Well, I almost made it through cold and flu season scotch free, but it just didn't happen.
Last Thursday evening, I started coughing after I walked on the treadmill. It continued basically all night, while trying to watch a movie with a friend. I slept in the recliner, because laying down makes me cough in times like these, and semi-sitting up is the only possible way to get sleep.
Friday was much of the same: I coughed through work, I was extremely short of breath, I tried to take a nap but maybe only got 30 minutes. My parents wanted to take Jarrod out to dinner for his birthday, and I waited until the last minute to decide if I felt we should reschedule. We ended up going, and I made it through, but was still coughing consistently.
I didn't feel sick, it didn't feel like a cold or something. It felt kind of like a flare-up, some sort of pulmonary attack, possibly from my bugs I have down in my lungs all the time.
Saturday, still coughing. Again, I tried to rest all day because we had an event to go to that evening with some friends, and I really wanted to go. I still didn't feel like I caught something, this felt like it was all CF-related me issues and therefore I wouldn't be contagious. I decided to go to the event, but would leave if it got to be too much. I ended up leaving a bit early towards the end.
Sunday... the cough itself was worse. It was deeper, worse sounding. I kept up on my breathing treatments, and did my Aerobika for 4 hours hoping it'd help and then I would be done coughing. But it still didn't happen. I mean, it's still a good thing I cleared stuff out, but it didn't abate my cough in the least. I had a constant wheeze when I exhaled too, that varied in sound from a falling anvil in the Looney Tunes to a Tarzan cry.
I figured I'd reach out with my doctors on Monday, but then I got a low-grade fever, always a sign your body is fighting off something. I knew I needed to call my doctor, but I was so dreading it because I was afraid they were going to have me come straight into the hospital. You know how that goes, you want to ignore a problem and hope it goes away, but deep down you know that doesn't work and you need to do something about it, something you really don't want to do? I couldn't just ignore the fever, so I called my doctor, and she called in some antibiotics for me so I could jump start on those, and would have me come in for a chest x-ray and other tests.
Sunday evening was kind of my breaking point. After coughing for 4 days straight, I was exhausted. I didn't even have the energy to cry about it. I imagine it's a similar exhaustion parents of newborns feel; just when you think you're really exhausted and couldn't possibly be more exhausted than you are right now, you wake back up to a crying baby—in my case, my cough—and your exhaustion reaches new levels. I could barely function, but I couldn't quit coughing long enough to actually sleep or rest. I wanted to lay down, I wanted to give my back a break, but I couldn't because like I said, laying down—even in bed with 4 pillows—made me cough. I was so exhausted I couldn't even really cough anymore. I had a Derek Zoolander I've-got-the-black-lung-pop kind of cough because I just couldn't muster the strength.
Today, Jarrod took me to Columbia for my tests. I didn't meet with the doctor, but we'll get the results tomorrow morning and determine where to go from there. I would have done all of it out here, but out here they can't do the sputum culture, the most important piece of the puzzle in the event this gets worse and I need to go in the hospital. I'm glad to report that I'm not coughing as much, but now I'm on damage control. I've got a lot of gunk to clear out. I was able to treadmill for 15 minutes, so that's a good start.
But I ask for your prayers. Gosh this has been a rough one. I've had times like these before, and I always get through it, but I don't think I've ever had a cough consistently last this many days. I could be wrong.
Jarrod has been wonderful through all of this. He took care of everything over the weekend, with cleaning and cooking and more. Even when I attempted to help, he would tell me to go sit back down and focus on resting.
Josie has been wonderful too. She has been hopping up on the chair to lay with me, cuddling with me often, and just generally checking on me if I'm gone from the room for a bit. She even just sat right next to my legs yesterday while Jarrod tried to comfort me with a hug (except, not really a hug, because we couldn't hug, because on Saturday I thought it'd be a GREAT idea for him to smoke a chicken, but really I could not have picked a more AWFUL time for him to smoke meat since smoke bothers me, and therefore I couldn't even be around him until he changed clothes and showered. Brilliant plan on my part... yeesh.)
So again, I'd appreciate it if you kept me in your thoughts and prayers. I'll let you all know how the tests come back tomorrow.
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