Friday evening while Trout was still in the hospital, I developed a mild sore throat and a scratchy voice, which proceeded to worsen on Saturday. It got to the point where I couldn't read to her anymore, so we snuggled on her bed and watched ABC Family Christmas programming instead. We came home on Saturday, and Sunday I had no voice whatsoever. None. I did that ridiculous shout-at-the-kids-in-a-forced-whisper thing that has no effect other than make the kids laugh. Monday my voice was back more but by then the cough had begun. Monday night was a horrific night of next to no sleep thanks to the coughing and feeling like there was a weight on the top of my lungs and Tuesday morning BigDaddyFish sat up in bed and growled "You're going to the doctor today!"
One chest x-ray and a failed peak flow test later (and my lungs are usually so good that I used to be able to yell louder than the marching band in HS and kept that up until a few weeks ago), the doctor declared I didn't quite have pneumonia yet, but gave me an antibiotic anyway in hopes of staving off the full-fledged version. Turns out that was the best decision ever, because after a couple of days on the antibiotic and rest and I was tired but functional. We had a blissful three days of health, but by the end of the week, BDF had started coughing and feeling run down.
But he didn't go to the doctor. And didn't. And didn't. He kept thinking he was getting better, but he really wasn't. After a full week of neither one of us getting any sleep and after one night of getting up more times in the night than I had since Nemo was a newborn I begged him to go to the doctor. He went to the same DocInABox that I went to, but he apparently got a brand spanking new hire who clearly didn't know how things worked. He didn't do a chest x-ray. He didn't do blood work. He had called a nurse in to help, but didn't know that the nurse he called was actually a radiology tech. He didn't even listen to BDF breathe, only looked in his throat, declared he had a sinus infection and gave him Augmentin. I was pissed and wanted BDF to go to his own doctor first thing Monday morning, but he swore he was getting better. And swore it again on Tuesday. After another horrid night of cough, fever, intense night sweats and me threating divorce if I couldn't get some sleep, he finally went back to his own doctor on Wednesday, who was incredulous at what had transpired and sent BDF for a chest x-ray. Which of course showed pneumonia, so clearly that Sunny could read the blasted film. He started on Zithromax in addition to the other antibiotic and it was a race against time to see if we could keep him out of the hospital.
We won that race. BDF went back to work today, but I anticipate he'll be home early, as I don't think he has the stamina to work a full day. He said he told the doctor he needed to go back to work last week and the doctor looked at him strangely and said "Uh, nooooo." and wrote him out for the rest of the week.
It has been a brutal fall, worse even than when the kids had H1N1, because at least then they pretty much had it all at once and got it over with, and there wasn't any coughing to ruin anyone's sleep. I'm so behind. I haven't slept properly in a month. We could ski down the piles of laundry I have. In November there was only one day where all four kids went to school as scheduled. The kids have had to put forth a herculean effort to get caught up on all the school work they missed. I haven't even touched on Nemo's issues, which I will blog some day, maybe in February. Thank God for online shopping because now all I have to do is get the rest of the stocking stuffers. We don't have a Christmas tree yet and frankly my holiday spirit has pneumonia and is wheezing along, unable to sing carols. All it does is stare off into space.
What I want for Christmas? A week-long nap, no one else getting sick, and all the kids in school so I can catch up. Is that really too much to ask?
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