It all began on a cold, rainy Sunday morning.....
No, no, not really.
But I do have pneumonia. How the heck did that happen? A healthy, active, thirty year old. Who knows. Guess someone decided they wanted to give me a week's vacation.... IN BED.
So today is Saturday... (special shout out to my brother, Nick, who turns 27 today, and whose birthday dinner I am so sorry to be missing right now)... I started feeling sick this past Sunday. Fluish type symptoms. Headache, kinda tired, chills, blah. I chalked it up to needing some sleep. I went to work on Monday. Delivered a stellar presentation in front of about 65 people (standing, no podium, no notes, ick). Still not feeling so hot. Wake up on Tuesday morning pretty convinced I have the flu but had two meetings so went to the office from 11-3 and then had to go home and curl up in a ball in bed, and pretty much have been there ever since!
It kind of went downhill and got progressively worse from there. Fever went up to 102-103, literally couldn't move, worst headache of my life, cough started, the whole nine yards. I EVEN MISSED an important meeting at work on Wednesday afternoon (1) because my boss and colleagues wouldn't let me come in and (2) because I physically couldn't take a shower or drive to the office. By Thursday morning, I whimpered for Paul to take me to urgent care to see what was going on. Worst doctor's office visit ever. I know, what should I expect from an urgent care, but ever since we switched insurance, I haven't found a good primary care doctor for Paul and I that I like. Whatever. I'll get back on that quest soon. So the doctor gives me a flu test, which is what I was expecting, but surprisingly it came back negative. Obviously the doctor saw how sick I was. I couldn't even open my eyes to look at him because the lights hurt too much. He listened to my lungs, looked me over, and chalked it up to a virus but gave me some antibiotics just in case and told me to go to the hospital if I got worse or wasn't any better in 24 hours. I should mention that I was so sick that I didn't even turn on my laptop and I barely checked my blackberry. Now THAT means something is wrong. I felt too terrible to even focus, think, or use the energy to type.
I about had Paul take me to the ER on Thursday night because I had a migraine strength headache for about three hours. Here I am laying in bed, all lights off, fan on high, cold washcloth over my face, in agony while I listen to Jake and Paul sleep. I guess I finally dozed off for at least a little bit.
Paul called in to work on Friday morning to tell them he was taking me to the ER. We dropped off the boys at school and went to the (amazing) Heathcote Health Center (aka: Haymarket ER). This is the same place I took Josh about a year ago when he had the 105 degree fever and also where I took Paul just a couple of weeks ago due to his episode of swollen tonsils and not being able to breathe (strep throat). This place is the BEST. Not that I hope anyone has to actually ever go there but it is top-notch. It's brand new, clean, fast, quiet, and has extremely nice staff, nurses, and doctors. The in-take nurse took my pulse, blood pressure, and temperature, walked me to the back, and told the nurse on duty that I was going to need an IV. The doctor came in to see me within about 15-20 minutes, listened to my lungs/chest and immediately said that he thought I had pneumonia (how did the urgent care doctor miss that?). They took me back for a chest x-ray, then pumped me with an IV of fluids (I was pretty dehydrated from the fever) and gave me some fantastic pain killer for my headache (and some anti-nausea meds). The persistent little booger of a headache didn't want to go away though. After about 20 minutes of relief, it came back. Another dose of pain killer. This wasn't just your typical percocet or vicodin. This was something that made me feel nice and loopy. (Ask Paul, I started talking about silly stuff.)
So the doctor comes back and tells me that I do definitely have a pretty good case of pneumonia going on, that I am going to feel crappy for another 5 days or so, that I can't go back to work for 5 days, to do a lot of resting, and drink a lot of fluids. They gave me a heavy duty dose of the antibiotic to start me off (over 90 minutes through the IV), got some ativan in the IV to see if THAT would help with the headache, and then discharged me. So we got there at about 8:30am and left at about 12pm. Not too shabby at all.
I slept for most of the day but managed to get up and play a game of Candyland with Jake and Paul and then passed out again. The headache was still pretty bad this morning (even two vicodin wouldn't kill it) but as of a couple of hours ago, I am starting to feel a little better. I even put a load of laundry in tonight.... to get started on the 12 loads that need to be done :-)
I really appreciate my family and friends who sent their get well wishes and the offers for help with the boys. It means a lot. Thanks to my parents and brother who sent flowers, my 'gang' at work who sent flowers, Paul's mom for making my favorite casserole and watching the boys this morning while Paul did some work stuff, Gretch & Ally for coming over tomorrow to hang with the boys and help me with some laundry, and everyone else who has been wishing me well. You guys are awesome.
Poor Paul has done so much hard work this week taking care of the boys, the dogs, and the house on his own. INCLUDING driving to Woodbridge this afternoon to take Josh to an urgent care (that was actually open; the ones by us were closed) and to go to my brother's birthday dinner. What a sweet guy! He'll be enjoying his well-deserved day "off" tomorrow by mountain biking with friends and getting a massage. He has been so sweet and patient every step of the way. I know it's been hard at times.
Luckily Josh man just has an ear infection (well, yet another one) and he's on antibiotics now. We were worried that he could have something worse since he's been exposed to me. He has a bit of an icky sounding cough but his fever isn't too high so the doctor felt pretty confident that he should be fine after a round of the good old pink stuff.
Oh and I celebrated finally feeling a little better tonight by eating a steak. Most food I have eaten in about a week!
And finally, when I woke up this morning, I saw the boys' dinosaur dude positioned in exactly the pose that you see below. Thus my immediate first thought this morning was, wow, that's how I feel! Too good to miss!
