2 posts tagged “health”

Well.  A happy, prosperous, adventure-filled 2007 to all.  I'm finally well enough to want to live, having skipped all festivities during the holiday season save a symphony concert and one party with friends.  A chest x-ray before x-mas confirmed the cough was not pneumonia - I probably caught a particularly nasty flu virus which mutated into bronchitis due to malheur.  It is, at last, under control, enough that I don't feel guilty going to the movies.

Speaking of, we saw Volver yesterday.  Pretty wonderful, with typical Almodóvar over-the-top-ness.  Carmen Maura is simply wonderful.

I'm also sick.  I caught a cold the second day I was on the jobsite, 6 weeks ago.  It progressed like a normal cold and seem to run its course.  But got stuck in my chest.  I've been coughing, uncontrollably at times, for far too long.

My first excuse was my health insurance didn't kick in until 11/1.  Then, things got incredibly busy at the site and I felt guilty taking time away.  But then Thursday morning I woke up at 4 am and lay there in bed, feeling my lungs bubble with fluid every time I exhaled.  That terrified me.

Went to an urgent care where I'd taken a co-worker a few weeks before when he'd run out of pain meds for his back.  They were like "oh yeah, you look familiar - you were coughing when you came in here before".  And, it's true.  They tried to get me to roll up my sleeve for a flu shot on that visit.

So I breathed and was listened to.  BP normal, weight as high as ever (plus, do NOT get weighed in your work clothes with the steel toed boots and heavyweight dickies and all that.  Very disheartening.)  Diagnosis:  bronchitis aggravated by asthma.  I'm now equipped with a stylish purple inhalable steroid/bronchodilator device, codeine cough syrup (what a blessing), and a course of antibiotics that leave an incredibly bad taste in my mouth for 5 - 6 hours.

But I'm on the mend, thanks very much!