Post by geoff on May 3, 2012 11:39:56 GMT -5
Had to cancel my flight to the slope for my two week hitch this morning. Spent the whole night trying to keep my lungs inside me. Ended up in the ER on Tuesday after what I assumed was a three week long cold (dumb, I know) took a turn for the worse. Seven years ago I got pneumonia really bad. It was misdiagnosed at the Army clinic and a week later I was taken to the hospital via ambulance with a fever of 105 and very delirious. Spent a few days in intensive care and wound up with some scarring in my lungs. So ever since then respiratory tract infections have always been a little more rough for me.
Halfway through me last hitch someone came to work with bronchitis. Typically a big no-no up there. Common decency says hey, if you're contagious, wait to come up! Well, me and several other people caught it. I've been fighting it since then. After a week it got better I thought, but my voice never got back to normal and I was still coughing up stuff. Then Monday I started coughing a lot. When I get these coughing fits I come to the point of blacking out. I get real dizzy and light head, start seeing stars and my vision goes dark. I stubborned my way through the day, assuring my wife that I was fine all while trying to stay conscious. (dumb, I know.) After a very rough night and ridiculous fever I made my way to the ER where I was chided by 3 nurses, a PA and a doctor. The initial diagnosis was bronchitis and pharyngitis, so they put me on a nebulizer for 15 minutes to open up my lungs. Thats a peace pipe looking deal that delivers oxygen and albuterol. Then I got my super awesome bag 'o pills and a trip to radiology for a chest x-ray. there it was confirmed that the cause of the itises was pneumonia.
Still waiting on the culture results to find out what lovely bug has taken up residence in my lungs, but the Dr is 99% that it'll be bacterial. So yeah. now I'm sitting on the couch in my underwear watching One Born Every Minute on Lifetime drinking Crystal Lite out fo a quart mason jar. But those of you who have been on the slope know that when it comes to health, they would very much rather you stay home a couple extra days instead of risking everyone in the camp.
Halfway through me last hitch someone came to work with bronchitis. Typically a big no-no up there. Common decency says hey, if you're contagious, wait to come up! Well, me and several other people caught it. I've been fighting it since then. After a week it got better I thought, but my voice never got back to normal and I was still coughing up stuff. Then Monday I started coughing a lot. When I get these coughing fits I come to the point of blacking out. I get real dizzy and light head, start seeing stars and my vision goes dark. I stubborned my way through the day, assuring my wife that I was fine all while trying to stay conscious. (dumb, I know.) After a very rough night and ridiculous fever I made my way to the ER where I was chided by 3 nurses, a PA and a doctor. The initial diagnosis was bronchitis and pharyngitis, so they put me on a nebulizer for 15 minutes to open up my lungs. Thats a peace pipe looking deal that delivers oxygen and albuterol. Then I got my super awesome bag 'o pills and a trip to radiology for a chest x-ray. there it was confirmed that the cause of the itises was pneumonia.
Still waiting on the culture results to find out what lovely bug has taken up residence in my lungs, but the Dr is 99% that it'll be bacterial. So yeah. now I'm sitting on the couch in my underwear watching One Born Every Minute on Lifetime drinking Crystal Lite out fo a quart mason jar. But those of you who have been on the slope know that when it comes to health, they would very much rather you stay home a couple extra days instead of risking everyone in the camp.