Originally Posted By DVC_dad Thanks mele. I have to go back tomorrow and Wednesday for rechecks. I guess they take that stuff seriously. Honestly, I feel somewhat sick but not you know, BAD sick. Some body aches, chills or hot flashes, weakness, coughing, and a nasty sore throat, but it all seems very easily manageable as long as I don't go outside and run around or anything. I've felt this way for 2 weeks now, I guess looking back I should have gone in much sooner. Next time I will. It was stupid to ignore the fact that I am really sick.
Originally Posted By sherrytodd <<<to post #17, you need to have a couple more kids.>>> AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! <---Runs away and hides
Originally Posted By vbdad55 DVC dad take care of yourself man. I had pneumonia twice as a youngster and once I let an illness get bad enough to become bronchial pneumonia - however this time I was 36 and it was far more serious - 105-106 ( wife says she'll never tell me )- on Christmas day - luckily doc is a friend and made a house call- but even after heavy dose of anti biotics and alcohol bath - was given 2 hours to get fever down or spend Christmas in the hospital. Luckily I came down some but took weeks to recover-- all because I thought I was invincible. I learned an important lesson that time....take care of yourself -- you have a lot of people counting on you at home -- they need a healthy dad/husband!
Originally Posted By DVC_dad <--- scratches chin... Hummmm...ok well that hits like a bag of hammers. But seriously thank you for that. Only now, do I realize that at 39 I am way far gone from being a Spring Chicken. I have revised my perspective on my own health. And holy moly, 105-106 Jesus man! That is scary as " H E double hockey sticks!" How long did it take you to fully recover?
Originally Posted By vbdad55 2 weeks to feel decent again, probably a month before I had all my strength back. for days I lived on broth, tea, toast etc.. ( and you know how I like to eat - didn't have the strength). I never imagined being so sick and weak that I couldn't walk without assistance from the bed to the bathroom-- but that is how bad I was.....and why? Because I was Mr athlete, only 30 something, a pillar, and I couldn't take time away from work to go to the doctor etc....it would pass....etc. In other words I was stupid. It really opened my eyes ....
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I won't go in to all the gory details because it would be pretty boring. But I tried for MONTHS to get a chest x-ray and/or an antibiotic. Unfortunately I was at a new clinic after just having moved from one side of the city to the other, and they apparently didn't believe that I was really sick. Finally, when I showed up for my routine physical looking like crap and running 104 degree temperature, they finally took a chest x-ray. Of course they immediately saw that I had pneumonia and prescribed antibiotics. So far, so good. I felt fairly decent while on the antibiotics, but started feeling bad and running a fever as soon as the prescription ran out. I called the Doc and asked for a refill on the prescription, and he asked me to wait for a week and see how I was. In a week I was damned near dead. At least it seemed that way. I couldn't even take showers any more because it was too hard to stand up for that long... I had to take baths. It took all the energy I had to climb into bed at night. After a week I went back to my Doc and had another chest x-ray. I was told to immediately go to a Pulmonologist. The Pulmonologist said I had to be admitted to the hospital immediately. I asked if I could at least stop by work and let people know I would be gone. He said no. He put me in a wheelchair and sent me across the street to the hospital. Once in the hospital, I couldn't believe the attention I was getting. I had been assigned to about four doctors, and they all came in and talked to me. I had the Pulmonologist, an Infectious Disease specialist, an Internal Medicine doc, a Surgeon, and my good old Adult Medicine Doc who never even stopped in to see me. (Big surprise there). My pneumonia had been complicated by Empyema, which is an infection filling the space between your lungs and chest wall with pus. Fun, huh? They had to put in a chest tube to try and drain the pus. I was right on the edge... after a while it solidifies and the only thing they can do is surgery to cut it away from your lungs. My surgeon said that if I had been admitted just one day later that is what they probably would have had to do. But they caught it when they were able to drain my chest. It wasn't easy though. I found out later that Empyema typically has a 20% fatality rate. I’m glad I didn’t know that at the time. After a couple of days draining, the Doc decided he had to inject some stuff into my chest that would help liquefy the pus. The pain was excruciating. Fortunately after about four hours the pain started to subside and I seemed to be on the way back to health. Bottom line? Not that good. My lungs were permanently scarred resulting in decreased lung capacity. Strenuous exercise would perhaps increase the capacity but of course the activity that would help hurts the most. I guess that is typical for rehabilitation so I shouldn't complain. It is still hard to get the motivation to do it. So I go from day to day being able to walk a long ways, but having a great deal of trouble going up any type of hill. Oh well. Things could be worse. But PLEASE... take care of yourself. Pneumonia can be nasty crap. P.S. [Do you guys know about Nurse Crush? God, I loved Nurse Barb. She was an absolute angel. I could tell you guys a whole lot more about just how wonderful she was to me, but that is a totally different topic.]
Originally Posted By ophellia as the song says...'it's not having want you want, it's wanting what you've got...YES!
