Update: I saw my doctor this afternoon. I've got the start of some kind of viral thing, cold/flu/whatever. If things get worse I'm supposed to take the amoxil he prescribed me, only because it's such an important trip. Otherwise he'd prefer I slogged it out without medication. That's one thing I like about my doctor, he doesn't over-do the anti-biotics.

I have narrow eustachian tubes.. these are the tubes that run from the inner ear to the inner nose. One unfortunate side-effect is that when I get congested, and my inner ears get consgested (generally the entire ENT system gets congested, not just one's sinuses) and it takes a lonnng time for them to drain. If I fly congested, I get incredibly serious pain during takeoff and landing, and end up with hearing loss for a while. The last time was 6 weeks... the first three of which I'm was pretty much deaf. If the congestion and circumstances are serious enough I could rupture my eardrums by flying congested.

Unfortunately I'm sick and congested now, and I have to fly to San Jose for the O'Reilly Mac OS X conference on Monday. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do it. I might end up driving, like I did in 2001 when I drove the SF for my interview at NetStruxr.

If you have any ideas for helping me reduce the congestion please let me know. I'm already taking a decongestant. Thanks!