The Suffocating Nightmare that is Pneumonia

To protect my lungs from the cold, if I do go outside (which I really shouldn't) I have to cover myself up and try and prevent the cold air from getting inside me. Pneumonia is downright scary and not the kind of scary I like!

It all began with a dry cough. I would wake up with it and then it would go. For a while. Then return. Reg said I must be getting sick. I said it wasn't possible. I had no sore throat, no stuffed nose. Just a silly cough.

Then came the headache. It lasted for days. And days... The cough got worse. I went outside without a jacket on a warmish day. Then I knew there was something really wrong. I was so exhausted, so chilly and hot at the same time I thought I was going to be sick to my stomach walking home.

I lay down. Reg came home, glad to see I was getting rest. I told him no, there is something wrong. Then I made dinner, with shaking hands. What the heck is wrong with me?

I started sweating through three outfits a day, minimum. Disgusting. OK, fine, I have some weird flu I have never had before. I probably have a slight fever (I was delirious but didn't know it at the time so I made no attempt to look for a thermometer) that will last a day or so and then I will be fine.

Giving in (except to make dinner because I am so stubborn), I wrestled on the couch with my rocketing and falling temperature. To swaddle myself in blankets or not? Turns out, you shouldn't! Light blankets are OK but if you wear too many, you will burn up.

Then I started to cough. Really cough. Fine! I thought to myself. I have had bronchitis before, I will just take Benylin which should take care of my cough and fever.

Then everything got worse.

I stopped being able to taste sugar. I did not want to eat (we know how odd that is). Everything tasted salty and water tasted like metal.

On the fifth day, I still had a fever but... I stopped sweating and could barely breathe.

FUCK!

That was when I knew I was dehydrated and in a shitload of trouble. I called a cab to take me to the clinic but then had someone stopped by my house to drop something off. I could not believe the timing! I had to wave the cab away. He was pissed! I knew the cab company would now be hesitant to pick me up so I had to wait for Reg. I was honestly scared at this point. My chest was so heavy with fluid and yet there felt like there was no water left in my body. I was in trouble.

Reg came home and took me to the clinic. I was so focused on being dehydrated, thinking that I was going to have to go to the hospital to get an IV I wasn't thinking of the unbelievable cough I had. The fever was so bad at this point my ears were just screaming from the tinnitus. I asked Reg to come in with me because I was worried I wouldn't be able to hear the doctor. Thankfully, I could.

He heard me struggling for breathe that I didn't get a chance to tell him I was completely out of water. He listened to my lungs and asked, "Have you had pneumonia before?"

WTF? Um... No...

"Well you do now!" He wanted me to get chest x-rays and if I got any worse at all to go to the hospital immediately. I got tons of medication, a puffer and went home, shocked. I guess I should have known considering that when I was breathing in and out my breath was actually bubbling! I sounded like a sick dragon, it was scary.

If you get pneumonia, do not read about it on the internet in great detail or it will scare the hell out of you. I was terrified. I unplugged, Reg took over and I rested. I rested like I have never rested before and over time, my lungs mostly cleared and the fever finally stopped. I am still coughing and some days I worry that it is coming back (which is very common) and then I try and rest again.

I live with exhaustion every day because of my fibromyalgia. To have this heavy cast iron weight of exhaustion due to the pneumonia on top of my every-day brutally exhaustion blanket, is unbearable. I can see how people die from pneumonia. I can see how the body, just gives in. Well I am not letting that happen.

After I post this I am going back to bed. Each time I have posted for my foodie page over the last six weeks I have gone back to bed for at least three hours to recover. Which is what I am going to do right now too.

I always heard on the news that if you have the flu, stay at home, don't go to the clinic or see your doctor. But they don't tell you that maybe what you think of the flu is actually pneumonia. Apparently they can't really diagnose it until the damn horrid fever refuses to go away and your lungs fill up. If you take a cough suppressant like I did, it can make everything worse. The fluid just continues to build up in your chest. Don't take a cough suppressant! Get an expectorant.

Overall, I say, go to the clinic as soon as you can. Don't wait until you can't breathe or sweat. Just go.

Off to bed but maybe this will help someone, someday. It would have helped me when I was scared out of my mind.