had the men's room abutting the newsroom. And the walls were very thin indeed (veterans would walk back to the press room and use the bathroom there so as not to run the risk of the newsroom hearing them pee...I'm serious.)

    Anyhow, this routine earned the guy the behind-the-back nickname of "Count Bassie", but it was all in good fun.

    Until the day we were all quietly buzzing about our work when we heard "Bum bum bum bum BA da bum bum bum BA da bum bum...[LOUD CRASH]...ARRRRRGGGHHHH!"

    Which is how I came to help stabilize a man with a broken hip who had fallen on the men's room floor.
     
    Kaylee, Nov 20, 2006
    #29
  6. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    I'm not trying to play doctor -- well, not with a guy, at least -- but it sounds like bronchitis. In my 20s I used to to get it and figured it would go away, like a cold, but it never does without antibiotics. The cough drops aren't gonna help. Eventually, I figured out that I should just cut to the chase and go to the doctor at the first sign of it rather than wait a month.
     
    Frank_Ridgeway, Nov 20, 2006
    #30
  7. Overrated

    Overrated Guest

     
    Overrated, Nov 20, 2006
    #31
  8. BYH

    BYH Active Member

    Sorry that you have to be around a germ-spewing loooser, but this line cracked me up.

    It sounds like you might someday be quoted in a story about working with a co-worker who ends up shooting up a school.
     
    BYH, Nov 20, 2006
    #32
  9. slappy4428

    slappy4428 Active Member

    I laughed outloud at that...
     
    slappy4428, Nov 20, 2006
    #33
  10. Ledbetter

    Ledbetter Active Member

    I typically get one nasty cold and cough a year. The cough usually lingers but is only a problem at night when I'm trying to sleep.

    When I do get a coughing fit at work, I try to get out of the newsroom so I don't annoy everyone.
     
    Ledbetter, Nov 20, 2006
    #34
  11. Jones

    Jones Active Member

    I know a news guy whose fat wife sat on their wiener dog, breaking its spine, paralyzing its back end. I swear to God, every time I saw that thing pulling its broke ass around in a tiny wheelchair, I laughed the mirthless laugh of the Devil.
     
    Jones, Nov 21, 2006
    #35
  12. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    He's like a cross between a sack of potatoes, a hippy and a mold infestation -- covered by black coat.

    That's funny. It reminds me of a former colleague who'd describe vacuous girls as "dumber than a bucket of chicken."
     
    Songbird, Nov 21, 2006
    #36
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