90% Well

Y’all. I just had probably the sickest week of my life last week. Hor.ri.ble. I actually started feeling bad about 2 Thursdays ago. I didn’t really think much of it. Just thought it was sinus junk so I kept on going. One of my best friends got married last Saturday so we went to the Rehearsal Dinner Friday & the pre-wedding events Saturday morning. After the wedding, we headed to my parents house to visit & decorate their tree that Sunday. And this is when I really started feeling bad. TAG went on back home Sunday evening, but I stayed there because I knew there was no way I could keep up with Riley all day by myself while he was at work the next day.

Monday morning I woke up with literally the worst headache EVER. I couldn’t breathe out of my nose, my throat & ears were killing me and I had no voice. I went to our Family Practice doctor & she said I had an Upper Respiratory Infection along with an ear infection. I told her it felt like Strep & that I get it very easily. She said that she could do a Strep test on me if I wanted, but that the treatment would be the same as the URI & that my throat didn’t look like one with Strep right now. She did say that my heart rate was way too high & that is was likely from the over the counter stuff I had been taking. Even though my OB doctor said I could take it, she told me to stop immediately & to only take Extra Strength Tylenol & the Amoxicillin she prescribed me.

So Tuesday & Wednesday both went by & I didn’t feel any better. Worse, actually. I called the doctor again & she said that the antibiotic should have already kicked in, but to be patient & I should feel better by that afternoon. At this point I could barely pick my arms up to eat & my head is still killing me. I didn’t see me feeling better that quickly.

During all of this Riley was just getting over being sick himself, but I think he caught a 24 hour stomach bug Wednesday night. He threw up about 3 times over night & had some pretty nasty diapers. We kept giving him Pedialyte & he was acting like he felt fine so we let him be. It didn’t last long at all. Which was definitely good.

Thursday morning I woke up with a black eye & all the same horrid symptoms. The black eye was from a blood vessel that busted due to all the intense pressure build-up in my head. I called my OB doctor to see if there was anything stronger I could take because the Amoxicillin just wasn’t cutting it. The nurse said to also take Mucinex & that they would call me in some cough medicine. She said to take that & call her back Friday morning to let her know how I was doing.

Friday morning. Yet again, same thing. I called the nurse & she said that they wanted me to come in & let the Nurse Practitioner there take a look at me & do some chest x-rays. She said basically the same thing my General Practice doctor said: looks like URI, but she really believed it to be Strep as well (the OB doesn’t have the Strep test there so she couldn’t test me). Ear infection was still there. And my heart rate was high. She asked if I had any shortness of breath. I hadn’t really thought about it, but I did. Also, during this whole thing, I never had a fever. Since my symptoms were weird & all over the place, none gave a straight diagnosis. She stepped out of the room & said that she was going to talk this over with some other doctors there & see what they think as well. She came back in the room & said that 2 of the 4 doctors believe I had H1N1 without the fever (just going by the symptoms—they didn’t test me for this either because she said it has almost run its course by now & there is nothing we can do but to let it as of now). As soon as H1N1 left her mouth, I teared up immediately thinking about my baby girl. She said that the baby is fine. As long as I wasn’t in any danger, the baby wasn’t in any danger. Meaning no fever, I didn’t have to hospitalized for fluids, & I am otherwise healthy. Still not something a pregnant woman, or anyone for that matter, wants to hear.

So then they wanted me to do the chest x-ray to hopefully clear up some of the doctors assumptions. I have yet to hear back on that but I’m praying that no news is good news.

I seriously doubt I had the Swine Flu. At least I hope not anyway. But I know they have to take extra precautions with pregnant women. So now, since there was no set diagnosis for me, I am being treated for the URI & Ear Infections with Amoxicillin, Strep with a “Z” Pack, & H1N1 with Tamiflu (even though it was way past the 1st 48 hour range, they said it would be best to go ahead & take it).

I am finally starting to feel better. Right now I feel the way you should when you have a cold or sinus infection…not like my head is being held under 20 feet of water pressure with pencils jabbed in my ears & bees stinging my throat.

On another note, Riley also had a doctor’s appointment on Friday to do a re-check on his ears. We finally got some good news in regards to that. Both ears were clear as a bell! The level 3 antibiotics worked! His doctor is still going to keep a close eye on them, but for now we are in the clear & don’t have to make a visit to the ENT! We were so relieved to hear that news!

While we were there, I told the pediatrician about what was going on with me & asked if Riley’s throat looked red or if he needed to be on Tamiflu or anything. He said he looks great & that if he was going to get it, he would’ve already gotten it in days 1-4 of me being sick (this was about day 5 or 6). Praise the Lord no one in my family got what I had. I was really worried they would, but I seem to be on the upswing now & hopefully everybody is still in the clear.

And now a picture of my little cheese monkey just because.