The Diagnosis - Oink Oink

Those of you who are my FB friends probably already know this, but the diagnosis yesterday was a little surprising to me. Doc says Influenza A (likely swine flu) and pneumonia. I couldn't believe it at first. I felt like crap in my lungs, so I believed the pneumonia bit, but I asked him to clarify the swine flu statement. He said that it definitely came back as 'flu A' and from what I understood from him, that all of the flu As that have been tested recently have come back swine. Nice. They did the nasal swab (never knew a swab could be inserted so deeply in my head) and did a chest x-ray (which came back cloudy in places, I think).

I'm definitely not a doctor, so I might have described some of those details incorrectly. They definitely checked me out thoroughly.

So here is what is going on -
I have been in the bed now for four days. I get up to go to the bathroom, to fix myself some tea when I am home alone, and just this morning to wash my bed linens and try sitting in a chair. I have run a fever of 100+ for some/most of the last three days. I have showered every morning (the steam feels really good on the bronchial passages) so I am reasonably fresh for a sick person. Chad has brought down my work laptop so that I can do a little bit of work in the morning and then check email and stuff between naps during the day. Mostly, I have been sleeping and watching TV.

The first 60 hours, all I wanted was a basic diet - oatmeal and tea for breakfast, Jamba Juice and Clif Bar close to lunchtime, hot tea during the day, and miso soup for dinner. Finally yesterday afternoon, I was starving and asked Chad to make me dinner. He very graciously made me scrambled eggs, sweet potato fries and sliced strawberries for dinner...just what I asked for. Chad also did some grocery shopping and picked up some food that I can make quickly by myself.

The past two nights I have not really slept much. I have been too busy hacking up and cringing at the burning ripping fire in my throat when a big cough happens. The only thing that keeps me asleep is putting a Chloraseptic or Cepacol lozenge in the pocket of my cheek while I sleep so that it numbs the back of my throat as it melts. I basically wake up every couple of hours to put in a new cough drop and try to get as much sleep as I can. I think tonight might be better...my coughs today are much more productive.

Poor Chad has been sleeping on the couch (which is actually very comfortable) and has been awesome as my nurse. He continues to Lysol the things we both touch and has disinfecting wipes. Last night he did a bit of cleaning in his area of the house. My mom has also taken a round of bringing me food and cough drops.

I'm getting kind of pooped typing this up...time to take a break...but I'm really bored.