Saturday before last, I was feeling a little, um, bad. My eyes hurt. I’d been working in the yard all week, and I thought maybe it was allergies. I don’t have bad allergies like some folks do, but every now and then, I seem to have an allergy-ish reaction to pollen or dust or leaf dregs, or something.
I went to church Sunday morning, still feeling a little bit not-quite-good, and, as I was getting the room ready for Sunday School, my throat starting hurting. I really don’t want to make a bunch of little kids sick (and neither do their parents), so I went back home. Monday and Tuesday I felt really bad and spent those days lying on the day bed and watching Extreme Hoarders (which made me feel amazingly well-organized) and Escaping Polygamy (which made me feel really grateful for parents who let me make my own life choices). Then I felt better, but developed a wracking cough, which made my voice sound strange and flat.
On Saturday, I led a preschool Vacation Bible School training for a friend. I took a box of Kleenex and a container of disinfecting wipes to clean my hands. And a couple dozen cough drops. On Sunday, I did go to church, since I’d never had a fever, and things seemed to be getting better. Sunday afternoon, April and Peter came for a short visit (celebrating their being out of school!!). Kevin arrived later that night, home from a comic convention in Houston.
Monday evening, Peter and April watching the car being towed away.
We enjoyed visiting on Monday (Memorial Day Holiday), and were off to have lunch when April’s car began to shimmy
Tuesday morning, Peter watching the mower in the backyard.
and the “check engine” light came on. We did go have lunch, but then Kevin went back to Fort Worth with a friend and April had the car towed to the Subaru place. Monday night, I had fever.
On Tuesday (when April and Peter were supposed to be back in Fort Worth), we went to the Mayborn Museum, and my awful cough returned. I said, “I’ve got to go to the doctor!” and I called and actually got an appointment with my doctor’s Physician’s Assistant. They dropped me off there at 2:00 and went to check on the car (not ready yet).
I hardly had to wait at all. I described all my symptoms (and how very long this has lasted). She ordered chest X-rays, to be sure there wasn’t a big problem (and because I’d had a bit of fever earlier), but it was just (as per the information on my Patient Portal):
1. Cough
cough: cough care instructions
XR, chest, 2 view
2. Acute Upper Respiratory Infection
upper respiratory infection: care instructions
prescription for the infection
prescription for the cough
The prescription for the infection are some attractive blue capsules. The prescription for the cough is liquid. It came with a plunger-type thing, so that I can fill it to the exact amount, and then squirt it in my mouth.
Because I have diabetes-related kidney issues, physicians are careful to be sure that my prescriptions are at a level that aren’t going to further damage them. The last thing the Physician’s Assistant said, as she stood at her laptop: “Now I’m going to carefully compute the appropriate dose for you to protect your kidneys.”
I called April, and she and Peter came to fetch me, and we went to Target for the prescriptions. The capsules were ready, the cough liquid was not. I asked about it, and the pharmacist checked her computer. It hadn’t been sent in. I called the doctor’s office. “Oh,” said the nurse. “That’s a Level 2, and we have to hand-fax it in.”
“Okayyyyy,” I said, followed by a weighty pause.
“We’ll get that over,” she said.
It’s a codeine-containing, controlled substance. And I do appreciate that guidelines are in place. I also appreciate things being done in a timely manner. And, when I checked a few minutes later, the prescription had arrived, but then they had to get my particular bottle of it ready. And, then I had to have a consult with the head pharmacist, to be sure I was going to take the medication carefully and appropriately. And didn’t drive or operate machinery.
I did pop back over to the pharmacy to check something. I waved the guy down. “If I take this tonight, can I drive first thing in the morning?”
I’m rather sorry that, at the beginning of all this, I didn’t think to keep track of all the boxes of Kleenex that I used up.
He said yes.
Wednesday, I felt so very tired, completely without energy. Peter and April played most of the morning, and then went out for a bit, and found that the car was repaired. They returned and I took them to get their all-fixed car. (It was, I think, the coil.) They headed back to Fort Worth, and I headed for another nap.
So, here it is, Thursday evening, and I really am feeling better. The cough is still with me, and when I start coughing, it still seems to produce lots of phlegm, and I may cough for several minutes. But there are much longer intervals between the coughing fits. I suppose that the “safe” amount of the liquid isn’t quite enough to quickly combat that cough. So, to be on the safe side, it’ll just take a little longer.
I seem to be on the mend. On Saturday, it will be two weeks. I am certainly ready to be mended.
If you are cheerful, you feel good; if you are sad, you hurt all over.
Proverbs 17:22 (Contemporary English Version)
Quite a few cheerful things have happened, over the past few days. I feel pretty good. Not fabulous. But pretty good.