Sunday, November 6, 2011

Cough. . . Cough. . . Cough. . .and Cough some more!

I have not had any health insurance since April 23rd. The Happy Birthday day when I was kicked off of my parents insurance. My plan was to find a full time job with benefits, and with many blessings from the Lord I found one. My health insurance does not start until December 1st and I just hoped nothing tragic would happen to me, such as my arm falling off. I'm happy to report that so far both arms are in-tact but I did get sick this past week. . .just my luck.

***Side note***Speaking of arms falling off, I watched this movie last night called Soul Surfer. If you have not seen it I highly, highly, highly recommend it. ***Side note over***

My illness hit me Tues. night and just went downhill from there. I had a severe deep cough and body aches. I took a few days off of work and almost drank an entire bottle of Robitussin. No, I did not overdose on the medicine. I followed the instructions religiously of 2 tablespoons every four hours. For the first 24 hours of my sickness, it seemed to suppress my cough, but by Friday night when I only had about 4 tablespoons left in the bottle, and I was not feeling any better, and thought I was going to die, I decided I better see a doctor. I decided to go to my parents house on Friday for the weekend because nobody would be there. My parents were on vacation so my plan was just to vege out and not care how loud or hard I coughed in hoping not to wake anyone up. So as I'm laying there not really being able to breathe and sweating to death because of my fever I told myself I would somehow muster up the strength in half an hour and drive myself to instacare.

Just as I am mustering up any strength my body has, one of my friends Darren who I have known since the good old days of Taylorsville High School texts me and asks me how I am doing. (He had no idea that I was on my death bed). I explain him my situation and he volunteers to drive me to instacare and help me. I was so so so so so thankful. He comes to pick me up and I look like this!

Not even joking! Bullet hole in my cheek and everything! Well, at least this is how I felt. I told Darren to not look me directly in the eye! Anyway, he drives me to instacare and I check myself in. ($135 without insurance). . . beautiful.

As I am talking to the doctor about my symptoms he tells me that I have all the classic signs of Pnamonia but he wants to do a chest X-ray just to make sure, and to see how bad it is. Yep! x-ray confirmed that I have panamonia.

See where there is a circle drawn? There is kind of a faint white cloud in my lung, which is NOT supposed to be there. (I got an $80 picture of my lungs, so I had to show it off!)



After the diagnosis he also told me that along with oral antibiotic medications that he will be prescribing me, I need to get a series of 3-5 shots all of which will be in my hip. Oh Joy! I don't know what my problem is but I HATE shots! I HATE them so bad! BUT I hate the thought of an IV even more, so I decided to do the shots.

The shot was not as bad as I thought it would be because I didn't feel a thing! I later told my Sister (Lacey) and Brother-in-Law (Ryan), oh the benefits of love handles! I had to go back on Saturday night to get another shot in the hip. This time I felt it. . . and it hurt! The lady seriously stabbed me hard! Saturday night Lacey and Ryan took me to insta care. When I walked out and found them in the waiting room I was complaining to them about the lady stabbing me and how it hurt! Ryan then said, "The benefits of love handles huh?!?!" Yeah whatever! I thought I would have to go back and least one or two more times to get more shots, but thankfully the Dr. told me that would be the last shot that I would have to get.

All in all I feel a lot better, despite the fact that I am still coughing a lot and my cough sounds terrible. I went to church today and my friend that was sitting in Sacrament meeting in front of me turned around and said, "You sound like crap!" Yes, that maybe true but I feel tons better!

Just my luck that I get sick one month before my insurance kicks in BUT I do have a lot of things to be thankful for that I have reflected on this past week, all in the spirit of Thanksgiving.

1. The Church (I could name a million reasons why and different aspects of the gospel that I am thankful for, but I will just use a blanket statement and say The Church)
2. Modern medicine (although I am not a fan of shots!)
3. Multiple Friends who are willing to do anything for me on a moments notice.
4. My parents who I owe big time and will never be able to re-pay. I love you Mom and Dad!
5. My sisters and their wonderful husbands.
6. Breathing (you never know how nice it is until you can't!)
7. Laughter! Lacey and Ryan have been so nice to me and took care of me a lot this weekend and have made me laugh really hard. At one point they even said, "Ok. . .we can't make Leah laugh anymore, because it makes her cough!"
8. Funny Youtube videos/Hulu/Pinterest/My Facebook stalking abilities/Lost DVD's (I know this sounds ridiculous but when you are sick in bed for days not knowing what is wrong with you, and not being able to sleep these things kept me entertained for sure!

I think I finally found the road to recovery! "I took the road less traveled by,(the recovery road that I have not felt for a few days) and that has made all the difference. HA HA! I crack myself up! If no one else laughed at this, that's ok I thought it was funny!

3 comments:

  1. I love reading your posts and yes I did laugh! I am glad you are feeling better!

    Melissa

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  2. This CRACKED me yup!!!! I love your face!!

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  3. I think my favorite is how many different ways you spelt Pneumonia - Hope you get feeling better!

    PS - I may have had to double check to make sure I spelt it right....

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