I am constantly surrounded by germs, in my personal and professional life. I have come to terms with this. I am a mother to three small germ carriers and I take care of sick children whom sometimes have infections that stump the infectious disease department of my hospital. My philosophy on germ control is something along the lines of "exposure increases immunity." My house is far from antiseptic. But over the last three weeks, I have been forced to reconsider my stance.
It all started with a nagging cold that plagued my husband and I for a couple of weeks. We both still managed to work out as much as we wanted, and maintained our daily routines without a problem.
Fast forward a couple of weeks. All of a sudden my cough turns into something that I can't deal with anymore. I couldn't sing my kids to sleep because speaking for too long would send me into a fit. I started getting chills and my cough became deep and unproductive. I knew this was turning into something bad, so I drug myself into the local Urgent Care for a prescription. This is when Patrick realized how bad I felt. I NEVER take myself to the doctor. I usually think I know what's wrong with myself and how to fix it. I stay away from antibiotics as much as possible and rely on good old Ibuprofen to get me through a rough spot.
The Urgent Care doc gave me a pneumonia diagnosis and put me on steroids, cough suppressant, and a "new" antibiotic, Factive. I waited a day to fill these prescriptions and almost landed myself in the hospital due to my delay. I took my middle girl to gymnastics and totally sapped the little reserve I had left. I was delirious on the way home, my fever had spiked to 104, and I was having coughing fits that were leaving me dizzy. I really shouldn't of been driving.
Anyway, I was slowly improving as the meds got into my system. I maintained my work schedule, albeit with a deep rattle of a cough, but I felt like I was at least not infectious after five days of antibiotics.
Then, on day seven of the antibiotics, this happened:
Meanwhile, my three small children were all spiking fevers at different intervals. Jackson had it the worst, missing two days of school and half of his spring break due to fevers over 101 degrees. They were all diagnosed with the flu, so Hubs was smart and put himself of Tamiflu before he succumbed. We subsisted on pizza and juice for several days because it was easy and it was the only thing any of us felt like eating. I actually called my husband home from work early because I physically couldn't care for my family. That was a low point for me.
And now here we are. The kids all seem better, and this is good. Patrick is healthy, thank goodness. I, however, am still having issues. The rash has faded and the itching is gone. The cough is better. But for the last four days, I have battled a monster sinus type headache. I am not a person that gets headaches, so my tolerance is very low. I want to pull my face off every evening around 6:00pm, for this is when the headaches peak. Ibuprofen hardly touches them. I have invested in congestion and allergy medicine, I have used and reused the neti pot, all to no avail. I am scared that I will again have to go to the doctor for a sinus infection and be put on ANTIBIOTICS. I do not want to go. I will suffer as long as possible.
