Half-chipmunk face

Just when I thought I was getting over this cold, this morning I woke up with the left half of my face, from just below my eye to the underside of my chin, swollen and red. It didn't just look horrible, but it also felt like someone had stuffed a wad of tissues through my eye and down my face. Hence, the title of this post: I currently have a half-chipmunk face. (Sorry, NO photos of this new look of mine will be posted!)

With what little voice I had, I called in sick to work and then hauled ass to the Northwestern ER. I know, a bit drastic... perhaps. But, I still have no doctor to speak of, because I relied on the University of Chicago Student Clinic up until August, and, honestly, I've had no real need to find a doctor in Chicago yet. And my face was swollen, and who was to say it wasn't going to spread to my neck? So, maybe, drastic, but I'd rather play it safe than sorry on this one.

Despite the ER being totally packed, I was let in within a minute of sitting down, which only seemed to confirm my worries that something might be really wrong. Luckily, I was in there for barely over an hour, definitely acceptable in my book. Also, luckily, as of right now, it's nothing serious, just another result of my sinus infection. Granted, I've never had this 'swollen face' side-effect even though I've been the queen of sinus infections over the past year, ever since my month-long sinus infection / cold that totally knocked me out for the last month of my first term as a grad student.

The doctor gave me a prescription, in the hopes of it being a bacterial infection rather than a viral one, and told me to come back if the swelling gets any worse, my vision becomes fuzzy, and/or my teeth start to hurt, because then apparently I'll need a CAT scan and a whole lotta luck that my sinuses aren't all screwed up.

My ER experience was obviously not nearly as dramatic as it could have been (thankfully), but, after I left the hospital and headed to the pharmacy, person after person kept staring at my misshapen face. Seriously, people, it's not that bad, and what happened to Chicagoans not looking at one another as they walk down the street?

That was annoying, but, if that was the worst part of my day and the worst part of me having a half-chipmunk face, I can deal with that. Like I said, it could be a whole lot worse than it is.