Sickies-R-Us

Well, I was feelin' so bad, asked my family doctor 'bout what I had,
I said, "Doctor, Doctor, Mister M.D., can you tell me, what's ailing me?"

He said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah"
All you need, all you really need: good druggin'...

If you happened upon DramaMama's post before arriving here, you already know the bulk of what I have to say today.

Both the Bear and I have been diagnosed with Pneumonia. This explains this hacky cough I've had for long time, feeling cruddy most of the time, and lately, a serious lack of energy.

Saturday, DramaMama and I volunteered at the Christmas Tree lot that is raising funds for the high school band program. That went okay, but my back was hurting by the time we left. Upon arriving home, I went out to work in the yard. I ripped out an old shambles of a trellis with vines, and got down on the ground to remove the roots of the vine. I was having trouble breathing when I would lean forward. I managed to get that done.

I then went to the other side of the house and started digging out the root system of a nasty sucker tree thing that sprouted in the place our apple tree used to be. By the time I had the bulk of those roots out I was feeling really dizzy and had to lean against the house for a little while. I was gasping going into the house with a swimmy head. I went and laid down.

That evening, the Bear had a high fever, and DramaMama took him to urgent care. She came home with the diagnosis of pnuemonia, with an asterisk suggesting the possibilty of a condition that I believe is unique to this area called "valley fever" which is a fungal thing. DramaMama took to the internet and read up on it. She told me that its symptoms sounded very much like what has been going on with me. The fever is contracted from the soil here, and since we have been doing extensive yard work lately, that seemed plausible.

So once I returned from church, she shooed me off to urgent care. I thought about taking my book to work on while I waited, but she said that they didn't have to wait. I should have taken my book. Once I was signed in, I asked what the wait would be. The lady told me an hour and a half in and out. HA! I was still working on my nap at that point. I also read the bulk of the most recent Reader's Digest.

It was over 2 hours before I got into a room, but they got to me relatively quickly after that. My doctor was a black woman who was very nice, but looked to be one of those that you wouldn't want to have mad at you. I told her why I was there, and she immediately told me that they cannot diagnose Valley Fever at urgent care, and that I would have to go to my primary care physician. Crap! there's another blown co-pay!

She listened to my lungs and said they sounded tight. She ordered a breathing treatment and a chest x-ray.

So they hooked me up with a unit that looked like a sci-fi smoking machine. Then they took me in for the chest x-ray. They got front and side views. The technician asked me if my wife and son were in recently. I told her they had come in the night before. "You look just like him."

So anyway, the doc came in and listened to my lungs again. Do you smoke? No. Hmmm.

She went away and came back a little while later with another doctor. She listened to my lungs. Do you smoke? No. They went away.

The first doc came back and asked to look at my feet. "Are your feet swollen?"

"No, but sometimes when I come home from work my legs are. You can see the dent where my sock was."

"You're sure you don't smoke?"

"Only secondhand smoke."

She eventually told me that the x-ray showed that I have pnuemonia, and also an enlarged heart.

"What causes that?"

"Lot's of things, but I am thinking it might be a viral infection causing it."

She indicated that this could add to my coughing.

I got another breathing treatment, and they loaded me up with prescriptions, blood work orders, and copies of my x-rays, and sent me packing.

I went right to the pharmacy, and waited while they filled my prescriptions. I got an inhaler, anti-biotics, and cough medicine. That took about a half hour or so.

All in all the trip to the doc was about 5 hours. I was pooped when I got back and crashed on the couch.

DramaMama hit the internet and told me about the enlarged heart condition. It basically means that the heart needed to strengthen in order to get the proper blood flow. This leads to fine things like congestive heart failure, which my dad has.

So now I get to go get vampired, and go to the primary care doc tomorrow to have her review the x-rays.

All I wanted was a nice relaxing weekend. HA! I'm pooped.