Valentine's Day Massacre

by folkbum

I've had a horrible winter, health-wise, and I've basically been sick in one way or another since, like, October. The latest round has been a chest-rattling, throat-mauling, soul-crushing cough thing. When I saw my doc two weeks ago, he and I commiserated as it seemed he had a similar bug, so he put me on the same antibiotics he was on and told me I should feel better soon. (Didn't happen.)m But since this was not the first time I'd had the bone-wracking cough this winter, he sent me for a chest x-ray. That's how bad I've had it.

When I saw the doc again on Friday, he said he was still feeling miserable, still coughing, still hurting, and the chest x-ray he'd had done for himself was, like mine, normal. We laughed a bit at the coincidence of having the same course of the disease--laughing which then led to coughing, which was kind of pathetic there in the exam room--and he put me on new meds that he said were helping his cough feel better.

And then he said he had sent out a pertussis test on himself--freakin' whooping cough--because he didn't know what else could be causing the symptoms he and I had. He didn't have the results yet.

Anyway, Saturday, the massacre. I'm still feeling miserable, coughing, and not sleeping well because the new meds are giving me nightmares--serious wake up heart-pounding freak-out nightmares. And I have a coughing fit that wrenches my back. I am afraid it has re-aggravated my herniated disc. I'm sitting up to type this, but it's the first time I've been anything but fully horizontal in about 18 hours.

And I'm still coughing every few minutes.

Just thought you should know.