Sick of … sickness

I’ve been sick. Man, have I been sick.

It started on July 21 as a slightly sore throat. Throughout that day, it moved upwards into my sinuses. I was visiting my parents at the time and I was deciding between leaving the next day or the day after. The coming illness decided for me. First, I didn’t want to get my parents sick. Second, I didn’t want drive home while I was full-on sick! I figured I’d leave the next day and get back before the illness fully developed.

And develop it did! I was off that week so I stayed home doing very little Friday and through the weekend. Come Monday morning, there wasn’t really any doubt in my mind that I wasn’t going to work. I called my boss and through fits of coughing, I explained the situation. I then called my doctor and the admin person told me to come in that same afternoon. I love my doctor! Not only was I feeling wrecked, but Lori told me that strep throat had made an appearance in the daycare her son attends. He didn’t catch it, but who knows … maybe he passed it along without developing symptoms.

She had a look at me and although it wasn’t strep throat, the news wasn’t great. I had sinusitis because of a sinus infection. Further, I seemed to have a minor case of laryngitis. I could still speak, but my voice didn’t sound right. So she prescribed an antibiotic and a nasal spray. I asked when I should expect to see improvement. She said that I should feel much better within 48 hours, and if I wasn’t feeling significantly better within 72 hours, she wanted to see me again.

So three days later I prepared to go to work. My head was clearer and I thought that I could be of some use at work. I stopped at Starbucks on my way and immediately noticed a significant line-up. It became clear that I shouldn’t have even thought about going to work because I realized that I couldn’t stomach waiting in line because I was utterly fatigued. I had thought about my head and my faculties and not how I felt overall.

So home I went. I called my boss again, explained, and called my doctor. They again told me to come in that afternoon and the doctor would see me. She didn’t like what she saw, and she told me so. I had attributed my fatigue to fighting off the illness, but she told me that the viral part of my ailment, the laryngitis, was still an ongoing battle and that fight was the reason I was so tired. With there being no magic bullet for viruses, she told me to forget about work for the remainder of the week and rest. She stressed my taking rest seriously. “I don’t even want you to do any gardening,” she said. Of course this made me laugh. I don’t even have indoor plants. She also prescribed a stronger antibiotic for my sinus infection.

That was Thursday and I’ve done very little between than and now. I had to go grocery shopping, but that took an hour and there’s really no way around it! I felt somewhat better on Friday, but progress stalled at that point. I’m still very tired all the time. I’m sleeping more than normal so it’s not a lack of sleep. I’ve done little else than watching TV and reading.

Tomorrow I’m going to work. I’m not sure if I should go or not, so I will. If I find myself wrecked an hour after I get there, I’ll be on the phone to my doctor again. And there’s this cough I can’t seem to get rid of. She said the next step would be sinus and chest x‑rays to see what’s going on in there. Tomorrow, it’ll be one day shy of two weeks that I’ve been sick so we just may be taking that step. I hope not, but we’ll see.