I've been fighting this crud that's been going around for over a week now...I started feeling symptomatic last weekend, but tried to ignore the headache and burning eyes. It's easy to chalk up a headache to the TV being too loud or the burning eyes being caused by my smokey duplex neighbors.
However, by Tuesday I had a full-blown cold and it got progressively worse throughout the week. Come Thursday evening, I had convinced myself to call the doctor in the morning to see about getting an antibiotic as I had spiked a very high fever. But by Friday morning, I figured I could wait things out and call that afternoon ONLY if I had to...after all, my fever was going down and I still felt about the same. Why would I pay someone to tell me I'm sick???
After lots of sleep, Nyquil and fluids, I finally started to feel like new again when I got up yesterday morning. I spent the day catching up on things that I should have been doing all weekend long. I returned to work this morning but my chest was still killing me and my sinuses were still blowing blood. Yes, totally gross.
FINALLY, after getting a talking-to from one of my employees (she knows very well how much I resist going to the medical ppl), I called the doctor and made an appointment for this afternoon. As I suspected, I have a sinus infection and they've hooked me up with the appropriate meds...but the one thing I learned--which was probably worth the $20--was to take my inhaler 4x daily when I have a cold. That might have helped to have known last week when my lung function had gone way down!!
Everytime I get sick, my inherited "Marcene" gene kicks into high gear. My Grandma Marcene was NOTORIOUS for suffering through her ailments and going about life...in fact, that's what everyone attributed to her living so long with complications from rheumatic arthritis. I have no clue how many times over the years we thought she was a goner, but she'd come back stronger than ever because of her fighting spirit!!! Or maybe it was just denial...
I think the best story I remember was the time Grandma was scheduled to host the afternoon Bridge Club at her house. In preparing for company, Grandma took a nasty fall in the backyard and ended up breaking her hip...she pulled herself back into the house, got herself back on her feet and wobbled around enough to host Bridge! After all her guests left, she called the doctor saying "she might have hurt herself" and eventually had surgery to repair the hip! Now that's what I call determination :-) Or maybe "determination" is what you would call it when she could no longer turn the car ignition, so she used a pair of pliers to turn it over...or use her cane to operate the gas & brake pedal when she could no longer do it with her own two feet...Ah, Grandma Marcene and her stories of determination!!!
After a scare this fall, I've wised up a bit and learned that it's not always the best to go the Marcene route. I went to the gym one Friday and did a quick circuit workout with arm weights--well, over the weekend my arms got a bit tight and by Monday evening they were incredibly swollen and unable to move at the elbow joint. At the urging of my mother (obviously, she is NOT Marcene's daughter! lol) I went to my dr the following morning--they drew my blood and I was admitted to ICU within 20 minutes of getting the results back. Yeah, probably a good thing I listened to my mom and went to the Dr...otherwise I would have had renal failure and been comatose by the next morning...but that's all a long story in and of itself!
In the end, I am still a bit stubborn about going to the doctor or even the ER unless I absoultely have to--so when I do show up, my doctor knows I'm at the end of my rope with feeling crappy. And then I wave the white flag and fork over my $20 to be told, "by the way, you're sick"
No comments:
Post a Comment