When it Rains, it POURS!

Around noon on Saturday I had to take Ted to the chiropractor for an emergency appointment. He was in absolute misery. Ted asked me to go in with him. His chiropractor is just WONDERFUL! He's often told Ted that if he has a problem on the weekend, to just call him at home, so that's what he did. The dr told Ted that he would meet us at the office.

This was the first time I'd ever been in a chiropractor's office, so I was rather interested in what was going on. The doctor explained each and every thing to me and it was really quite amazing. The table stood straight up, then Ted leaned against it with his feet on a metal plate. The doctor then pressed a button and made the table go to the horizontal position. Watching the doctor use his different tools on Ted's back was really something. Heck, even Ted doesn't get to see it because he's face down on the table!

The doctor even used one of the instruments on my hand so I could see how it felt...68 pounds of pressure per square inch! I learned a lot from that visit and of course commented to the doctor about how I'd never had to visit a chiropractor's office. He said that some people get through life without that visit.

By the time Ted and I left, he was feeling MUCH better!

That night we were watching the movie "Twister" for the umpteenth time and I felt a little uncomfortableness on the right side of my lower back. Within an hour, I was in pain. And it was not fun.

I must have twisted something without realizing it and it has been causing me incredible discomfort and pain since then. By last night Ted was telling me that I really needed to go see Dr. Bill, his chiropractor. I told him I was worried. I admitted to him that the whole idea of that table moving really freaked me out, and there was NO WAY I could handle the movement from vertical to horizontal. Fortunately Ted understood my fear, and said that he would talk to Dr. Bill about it at his appointment today. Then he told me that I wasn't going to be able to go to school today. I told him that I had to go to school because we had a snow day on Friday and my lesson plans weren't finished. He understood, but still wanted me to think about not going in.

And then...he started coughing...and coughing...and coughing...and throwing up from the coughing, over and over again. It's just like the bronchitis was hitting him again. He spent the night on the couch and wandering around, because he couldn't sleep. Of course he was also coughing and throwing up from the coughing.

By this morning, he'd had no sleep at all and I'd had very little. He was in bad shape and I was not doing well either. He said that he was going to move his chiro appt to the afternoon and I was going to go to work. Although I'd been up since 5, I was not able to be ready to leave until a few minutes after 7, because I was moving in s u p e r s l 0 w motion due to the pain. I had a really rough time getting into the car. We have an SUV and I just really struggled getting my leg up high enough to get inside. Eventually it worked. Thank goodness I had a cane with me because it really helped.

I got to work a few minutes late and, as usual on a Monday, it was crazy. The principal was putting on her coat as she rushed down the hall. (Later I found out why...a teacher had to call 9-1-1 for her mom and would not be in today, but needed her bag. The principal was getting it out of her room and taking it to her as the teacher and her mom live across the street from the school.)

I told the secretary that I was only there to do my plans. Fortunately as a reading intervention teacher, they can get along without me if they have to. We're so short on subs that there have been times when they haven't gotten one for me, along with the other reading teachers. HOWEVER, I needed to be ready just in case. When my principal came back and stopped in the room, I told her that I was leaving after my plans were done and she said that she would put the sub who was coming in for the other teacher in my place and just split up the second grade class among the other two second grades. This is definitely an advantage to having such small second grade classes! They each only have 16 students, and 6 were absent in the missing teacher's class today!

Anyway, I got my plans done just as the sub came in. I explained things to her, then left. On my way past the office, my principal said that she was planning on me taking tomorrow off too. It was awful trying to walk down the hall and get into the car again. I've been in a lot of pain since I got home too.

When Ted went to see Dr. Bill this afternoon he told him about my fear of the table and he said that he could treat me without going up on the table. As soon as I heard that I called and made an appointment for tomorrow.

In the meantime, Ted is still coughing like crazy and losing his voice...AGAIN.

Ted's back is bad, mine is bad, and he is getting sick again.

What next??

Sick Hubby

Ted is sick.

He's been miserable for a WEEK now.

So sick, in fact, that he didn't go to work at all this past week...and will probably not go back until at least the middle of next week.

He even called the doctor's office first thing Monday morning, and they had him come over right away. He was there by 7:45 am.

He was diagnosed with sinusitis and prescribed an antibiotic.

He has not had a fever throughout this, but has had coughing bouts that last an eternity. He was coughing so hard that he threw up quite a few times. Then that gave him a headache. When he didn't throw up, the coughing made him dizzy. He has been having trouble catching a breath, and hasn't slept worth a crap in a week. It seems that the only way he can sleep is sitting up, and it has to be almost leaning forward. The recliner doesn't help him. He gets so worn out that he tries to lie down, but that only lasts for about 10 minutes. He coughs all night long, on and off. His ribs ache from the coughing too.

Thursday he called the doctor's office and told them that he wasn't any better and the coughing was worse. They called in a prescription cough medicine with codeine. Ahhhhhhhh...that should have helped. It did, just maybe a tad.

Yesterday afternoon he called me at work to tell me that he had another doctor's appointment for 4 pm. I told him that I would take him. His coughing was bad again and he felt like crap. When I got home from work, he was in the midst of a coughing bout that lasted for almost 2 hours. There was about a 15 second window of silence between each series of coughs. Poor guy.

The doctor said that this "crud" that he's dealing with has not gotten any better and has now moved down to his lungs. He's wheezing a little now. The doctor prescribed prednisone (which I dearly LOVE because it makes my knees feel better!) and an inhaler. Doc also said that these things might make him cough a little more for the first 24 hours, but then should help him feel better.

Well, we're 24 hours into it, and I think we may possibly have turned a corner. At the very least, he's no worse. I consider that an improvement.

He has told me repeatedly that he feels miserable. He has asked me if he’ll ever get better. He has even said that he thinks that he is going to die from this infection.

Most men I know don’t handle being sick very well. And that’s all I’ll say about that.

I know he doesn’t feel well. We can all tell. I gently reminded him that this is fairly similar to what I had last fall, except I had bronchitis. I also told him that he WILL get better. Eventually. Today I told him that when I was a week into my sickness last fall I had a routine appointment with my oncologist. (I’d already been to the regular doctor and was on all kinds of medication.) My oncologist told me that it would take another two weeks before I felt half way decent. He was right.

Today Ted is one week into this, so that means another two weeks of not feeling so great, but slowly improving. I wish we could fast forward to that point now.

I feel bad for him, but I’m also a little selfish:

I do NOT want to get this bug.
I can NOT get this bug.
I will NOT get this bug.

I’m sure the boys won’t get it…that never happens.

Get better soon Ted!

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!