2020 & 2021 brought has brought me some weird health. For the most part, I was healthy although I had a few sinus infections (I get several every year), had the flu even though I had the flu shot and now I have bronchitis. I’m not sure how I got it. I've been super careful when around other people; I wear a mask at the grocery store, the pharmacy, when I see family and friends that are outside of my bubble....when my sister and her household were over for Easter, we were outside 95% of the time (we went in to grab what we needed food wise and run to the bathroom; we wore masks inside and had 3 air purifiers running on the main level to help). We wore our masks outside as well when we were in close contact with each other and took them off to eat/drink. ALL of us tested negative before Easter and afterwards as well (all came back negative).
Last week, I went to the doctor - well, it was a virtual appointment since I was coughing - and the doctor said I had bronchitis and had me come to the office, wait in my car, get a quick Covid test, results done in the office and came back negative. From there, I went to the pharmacy to pick up my antibiotic and prednisone; I picked up some OTC cough medicine to help (my doctor does NOT play around with my asthma and treats me aggressively with meds so the bronchitis doesn't turn into pneumonia). Came home, took my meds, hydrated like crazy and took a nap.
Had dinner hours later and took my meds again....despite the 3 hour nap, I still felt run down so I went back up to bed. I was mostly asleep when I had a pretty bad coughing fit; I kept coughing, coughed up phlegm, tried to take a sip of water and was struggling to breathe so I used my rescue inhaler.....sadly, it didn't help too much.
I went downstairs with my wallet, phone, phone charger and a book and asked a family member to drive me to the ER. We loaded up, went on our way and got there in no time. I had to wait as other people were ahead of me; waited 40 minutes before I was seen. My relative ended up going home so they could take care of the pets and other things. The nursing staff immediately put me on oxygen to help me breathe and the doctor came a few minutes later.
Thankfully, my doctor's office is connected to the hospital (they share patient charts of mutual patients), saw what I was seen for and asked me to try to explain what caused the coughing fit. Being a sarcastic wise ass that I am, I said: "I'm an asthmatic with bronchitis. What the hell do you expect to happen? I had a coughing fit, had issues breathing so I tried to use my rescue inhaler which didn't help much and tried to take sips of water but that didn't work either. So, here I am doc. Please do your magic." The doctor laughed at my sarcasticness (yes, I know it's NOT a real word, get over it!!), listened to my lungs, sent me for a chest X-ray - which showed absolutely nothing - and ended up putting me on an IV drip of fluids, antibiotics and a steroid (probably hospital grade prednisone).
I tried to rest but I kept hacking up my lungs and the nurses kept parading through my room checking my vitals. I wanted to lock the door but there was no lock on it and no matter how many times I asked the staff to STOP waking me every 20 minutes, I'd start a mutiny with the other patients; we'd take out our IVs and other crap and walk out. I annoyed the hell out of the staff enough that they called the doctor and he came in. I explained that in order to get rest, I need to be left alone and according to the nursing staff, his request was to check on me often. I told him that it needs to stop now or I'm taking the shit out of my arms, signing the AMA (against medical advice) documents and walking the fuck out of there as I call the director of the hospital as he was my doctor when I was a child.
He changed the orders in my chart right away to check on me every 2 hours so I could get *some* rest and I expressed to him that if it's less than every 2 hours, trust me.....I promised that I would become his worst nightmare. He promised that it would be as I wanted it. I was able to finally get some rest despite it not being real sleep.
I was tempted to call C but I didn't. I know that deep down inside there is a part of him that cares about me and my well being but I didn't want to call him to let him know where I was and cause a fight with his girlfriend.....besides, like me, he loves his sleep. Even if I did call him, what was I supposed to say to him? "It's 1 am and I'm spending the night in the hospital for observation because I have asthma AND bronchitis. I want you to come over and spend an uncomfortable night here with me while your girlfriend gets annoyed and assumes you're cheating on her?" So, I called my brother and like me, he's a night owl.
Like a good brother that he is, he drove the hour to get to the hospital. On his way, he made a few calls and had a bed brought into my room so he could sleep in his own bed instead of one of those uncomfortable chairs. He did bring a number of cheesecakes from the restaurant to "bribe" the staff and brought a little airplane bottle of Vodka for me to drink; he knew that it would make me goofy and then fall asleep. As usual, it did it's trick and I was out cold in 20 minutes. Thankfully, I slept for the rest of the night.
The nurses came through around 7 am, sent me for another chest x-ray (which, again, showed nothing), the doctor came by, listened to my lungs and said that my lungs were sounding slightly better but not by much and that it's ok to go home. While I had been getting the chest x-ray and getting checked out by the doctor, my brother called my other relatives and said that he's bringing me home so they don't need to worry about it.
Finally got home around 9 am, we ate, my brother napped for an hour, showered and went to work. I slept until 11 or so, had lunch, took care of a few things, napped again, read, had dinner and went to bed around 8:30/9 pm and slept like a rock.
I'm feeling better now but I still have 2 weeks of antibiotic left and haven't had anymore ER visits. My GP's office has been calling me twice a week to check on me. I do have an appointment on Friday as a follow up to make sure that my lungs are clearing up; the doctor may give me a referral to see a pulmonologist in a few weeks to see if there's anything else I should do but right now, I am just focusing on feeling better.
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