I almost died............ (not really but it feels cooler)

On Monday or Tuesday of last week, I made a comment on facebook that I felt so sick I just wanted to crawl in a hole and die.  Well, I almost made good.

Not really but I gotta say I wouldn't take a trip to pneumonia land for the next vacation I go on.

So Monday of last week comes around.  We do the morning shuffle to get ready.  You know the one, find your clothes, shoes, hats, coats, gloves, double check are they on the right sides of your body?  Then like brave little soldiers we march to our various duties and destinations to accomplish something today.  Now I feel fine all day but that night I start to get the trickle.  You know the trickle of unwell.  Things start to slow down just a little, you get the scratch in your throat perhaps a little unwelcome congestion to go along you.  You start to think Crap I might be getting sick.

By Tuesday I knew I had a cold.  But it's OK.  I'll just take some drugs and work through it.

By Wednesday, I was SICK.  I felt horrible my Lymph Nodes were the size of my fist on either side of my neck.  I could barely breathe.  My throat was sore and I had a temperature.  Now my first thought was, Dang I'm too busy to be able to take a sick day.  I'm really sick and I want to take one of my sick days for myself and I can't.  Figures.  I went into work, told everyone I was sick and to set the perimeter.  I wouldn't come in their space or cough near them.  I then Lysoled myself and desk.  Set a big bottle of hand sanitizer next to me and got to it.

My boss came down to talk with me and when I told him I wasn't feeling tip top he said, "Go home."  I told him I would I just needed to get a couple of things done but I would.  By the afternoon, my fever was raging.  I was shaking and cold and knew that I was now past not feeling well and traveling the highway to Crappy, Crappy Sickville.

By Thursday, I didn't even try to come in.  I logged on from home and worked for a while then went to the Dr.  She told me she'd seen several people from my work with these symptoms and that she thought I had bacterial pneumonia.  She sent me home with a prescription for antibiotics. That's Awesome I remember thinking.  I'll feel like crap for another 24 hours and the antibiotics will kick in and I'll start to feel well again.

What a lie that thought turned out to be.

Friday morning comes around.  My lymph nodes were no longer the size of my fist but they were still swollen.  I should have known the little viral soldiers had marched to a more sinister location.  My luck just seems to run that way.  My temperature on antibiotics and Ibuprofen or Tylenol every three hours is hovering around 104.  I can't stand without passing out.  I can't breathe.  I'm scared.  I tell John we have to go to an Instacare now.  I never willing go to a doctor or hospital.  I have to feel really, really bad before I will even think about a doctor.  With that said, John knows how severe I'm feeling.  He asks, "the instacare opens at 8 can we drop kids off before I take you?"  I don't want 5 kids at the instacare but honestly I'm not sure I'm going to survive dropping 5 kids at 4 destinations.  We drop Rachel and Aiden off.  I then tell John we have to go to the instacare now.  I can't wait any longer.

When we arrived at the Instacare about 8:15 or so there are already several people there.  I can't sit upright as it hurts to breathe so I told John to find me a bed.  When 5 minutes later the bed fairy hadn't arrived.  I pulled my blanket off of myself , put a barrier between me and the floor, and I layed down on an Instacare floor.  Ewww.  Apparently, that is the signal for the Instacare people to say, hmmm maybe we'd better get her laying down.  For no sooner was I down then I heard, get her a bed she's on the floor.  Awww.

They've got me into a bed and I must look bad because I've got a nurse before I have a chart.  She starts taking my vitals and has me on a Saline drip and oxygen within minutes.  I go in for the chest Xray.  I can barely stand.  The doctor comes back in and says, we're going to have you directly admitted to IMC.  Your white blood count is 19,000 and your lower two lobes of your right lung are completely infected.

So when you are directly admitted to the hospital you get to bypass all the annoying parts.  You don't have to wait, they give you a room number and you go straight up.  We get to the room and I crawl into the bed and so begin the needles.  I won't go into the details but it involved coke bottle size blood container kits.  From both arms.

There's tons of deary details which again I won't give but Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday I spent enjoyed IV's.  Constant never ceasing people in and out.  Large blood donations. A trip to the CAT scan. One phlegm sucking incident which is too horrifying to describe and now I am finally home. 

I ended my stay with infection completely through the right lung and spread in pockets throughout the left. But I can breathe now (with the help of my oxygen tank) so I'm hoping that's no longer the case. But you can also bet the next time I get sick I'm gonna baby it a little.

Thanks to all the wonderful people who have helped.  I can't tell you how much it means to know that I have family and friends willing to drop everything to help.  It reminds me that I am someone special and loved.

Thanks.