So, remember that fever, and that persistent cough? It turned into pneumonia. 
It was probably some run-of-the-mill bacteria or viral infection that my body failed at fighting off, either because of my semi-recent surgery, the poor nutrition from the stricture, or both, so instead of just hanging around for a few days and causing me grief, it went after my lungs. My left lung isn’t functioning well; the right isn’t too bad for the moment. My doctor spent quite a while listening to both of my lungs, and then sent me off for chest x-rays to confirm her suspicions.
I’m glad I called the doctor this morning, and I’m glad they insisted I come in this afternoon after I was unable to make my 12:00pm appointment (Dan had a meeting at work that ran late). I called this morning because when I initially woke up, I felt semi-okay, my fever was down to 99 something, and the Theraflu seemed to shut up most of the coughing. But then I started moving around — putting some clean dishes away, making Ryan’s bed, taking a shower — and it felt like my entire chest locked up. I couldn’t draw a full breath. It was a panicky feeling. I pretty much sat around after that, counting down the hours until my appointment… and then my second appointment that the nurse from the doctor’s office insisted on when she heard all of my symptoms.
So now I’m armed to the gills with liquid antibiotics and an inhaler. Those suckers cost me over $100, an amount that seriously made me wince. $100 for meds? But hey, functioning lungs are not something I’d consider to be overrated, so I went ahead and paid it, and then spent the next hour and a half making the five mile drive to my mom’s to drop her off (I went and picked her up so she could get to the grocery store before it snowed again; she couldn’t go herself because she had no way to dig her car out from last weekend’s storm that left behind 25″ of snow), and then the twelve mile drive (I took the long way because it involved more main roads and less hilly back roads) back home. Have I mentioned how much I hate driving in the snow? Gah. Amazing how just a few inches of beautiful, fluffy white stuff can make for such treacherous driving conditions. But I made it home safely and with the car in one piece, so it was worth taking an hour and a half to drive what normally takes about 25 minutes.
At least there’s a justifiable reason as to why I feel like death. What really sucks, besides having pneumonia of course, and not being able to breathe right, is that this definitely excludes me from any type of medical procedure, such as Thursday’s endoscopic stricture fix procedure. So I had to call to cancel that. *sigh* I’m sure part of what is keeping my immune system down is being nutritionally deficient. Now I have to prolong things for even longer.
7 Comments
, on February 10 2010 at 5:08am:
Man Jenn, that’s really horrible. It seems like they should have gotten you in earlier for the stricture fix procedure … then this might not have happened :(. But, please get well soon! That way you can have the procedure done and get all the nutrients you need to be healthy!
, on February 10 2010 at 11:33am:
I’ve never had pneumonia and I can’t honestly imagine what you are feeling like! I’ve heard that too about being more likely to get it, and since you’re going through poor nutrition at times it’s just more important now, as it ever was, to keep up on vitamins and stuff.
It sucks about the stricture. Hopefully they can get you in at the end of next week or early the week after. I mean how long can you let that go???
Oh, and Dan should kiss your feet for his comments the other day.
, on February 10 2010 at 11:46am:
I am so glad you went to the doctors and found out what was wrong. I hope you feel better soon! Get lots of rest!!!
, on February 10 2010 at 6:03pm:
Oh dear, that sounds awful – really hope you get better soon Jenn!! <3
, on February 10 2010 at 7:11pm:
I’m almost glad you have pneumonia. You’ve been feeling so lousy lately, I’m sure it’s somewhat relieving to finally find out what’s wrong. On the other hand, it sucks (especially since you have kids that love their mommy!) to be that sick. You should lock yourself away for a week with TV and books. Get plenty of rest so you can get back on your feet. Get better! <3
As the domain name suggests, my name is Jenn, and I own this blog. I'm 26 years old and married to my one true ♥, Daniel. And while I have two kids (Alyssa is five, and Ryan is three), you won't find "mommy" in my username or email address, nor does my blog revolve around them. I'm a mother, but most importantly I am me, with a passion for love, blogging, reading, and photography. I'm also a busy freelance writer, web designer & SEO goddess.
Not good! I had Pneumonia when I was younger and I was out for 2 weeks. Now that I’ve had it once, I’m much more likely to get it again.
Stay warm and inside. Take it easy!