This strep infection persists, although I think maybe (and it’s a maybe) the antibiotics started to kick in this evening. I’m feeling quite grouchy and very tired. I did go to work today and felt bad for all my co-workers who had to listen to me blow my fog horn and hack up a lung all day long.
I felt horrible. At noon, after talking to Mama Donna (who refused to discuss HPS business with me until I called my doc – just the sort of mothering I needed!), I called my doctor’s office back to complain that I wasn’t feeling any better and it had been two days. I got a call back from the nurse and a polite pat on the head with instructions to be more patient.
I hated to call, but felt a little better about complaining after Donna said I should be feeling better. This evening my sore throat is still sore, but better. I don’t feel quite as spacy in the head or as feverish – but my ears still hurt and I’ve been coughing my head off.
The doctor listened to my lungs on Monday and said they sounded clear – none of the dreaded crackling. Still, today I’m at work trying to edit news briefs and I couldn’t even get through a simple paragraph without coughing. This meant, of course, that I had to stop, hack for what seemed like forever until I was completely out of breath and panting for air, and then try to find my place again and resume where I left off. What was this brief about again?
The coughing is also making my chest burn inside. How could that be good?
My nystagmus is aggravated when I’m tired, and I haven’t slept more than maybe an hour at a time since last week. I can’t stop coughing! And, using my CPAP is impossible with a raw throat and a cough – thus if the coughing doesn’t wake me up then an apnea event does. I’M TIRED!!! WHAT PART OF TIRED DOES NO ONE UNDERSTAND? I'm prone to stop breathing at night, so I use a CPAP machine to keep my airway open. But, when your throat is raw, all that air being forced down your throat to keep it open hurts! And, trying to cough against air pressure isn't fun either.
The one bright spot is that my period is actually normal this month. Thank God for that! A little mercy anyway.
I feel so bad being such a baby about this. I know what’s like to be really sick and in the hospital for months on end as one day melts into another and you feel as though there’s no relief in sight.
Still, today I was ready to have a tantrum. Look doc. these drugs aren’t doing it. If only he'd been the one to call me back. HA! No use being cross with the nurse messenger.
Maybe he was right though. Still, I can’t help but be very concerned about my coughing. Coughing and lung problems just don’t go well together. If nothing is going on in there then why am I suddenly so easily winded and out of breath? And geesh doc….my sides and stomach muscles are so sore now I can barely cough when I feel I need to get some junk out. I’m soooo sore from all the hacking.
This evening I was supposed to read over a bunch of data for a story I’m working on that needs to be completed ASAP. How can I make sense of a bunch of numbers (not my strong suit anyway) when I can’t get through half a page without stopping for at least a five-minute hack break?
Whine, whine, whine!
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