6 days of sickness

Last Thursday I started feeling like crap. Not my normal "I'm having a bad PH day" crap. Like severe chills and body aches. By the time I check my temperature, it's up around 100 degrees and I want to die.

When normally healthy people get the flu they are miserable for a few days. But they don't stress out about going to the hospital, if the infection will spread to their lungs and cause pneumonia or bronchitis. Jeff and I stress out about that stuff. By Friday, I was SICK. I dry-heaved, started coughing, my sinuses were clogged, the fever had jumped to 102 and I was sucking 3 liters of oxygen and was barely able to function. Jeff had to help me to the bathroom or I would come close to passing out when I stood up. With the oxygen. I was scared. We checked my temp every hour and it just wasn't going down. We debated for hours whether or not to go to the ER.

Now, the ER is wonderful. But if you are already barely functioning, the ER is like prison. They check you in and you wait. Then they stab you with needles, start an IV and make you wait more. Then they generally give you some form of IV antibiotics that make you want to die and start a fluid drip, which for me is hell on earth because of the edema. You don't get food until you've actually been admitted to a room, which is generally AFTER the last meal has been served. It is awful.

So we weighed the pros and cons and decided not to go to the ER. We figured it was a viral infection and there was nothing the hospital could do anyway. At least at home I could sleep and rest. On Saturday my chest felt like an elephant sat on it and cracked all of my ribs. Everything hurt. The humidity here had dropped to around 11%. So I woke up in the middle of the night with a gushing bloody nose from the dry air and my use of oxygen. Poor Jeff had to wash the sheets. I started using my humidifier and Jeff moved it around the house for me so I always had moist air nearby.

It is now Tuesday and I am just starting to turn the corner. The cough is still body-wracking but the severe aches are gone. I don't pray for death. Jeff would come check to make sure I was still breathing when I slept on Friday because he was afraid I would stop breathing and die. Lovely stuff.

So I had to sit inside while everyone around me was out enjoying the fantastic weather this past weekend. I just hope I recover this week so I can enjoy the upcoming weekend in paradise :-)