Generally, I am an extremely private person and while this does seem very odd to share with the world, I want to as a reminder that you always need to listen to your body.
As I mentioned previously, I have been quite busy lately commuting and taking care of a lot of things that I won’t go into here. During this time, I have been exhausted; not sleeping much; not eating well; really not taking care of myself. So when I started to feel sick last week, it really didn’t surprise me. But I made a big mistake and I ignored my body. You see, at work, I was very cold. I am NEVER cold. I was complaining of the cold because it’s really unlike me. It was also unusual that I was the only one who was cold. Even my feet were cold. Like ice. That’s NOT me! I was also complaining that I was so tired. Now…temperature wise, yes…I get cranky when the office is too hot. I don’t like to work when it is hot. But to complain that I am tired, well, that’s not really me. Not to this degree. But I was constantly saying “Man, I am exhausted! I could sleep right now!” etc, etc. In fact, on Wednesday night, I went to my room that I am renting and barely had the energy to change when I fell into bed and slept for 12 solid hours and was still tired. Hang in there…this is leading somewhere.
Through the week I was getting sick. On Thursday, my throat started to get really dry. Almost choking me. I spent the day sucking on livesavers winto-green-mints and complaining of how tired I was.
Friday was much, much worse. On Friday, I woke up and within 10 minutes of being awake I suddenly was gasping for air. It was one of the scariest things I experienced. My mouth was wide open and I was struggling. I was making a lot of noise to try to wake my husband and I finally made it to my puffer. I took a puff and was able to carry on. It was unusual as my asthma is purely related to exercising and extreme cold temperatures. I dismissed this as the rest of the day I was fine for breathing, but I was feeling quite ill. I even left work a half day early and debated if I was awake enough to make it all the way home. I didn’t want to head to the room I am renting as I didn’t want the kids there to get sick. I made it home and slept the rest of the night.
On Saturday, I told my husband that I should head to the hospital. I have had pneumonia a few times and I know when it starts heading that way, I need to act fast. I didn’t end up going Saturday though because it really didn’t feel like pneumonia. But I had been fighting a fever of 39.7 since late Friday evening.
I slept most of Saturday and Sunday. I had no energy. I didn’t even make it through and entire episode of Dukes of Hazzard (I can pause here while you laugh at my show of choice).
My husband woke me from one of my many naps on Sunday and said “Come on…let’s go to the hospital.” I never questioned it because I knew it was the right thing. Later though, I did ask why and he said I was breathing funny.
The hospital was amazing. They ran tests and took me in right away and took everything seriously. Well I was shocked to find out what was happening. Apparently, I was in worse shape than I thought. It seems that my saturation levels were quite low and that my blood was not getting ample oxygen. That explains being cold and also being exhausted. Also, while there was “some” gunk in my lungs, it was not pneumonia. On top of that, my lungs were constricted and I was not getting much air. They started me on a nebulizer (I think that is what it was called). A mask filled with meds that opens my lungs. They did six sessions of 20 minutes each. Usually, they said, they only do three. I am at home resting now, but am on a machine to keep my lungs open and to rest. I should be better in a few days, but I tell you…I am breathing a LOT better now! Still room for improvement, but a LOT better. They are assuming that this was all brought on by some medication I started taking last week that I may perhaps be allergic to.
If I had of listened to my body, I would have been taken off the meds, given puffers and recovered quickly. I didn’t…so now my recovery time will take longer, I will be sleeping a lot over the next few days and I will miss work. That sucks, but it could have been much worse!
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