Last Thursday, I went to the Emergency Room as the bronchitis I've been fighting for over five weeks became just unmanageable. I couldn't get my breathing under control, and was experiencing some pretty scary stuff. DH was on his week of vacation and I already felt horrible for "ruining" it - this was supposed to be a fun time of decorating and getting ready for our Annual Halloween Hijinx party! I'll skip the gory details, but after a contrast CT, I was sent home with a dx of pnuemonia, and scripts for an inhaler and more antibiotics.
Friday evening, friends came over to help do party prep. I am eternally grateful to my co-hosts for that night as they slaved over the Jello shots and DH worked on food. I made the pumpkin bread cake. It looked like this, if I hadn't been feeling so bad.
Mine looked a lot crappier. It mimicked how I felt. We had a sick pumpkin bread cake. At least it was tasty, even if it wasn't as pretty as the one above.
Saturday night came along, and the party with it. I'm told everyone had a blast. I sat outside in the cool air trying to breathe, my spendy custom costume gone to waste, my makeup about the same as the Sick Pumpkin Cake instead of what I'd envisioned. I told my guests goodnight and went upstairs about 11pm, the last partygoers were kicked out around 3am when I told DH I needed to go back to the Emergency Room.
I was running a fever of 105.4. I've NEVER run a high fever before, and I hope never to again. I was in so much pain. At the ER, I thought all was well, my Xrays were clean, they said my lungs looked good, the on call doc wrote me a scrip for painkillers, cough, and a different antibiotic. My temp was down - WAY down to 95.8. And then.. the discharging nurse noticed that my O2 was hitting the 80's when I dozed off. There was so much crap in my lower lungs that my autonomous breathing wasn't giving me enough oxygen without me forcing deeper breaths while I was awake and in pain. I was admitted.
Admittance brought more pain - lots of needle sticks. We'll again skip the gory parts. The good part was - MORPHINE! Yay, not so much pain. The bad part was... well, everything else including the food. DH made sure I could have caffeine and sugar and brought me the most delicious Starbucks I've ever had. It was sooo good. And made me hack and cough and yanno because it was hot and relaxing.
I came home Monday afternoon - almost against medical advice, but they agreed to discharge me. However, no narcotics. This was going to suck, but I was going to be here for the kids' Halloween. I've never missed one yet, dammit.
So I'm on a ton of meds, but I'm home. On bedrest, and with a ton of decorations to take down.
Did I mention that next Monday we have both our daughters' first IEP/ARD meetings at the new school? And then on Tuesday, our kitchen starts getting ripped out and has to be completely empty?
*Deep breath*
*hack wheeze gasp*
One day at a time. That's the only way we're gonna make it through this right now. Oh, and the kids are doing science projects, too. So. Much. Fun. *screams*
Bless my littlest Batgirl, who told me to put on my big girl panties and deal with it.
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