Me. so far

"The rabbits say one cloud is lonely" ( a quote from my favorite book, Watership Down)


I am sick.  I don't think I can ever remember BEING this sick.  Ever.   So here is what is going on:

On April 6, after two days of my asthma raging out of control I went to urgent care.  They sent me home with stuff to get the asthma under control , prednisone .  About a week later, I wound up seeing my primary care who gave me another round of prednisone.     After that was done, I wasn't getting any better, so back to urgent care.  An x-ray revealed pneumonia.  I was given MORE antibiotics.  Here is where it gets "interesting"  I'm allergic to penicillin.  It says so, right in my chart.  Both the doctor and the pharmacist said "oh this should be ok"  Well. it wasn't.  I dutifully went home and took both the meds.  Within ten minutes, my left hand swelled to almost three times it's normal size and the back of my hand turned black from knuckles to wrist.  I stared at it, wondering what the hell I had done.  It looked like I had backhanded someone- hard.  I kind of freaked out and called my sister who reminded me to take benadryl. Of course.  I took a double dose,  It does not affect me like some people, so I knew that I would be ok and called a friend to "babysit" me. She stayed with me until I felt better.  Back to urgent care, where the doctor told me that I could NOT have had a fever since I did not take my temperature ( I think I know when I have a fever)  and gave me advice contrary to what my pulmonologist  advises regarding the use of my rescue inhaler.    Enough.  I emailed him and he got me in right away.  We talked and he sent me to Emergency.  I hate going to Emergency, but I was so sick I was willing to do ANYTHING.  They sent me to the Observation unit and loaded me up with  steroids and antibiotics after a chest x-ray revealed pneumonia in my left lung.  You don't get any sleep in Observation.  They woke me up at midnight to give me a self-care pamphlet.  I was JUST sleeping good, as my father used to say, when they woke me up at 5:30 for a blood draw. I had fallen asleep around four.  Sigh.  The megadose seems to have worked. I am not coughing or wheezing, but will be off work until this (hopefully) last round of prednisone and antibiotics are done and my pulmonologist can see me.  I pretty much burned my sick time.  In the midst of all of this, my mother-in-love had surgery so I sent Chris to take care of HER.  He came home with- you guessed it- pneumonia.

We are both on the mend. I am profoundly grateful for the love and the help I have received during this time.  I am truly blessed by wonderful friends.