I’m Sick

Like – seriously sick. So sick, I went to the doctor.

Yes, that’s right. *I* went to see a doctor. I hate doing it, but I will go if I feel like I did Thursday night. Oh my lord, that was not fun. Let’s do the chronology, eh?

Wednesday, I was feeling slightly icky, nothing overly worrying. Thursday, it was somewhat worse, sore throat and coughing. The sore throat is the one you get from having all that phlegmy crap drain down the back of your throat. I’ve had it before and it usually just goes away just fine. Thursday night, I attempt to go to bed. I lay down, and it was like having someone sit on my chest and then press down. I couldn’t breathe properly. The longer I lay there, the worse it got. I wandered around my apartment, trying to make it better. I sat in my circle chair, since I thought that sitting up would be okay. No dice. It was the same as laying down. The only relief was standing or sitting up straight. I took some Tylenol Cold and Sinus. I tried my bed again and I think I finally just passed out from exhaustion. Lots of fun.

Friday morning. I get up and take a shower. Go to work. Breathing is still not fun. Think about how you feel after running your hardest for a while. That out of breath, can’t catch up feeling. Yeah. That was me. All day. It was kinda like trying to breath through socks or a sheet or something. I’ve talked about being a teacher before. As a teacher, your job is to talk. A lot. And to move around. A lot. When you can’t get enough air, it is really, really hard. And sitting down to teach only made it worse. I couldn’t sit on my stool and teach from the overhead projector – even though I kept trying.

After talking to my coworkers, I called the doctor’s office and they managed to squeeze me into the afternoon schedule. Yay. Maybe now I could sleep, right? I finish up at work. And I feel bad. I don’t think my students got the best instruction they could get. And I feel like I scared them. What with all the coughing and the wheezing and the needing to sit down or lean over. They kept asking if I was okay. Or telling me I should have stayed home. Poor kiddos.

I go to the doctor. The nurse takes my pulse. It’s 109. My pulse is usually somewhere between 70-80. 109? I nearly flipped out when I saw that. The doctor comes in and asks me the usual questions. He listens to my lungs. He got a nice earful of my coughing when he asked me to take a deep breath. That was fun. And then he tells me I have acute bronchitis. Say what? Acute bronchitis. Greeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaat.

But – I got some good drugs. Antibiotics, an inhaler to open my lungs, cough syrup, Sudafed. But I feel better. I slept very well last night. Course, I went to bed at 8 pm and was up at midnight again. But the two applications of the inhaler helped. I went back to bed and slept until 9:30 am this morning. Woo. And then! I took a nap. I’ve not done so much sleeping in for a long, long time.

I then spent most of the day watching a marathon on the Food Network about the ‘Next Food Network Star.’ Yes, I knew who won, but it was fun to watch anyway! And Roomie called. She wanted to get together and do stuff – and go to aerobics tomorrow. I told her about the bronchitis and she says “Guess you won’t make aerobics.” Kinda – not. Doc says nothing strenuous. That’s definitely strenuous. I told her we’d have to do it another day since I didn’t want to get her sick. But! She came over to my house and brought me soup. I love her. She’s so thoughtful.

Anyway. Tomorrow I have more of the same planned. Sleep in late. Sit on my duff and just watch TV. Do a little surfing from the laptop. Woo. I love it. I cannot wait.

How are you all?

Oh – by the way. I feel much better today. I haven’t needed the inhaler at all today. YAY!