I can't take it anymore!

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I woke up at 4am absolutely drenched in sweat. That was pleasant...

Maybe that was your fever breaking?

[BookstoreEscapee]

Maybe that was your fever breaking?

No I still had a fever all day. I don't now, though. Going to bed and hope it stays that way.

[r2cagle]

Slather the Vick's(or menthol) vapor rub on the bottoms of your feet, and put on cotton socks for the deep chest coughing at night... I swear, it does help. It even helps on the asthmatic coughs a smidgeon too.

It's miserable being sick for so long, so I hope you start feeling better soon.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Slather the Vick's(or menthol) vapor rub on the bottoms of your feet, and put on cotton socks for the deep chest coughing at night... I swear, it does help. It even helps on the asthmatic coughs a smidgeon too.

It's miserable being sick for so long, so I hope you start feeling better soon.

You know, I've read that trick and I didn't think of it...might have to try it tonight.

No fever today, thank god. I went to work, but I left at 3:30 (my boss called me at around 2 and said "Are you going to go home before you cough up a lung?"...so I took him up on it). On my way home I picked up two cartons of OJ (had a coupon) and some more cough stuff. Slept for a little bit this evening. I'm hoping we get enough snow to close work, but I'm not holding my breath (well, I can't catch my breath in the first place so I can't hold it ).

[AccountingDrone]

Please be careful and read the ingredients ... many meds for the flu and colds have tylenol added, and if you start combining tylenol as a solo med, and other meds that include it, you can do major deadly damage to your liver. If you are not certain if you can combine a med with tylenol, or the proper amounts of each you can combine, ask a pharmacist, it is their job to answer. Death by liver failure is a nasty nasty death I would not wish on the suckiest customer you can think of.

[BookstoreEscapee]

No Tylenol in this stuff. I've stopped taking Tylenol, now. As long as my temp stays down I won't take any more.

edit: Goddammit. 102.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Gonna call tomorrow.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Just came from the doctor (well, nurse practitioner, but as long as they can give me drugs, it's all good).

This morning my ear started bothering me; feels clogged but it doesn't actually hurt. She took one look at it and said "it should!" That's my right ear, she said the eardrum is about ready to pop. The left ear is not quite as bad; oddly enough, it's not bothering me at all. Also my throat is messed up, but that doesn't really hurt, either (it's a little sore but it seemed to be more from the coughing and the shallow breathing). I'm coughing so much I can barely catch my breath, and she said I'm wheezing a lot on the right side.

She said I am "borderline" for pneumonia. She gave me a prescription for Biaxin, which is a strong antibiotic and should help both my lungs and my ear, and an inhaler (Advair Ventolin HFA - albuterol; turns out Advair and Biaxin don't get along with each other) for my lungs. If I'm not feeling better in 2 days I should get a chest x-ray.

I really hope these drugs work, because next week is a really bad week for me to miss more work.

[trailerparkmedic]

I'm so sorry that you're still sick!

**hugs and chicken noodle soup and extra white blood cells to fight the infection**

[AdminAssistant]

This morning my ear started bothering me; feels clogged but it doesn't actually hurt. She took one look at it and said "it should!"

Heh. At one doctor visit, the NP looked in my ear and just said, "Ewwwwwww". "That bad, huh?" "So what kind of antibiotics can you take again?"

Glad you've gone to the doctor, and try not to stress yourself out about missing work. If you're borderline pneumonia, chances are they don't want you there.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Glad you've gone to the doctor, and try not to stress yourself out about missing work. If you're borderline pneumonia, chances are they don't want you there.

Yeah, I know. It's just that next week is the first week of the fiscal month, which means a ton of stuff to do to close out February. It can't wait a few days and my coworker can't do my stuff, and my boss can't do it all himself, either. So it'll really screw them if I can't be there.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Just took my first antibiotic pill. Of course I had to look it up on the drug website so I know just what to expect if it's going to kill me . I'm a little paranoid about drugs...I've taken this before, several years ago, I'm pretty sure, and had no problem (nor have I ever had a problem with any drug), but that doesn't stop me from freaking myself out. (Though I didn't do that with the Tamiflu, mostly because I was feeling too crappy to care. I just took what my mom handed me.)

Had to wait until 8 because it's twice a day and I wanted to make the morning pill at a reasonable hour.

Can't really tell if the inhaler helped...took some Mucinex, which does help, but it's really gross coughing up all that junk.

[JustaCashier]

As gross as it is, you gotta keep coughing that crap up, to get it out of your lungs.

When I was in the hospital 1.5 years ago, with pneumonia, one thing they impressed upon me was if I had an urge to cough, do it.
Cough hard, and get rid of that crap.

A bit of a funny related to that, one particular day, I just wasn't having any productive coughs. I was coughing alright, but the crap just wouldn't break free and clear out of my lungs, whereas on previous days, I'd be coughing up a pretty fair amount. Finally, about mid-afternoon, I coughed, and coughed up a big ol' hunk of crap.

When I was telling one of the nurses about it later, I described what I had coughed up as a "thick goo". The nurse replied, "Thank you for describing it that way. Most people describe it as some type of food, and I can never bring myself to eat that food again!"

Hang in there, BSE. I hope you shake this once and for all, very soon.

Mike

[BookstoreEscapee]

When I was telling one of the nurses about it later, I described what I had coughed up as a "thick goo". The nurse replied, "Thank you for describing it that way. Most people describe it as some type of food, and I can never bring myself to eat that food again!"

I would never describe this stuff as anything I would ever consider food..! Ick.

Thanks for the good wishes. I seem to be getting better. Even spent most of the afternoon reading a book...which I was in no condition to do last week. At least I have a good excuse for it being late, since it was due back to the library a couple days ago.

[BookstoreEscapee]

So it's Saturday; I started the antibiotics on Thursday night, and while I'm still coughing a bit it's not nearly as bad. I was even able to sleep most of the night (not sleeping too heavily, though, since I wake up very easily when my mom comes in). Also not bringing up so much stuff (a couple of times I actually threw up a little from gagging on it). I don't think a chest x-ray is going to be necessary. I'm not so out of breath, even after coughing; taking too deep a breath triggers a coughing fit but I'm not sitting here panting like I just ran a hundred-yard dash, which is what I was like on Thursday. The junk in my lungs is definitely looser.

My ear was feeling less clogged yesterday, though today it is a little more, but my nose is also stuffy on that side so that's probably part of it.

I'm even hungry..!

My roommate texted me yesterday to tell me that she had opened all the windows, including in my room, to air out the apartment, and sprayed down wherever she could with Lysol, to get rid of the plague (I've been sick for two weeks, and she was sick the week before, too). She also built a snowman on our balcony, which she has wanted to do every time it snowed, and either there wasn't enough snow actually on the balcony (we're on the second floor) or she just didn't get around to it last time. He has a scarf and a smiling twig mouth and he is facing the sliding glass door; he looks like he wants to come inside.