Sick of Being Sick

For the last three weeks, I have had this persistent, nagging cough. It was irritating, and sometimes accompanied by headaches, but mostly I could ignore it. A couple weeks ago, it got quite bad on Thursday, and so I took Friday off, and rested all through the weekend as well. It didn't improve the cough, but I felt like I got my energy back, and headed back to work for the entire week following, and dealt pretty well. The cough persisted, but annoying as it was, I could ignore it.

Monday morning, I woke up feeling fine except for the cough, so I got ready and biked to work. When I got to work, I suddenly became dizzy, lightheaded, and found it difficult to see clearly or keep my balance. My very kind centre director actually drove me to the walk-in clinic herself, which was amazing, because it would have been an unpleasant walk to the bus stop and I didn't even really know where to go, as I haven't been sick since we moved here.

The doctor said I had pneumonia and prescribed me two very strong antibiotics and said pneumonia takes forever to go away, so I should stay home all week from work. I don't think I have ever taken a whole week off work, and I was convinced that the antibiotics would kick this thing in a day or two. Neither the centre director nor J was buying that at all, and I was firmly relegated to bed rest for the duration of the week.

As it turned out, going back to work was not on the cards anyway, because after a few days on antibiotics, my stomach was a disaster, I was exhausted and achy, and my cough had developed into the horrible, hollow, barking seal cough that I recognize from multiple bouts of bronchitis. J listened to my lungs with his stethoscope and confirmed that while it sounded like I had a bit less fluid in my lungs at that point, I also clearly had bronchitis. Which is a virus, and will run its course regardless of the antibiotics currently killing off everything else in my body. In the meantime, the intensified cough made my whole body sore from the way it wracked it and made it very difficult to sleep.

I'd like to say that there's a happy ending to this story, but it is now Sunday, and tonight will mark the end of my week-long intensive antibiotics course, as well an entire week of nothing but resting on the couch, which is ridiculous. The icing on the cake is that after all that, I don't feel better yet, and just have more resting to look forward to for the next few days. I have Monday and Tuesday off work for Easter, and unless something drastically changes, I'll be spending them right here on the couch.

BUT, by next week, (when I promise to post something more positive), I will be feeling SO MUCH better! I know it!

In the meantime, here are some beautiful pictures of clouds from our flat. The sun rises behind those hills, and so sets in the opposite side of the sky, but the reflections from the sunset are amazing!