Whew!

I'm slowly but surely returning to the land of the living. I've been home from school since last Thursday morning, and will be going back this coming Friday, if I continue to slowly, but surely, improve.

Every single year (except the year I was off with the cancer) I get really sick in October. I suffer for a few days, even up to a week, then realize that it's not going away on its own, give in and see the doctor, then end up being "scolded" by him because I went to work and I shouldn't have, and then have to take a few days off to recover.

Well I vowed that this year would be different. As soon as "something" started, I was going to call the doctor's office and get in to see him. Yeah right...well you know how the "best laid plans" usually go.

I started feeling really crappy last Wednesday morning. Wednesday afternoon a teacher wanted me to read a book out loud to his class for 45 minutes. I told him I had a sore throat and was losing my voice, so we were going to have to go to Plan B. They read silently and I worked on math intervention with a few students. By the time I got home I was feeling pretty bad, so I immediately called the doctor. I got their emergency service because they were OUT OF THE OFFICE FOR THE DAY! Heck, it was only 3:15!

I was in bed by 3:45, and except to take a shower and go to the bathroom, I STAYED in bed (or the recliner) until 6:00 the next morning. I felt so miserable, but thought if I could tough it out at school on Thursday, and get in to the doctor, things would be okay. Well, things didn't go too well and I was back home by a little after 8:30 am. I was able to get an appointment with the "other" doctor in my doctor's practice for later on in the morning and even had to call Ted to come home to take me. I was really going off the deep end.

Unfortunately I rarely run a fever. And to top it off, my normal body temperature is in the low to mid 96s. When I hit 98.6, I'm actually running a fever. When we got to the dr's office, my temp was right around 97, so I didn't even have a real fever to show for all the pain. The dr I saw (whom I absolutely fell in love with...she's wonderful!) was really worried about my wheezing. I also have a lot of scar tissue in one lung from having pneumonia while I was in the hospital recovering from my colostomy take-down surgery a year ago last February, and that was also contributing to my being unable to breathe well.

Those things were having a terrible affect on my breathing and making it difficult to even suck in air. So besides the wheezing, it seems that I have bronchitis (gee, there's a shock) and a nasty lung infection. Yeah, well, let the treatment begin!

I'm on an antibiotic (that's making me pretty sick to my stomach so I spend half my day in the bathroom, if you know what I mean), an inhaler (that may or may not be helping, but it sure isn't hurting), and prednisone (which has been absolutely FABULOUS for the arthritis in my knees!).

The rest of Thursday and Friday are pretty much a blur, but I do remember that on Saturday I started the fever thing. Two hours after taking ibuprofen, it was "down" to 99.7 and I was feeling awful. That night, however, I had to help Alex with his costume for a Halloween party. He took care of getting dressed by himself, but I had to do his hair (which is WAY too long for my tastes right now, but he's a teenager and I'm picking my battles....as long as it's cut by Christmas I think I can handle it.)

*NOTE* I'll post a couple of pictures of him in his costume soon. They are downloaded onto the desktop computer in the den and I'm on the laptop in my bedroom. And by the way....thanks Christa, for the idea! I "borrowed" it from Zach's costume last year. If Zack hadn't looked so darn cute I wouldn't have even thought of it.

Anyway, I had a follow up appointment with my regular doctor today and he said he was concerned about how much I'm still wheezing when I breathe, so he extended the prednisone and increased the use of the inhaler. I'm feeling a tad better, but far from great. I'm supposed to let him know next week how I'm feeling. I told the dr that I absolutely HAD to go back to work on Friday to get my plans done for next week (not to mention that yet once again, I'll be down to about 5 sick days, UGH) and he reluctantly agreed.

Okay, enough about all of this. I just want to get better and maybe even sleep in the bed for a change. I like the recliner, and just love having the space in our bedroom for it, but I miss my all cotton, 450 thread count sheets, and just want to sleep in my own bed with my pillows. I tried to take a nap in bed today and it lasted about 20 minutes because I wasn't able to breathe. THIS IS GETTING OLD AND I'M ALLOWED TO WHINE.

Please everyone....STAY WELL!