It's about the germs on the buffet utensils...

I've been sick this week. It started with a sore throat on Tuesday morning. By Wednesday morning, it was a severe sore throat. 

Oh no, I thought, is this strep? 

But, I didn't have a fever, so I figured it was just a virus. Then the long-absent-from-my-life asthma flared up. Not able to breathe, I sent my husband into my office for my inhaler. He found it and I used it. No real relief. Then I discovered it expired early in 2014. Yikes.

I called my doctor and she immediately called in a prescription for a new inhaler. Then I ran into a whole insurance mess, which I won't go into here... just know that I would NEVER recommend Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield to anyone. They are a bunch of idiots in the billing department.

Finally, after an hour on the phone with Highmark, they called the pharmacy to straighten out the mess and I was able to get my inhaler and breathe again. It was scary and I cannot believe I had to go through all of that. The whole incident made my blood pressure hike and exhausted me. I went to bed by 9 and woke up 12 hours later, although my husband said I coughed all night. I believe him, due to the feeling of bruised ribs on both sides. Now when I cough, I hold on to my ribs, just to ease the pain a little bit.

The next morning, I woke up with a fever. My sore throat was better, but the cough and chest pain had me thinking pneumonia. Maybe I should go see the doctor. As my fever went up, I actually started to feel better, so I held off. After all, it would have been another insurance nightmare and I didn't have it in me to deal with it.

I'm using my inhaler every 4 hours, as directed, and am feeling much better (except for those doggone ribs). In the meantime, my daughter was experiencing similar symptoms (sans asthma), which started on Tuesday as well. 

We looked at commonalities. We were both as a book festival on Saturday, church on Sunday, and then out to lunch after church. We went to a buffet... wait... we went to a buffet. Bingo. 

Have you ever thought about all the germs on the serving spoons and tongs on a buffet? YUCK. I'm pretty well convinced that we both picked up something from the utensils at the buffet. So what do we do from here on out? After all, we like Sunday brunch buffets? It's quite simple, actually. We just have to have hand sanitizer (non-toxic, of course) at the table and insist that everyone, including my 6-year-old granddaughter, use it after each trip to the buffet table/salad bar. Make sense? 

I hope all of us can avoid getting sick from germs on the utensils simply by following this little bit of advice. It's like washing your hands before you eat. But in the case of a buffet, you have to "wash" them over and over again.

Keep it healthy, folks!