Health: "Two-Weeks' Notice"

[seryn]

Okay. So, for those of you who haven't seen me much, I'm deathly ill. For some value of deathly that surprisingly seems to mean that my doctor was shocked that I did not have pneumonia. I felt like shit, full stop, no question I needed to seek medical attention. But I wasn't thinking it was that bad. I just wanted cold meds that last more than 4 hours at a stretch so I could fucking sleep and those usually require a prescription for the good ones. I knew I wasn't getting better because I could only sleep for about 90 minutes at a time.

So I got sent for chest x-rays, got antibiotics like I'd been sniffing suspicious white powder, and proceeded to not get significantly better in two weeks, despite the surprise-to-the-doctor diagnosis of not!pneumonia. I believe what I have is a long string of Greek which translates to "Fuck if I know why you're coughing but it sounds like shit."

I still cannot lay down. Even an incline causes my breath to gurgle alarmingly. Once I start coughing, I cannot stop for 3-15 minutes. I cough hard enough that I have to hold onto something or I risk falling to the ground because I cannot stand. Cough medicines do work to suppress the coughing, but do nothing for the drowning sensation if I lie down. This caused me to return to the doctor today.

Even more alarmingly, while taking antibiotics, I have picked up a sniffle and a fever. So no one has any clue what's actually wrong with me, but as long as it goes away, I don't care what caused it. Actually as long as I could sleep for 8 hours straight every night, I'd be willing to put up with feeling under-par for another two weeks while waiting to truly heal.

This is about all I've been doing. I've been sick. For TWO FUCKING WEEKS. And there isn't a lot of hope that the current "see if this helps" will do anything.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

Sorry you've been feeling so unwell. I wonder whether it's (a relative of) the cold virus I had a few months ago, which kept me sick/coughing for a little over three weeks. Antibiotics don't do anything for that kind of thing.

[seryn]

If it is related, then I owe you retroactive sympathy. Simon's got a doctor's note saying he's too ill and cannot go into work due to him being contagious. You were still working! I can barely watch TV. And I can only read for short periods of time before even the biggest text blurs like a cartoon image of a newspaper column.

I am given to understand that even if you are known to have a virus, once you've had it for multiple weeks, they start giving you antibiotics on the grounds that you're too weakened to fight anything else off. But it might be that my doctor is just giving me stuff to get me to go away and stop breathing on him. My chest congestion was improved about 25% due to the antibiotics, which is enough that I don't feel that I might die in my sleep.

I can say that if this is the "flu" for this year that EVERYONE should get the vaccine because this is one of the worst colds I've ever had.

[thistleingrey]

Well, I was working from home, which requires less effort because one doesn't have to go anywhere, but it was hard--I took a lot of naps.

[pj]

Ugh ugh ugh! I was thinking by now there would be more improvement! (As I'm certain you were thinking, too.) ~holding you in the light~

[seryn]

Thanks for the good wishes. Really.

I have new antibiotics and some steroidal anti-inflammatories. On the whole this is an improvement because these antibiotics don't make my skin feel weird and don't make my head feel weird--- I'm thinking that I might be allergic to the first kind--- and the steroids have helped quite a bit immediately with the various aches and pains I have all over. All my fingers bend even first thing in the morning today. I still can't breathe if I lie down, but a dozen low-grade annoyances have been silenced.

Yesterday's efforts were too much and I back-slid some. Honestly driving to the doctor was much more ambitious than I thought it would be. I feel okay if I sit still, so driving shouldn't make me feel like I've been running for 10 minutes flat out. I almost pulled over for a coughing break. Simon's got a bad fever so when he said he'd drive I knew he was being stupid.

[pj]

At last, progress you can feel!

Next - to be able to lie down.

[ames]

I worry, my friend. :c If good thoughts from the other side of the country help, you've got all of mine.

[seryn]

Thank you. I really feel quite horrid, but lately it's been interspersed with larger and larger periods of time where, as long as I don't move, I feel okay. The coughing has softened from "wood chipper choking on a redwood trunk" to "dogs barking". So there's been some improvement.

All the supplies I struggled mightily on Sunday to obtain have been quite useful. Smoothies for breakfast, tamales (frozen, so just heating required) for lunch. And the anti-coughing stuff actually works. I'm trying to convince Simon to order more curry for dinner, but he's a week behind me--- last week I ate maybe 5 meals all week, mostly I just drank water or juice. So he's hardly interested in food. I'm better enough that I'd be happy to lurch my way downstairs via the elevator to get the delivery of chicken biriyani and vindaloo.

So I must be getting better, right? Food sounds good... if I could just sleep for more than 2 hours at a stretch without coughing up toenails, I think I might beat this.