About that time I was sick...

In an attempt to get caught up on some of the major happenings of this summer, I'm going to tackle it one topic at a time, and not necessarily in order. Why? I don't know. But maybe it will explain the extended absences mixed with the lame half-a*ssed (*'s for mom's work filter, remember?) returns.

So let's see.

Well...

I spent the end of June and almost ALL of July sick as a dog.

It started with a super fun combination of laryngitis, bronchitis, and strep throat. I managed to lose my voice ENTIRELY for 5+ days. Let me tell you how fun that was - especially when I was working a few 10 hour days at cycling races and had to communicate with everyone via walkie-talkie. It was a lost cause. Even whispering was difficult. I felt like I had climbed a flight of stairs after the effort it would take to push out just one sentence. Bad news. Then there were days I couldn't swallow, days I didn't sleep because I would cough all night.

UGLY.

I went to the doctor, got antibiotics and some other good fun drugs.

And then I thought I was better after about 3.5 weeks.

For like two whole days.

WRONG AGAIN, CHIEFTAIN.

After 2 whole days of feeling great and finally indulging in a nice, summery, ice cold beer, my throat started getting sore again. And then I couldn't swallow.

Oh! And there was that morning (before I was leaving for work) that I almost passed out in the shower. I had to lay down in the tub and turn the water off with my feet. That was fun.

Then I drove 40 minutes to sit in the sun on a super humid day for 2 hours.

As soon as I got back, I went to the walk-in clinic doctor that I see through our private insurance. He thought it was still the same thing and did a strep test (negative) and told me to drink a lot of gatorade and soup. Umm. Sure.

He also did an x-ray of my ribs because I managed to either sprain/strain/or hairline fracture one from coughing so hard.

A few days later I still felt miserable. Perhaps MORE miserable....and now I couldn't hear out of my right ear and the left one was feeling weird. I had a standing appointment at the VA a few days later because they like to see you at least once a year. I was going to cancel it, but since I still felt crappy and my old doctor there (that I couldn't stand) was finally gone, I decided to keep it.

My new VA doctor? AWESOME. I love her. Not as much as the one I had in Fresno, but still, I like her a lot. AND...she didn't tell me to east some soup and drink some gatorade. She actually examined me again, which is kind of more (or at least different) than the walk-in doctor did.

Turns out my other stuff had evolved into pneumonia and a double ear infection! Awesome. I also needed to start using an inhaler and she said there was a chance I'd need it in the future now that I had been so sick for so long

So that took some more time to get over. I was very weak for quite awhile and my hearing didn't return very quickly either. I was still sick when we left for our week long anniversary road trip...

...which I'll write about next time.