Onward, ever onward...

The swine flu came and went but as of last Tuesday (the 29th of September), I was still really struggling to breathe so I decided to bite the bullet, pay the co-pay and return to the doctor. My doctor was off that day, so I got to see the newbie in the office who graduated from medical school in June. She said that although pneumonia is one of the main complications of swine flu, my breathing problems were probably my asthma so she gave me some steroids and sent me on my way.

So I went on with my life. I was tired of being sick and since the doctor said it was just my asthma, I decided to stop acting sick. Wednesday morning I was back to my 5:30 am workouts. I worked on Friday night, spent all day Saturday at the pumpkin farm and baked, standing on my feet in the kitchen all day Sunday. Yes, I was feeling run down and tired, but I just thought it would take me a while to get back into the swing of things. I got up at 5:30 as normal on Monday, did my cardio (very slowly, but I still did it--inhaling on my inhaler as needed.) I took the kids to school, did a lower body workout that afternoon, fixed dinner...everything was normal. After dinner I started feeling really achy all over. I took a hot bath and decided to go to bed at 7:30. I started getting a horrible pain in my left side. I tried to sleep through it, but after two hours I was in so much pain I couldn't stand it. I also had a fever and chills at that point. The on-call doctor told me to go to the ER, so we were able to find someone to sit with the kids while Ryan drove me to the hospital. I was starting to get really worried, thinking I must have some sort of horrible disease or major organ failure or something. It just hurt so bad--I was sobbing in the ER waiting room. To make a really long story short--after IV fluids, pain medication, nausea medication, blood tests, urine tests, chest x-rays, a cat-scan and hours and hours in the Emergency Room, they decided I had pneumonia. Hmm....why the doctor hadn't come to that conclusion almost a week before I can't say. (I won't being going back to her anytime soon...)

They decided to admit me, but since the swine flu is running rampant around these parts, there were no hospital beds available, so I just waited in my ER bed. Ryan went home around 7:00 the next morning to take care of the kids. Finally at about 1:00 I asked my nurse when she thought I might be transferred upstairs. She said that there were five people in the ER waiting for beds and there was no guarantee that I would even get one that day. I was tired of listening to other people vomit and cry out in their various stages of agony, so I told them that I was ready to just go home and take my chances. They released me, only with the promise that I would come back if I got any worse.

So that was last Monday/Tuesday. Almost a week ago. I have been sleeping almost constantly since then. I haven't slept this much since I was a newborn. This afternoon I ventured downstairs to eat with the family and tried to help put the dinner dishes away and that wiped me out. I can't believe how much this has taken out of me! Luckily the awful pain in my side is gone (and I have Vicodin readily available should it return.) I am on hardcore antibiotics and a host of other medications that keep me pretty loopy and hazy a lot of the time. I am so tired of being sick, but committed to taking it easy this time--I am not going to work out at all this week. Not that I have much of a choice. I can drive the kids to school and back and that is about all I can handle. So that is my life as of right now. Sorry if I haven't responded to e-mails or phone calls--I have really been out of it. I am just so thankful for good friends who have been so helpful--watching my kids all night long, bringing meals and just offering to do whatever they could. It really means so much to me!