you are everything

I slept lying down last night!! I haven't done that for 3+ weeks! It's so much easier to sleep when you're lying down. I still woke up a few times, but I didn't have any major coughing fits, so that was nice.

I am still coughing and congested and run down and everything, but being able to sleep more normally is a major breakthrough IMO. I do go back to the doctor tomorrow at noon to check on things, but overall I feel - I hope - I'm past the worst of it. Keep your fingers crossed for me. And don't any of you get sick either! I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

Still sick. Literally no better than I was two weeks ago. Slightly worse, actually. Going to the doctor at 4pm today. I'm not particularly hopeful that it'll do a lot of good, but it'll make Mom feel better if I go. Heh.

Can't sleep. Can't lay down in bed 'cause I start coughing like crazy. So I sit up against a bunch of pillows and sort of doze a bit when my body lets me. Then when I wake up, I'm 20x more congested than I was when I closed my eyes, and I was already super congested. Um... point being, I AM SO FUCKING EXHAUSTED I CAN'T STAND IT.

Every few days, I think I'm starting to feel a little bit better, and think that maybe - just maybe - I'm over the worst of it. Then within hours of thinking that, it slams me again. What is this thing? Not just a Supercold - it's a Supercold with demon powers or something.

Anyway... yeah.

And since I saw it in mlleelizabeth's LJ and was curious and it required basically no physical or mental exertion on my part...

* There are 1,416,057 people in the U.S. with the first name Jennifer.
* Statistically the 21st most popular first name.

* There are 194,480 people in the U.S. with the last name *********.
* Statistically the 146th most popular last name.

Ooooh. I'm so popular. ::sigh::

I just had one of my horrible wheezing attacks right in the middle of a bad coughing fit. I really thought I wasn't going to be able to catch my breath, and was afraid that even if I did, I'd just start with the coughing again. And even though it sounds incredibly loud to me when it's happening, Mom slept right through it, while Dad got up and went to the bathroom and went back to bed all without being aware of it at all. I'm gonna get a bell I can ring - or maybe a foghorn - in case something like this happens again. Although the truth is, there wouldn't be much they could do other than comfort me. I have an inhaler, of course, but if you have no control over your breathing it's pretty damn hard to use an inhaler.

I feel like there's a 2 ton weight sitting on my chest.

My doctor thinks I'm just not being patient enough - that I need to give the antibiotic more time to work. Maybe, but are you supposed to get worse before you get better? And it's been 4+ days now. I've had very little sleep. I'm *really* trying to get lots of fluids in me, but it's probably still not enough. I haven't really had a fever at all though. But nothing relieves the cough and it's just *so* painful. And I'm just so incredibly exhausted that I can even begin to describe it.

Gonna try and go back to sleep now, if I can.

BTW, for the non-Fall Out Boy fans, the subject line of my post is one of their song titles. I just popped into my head and seemed oddly appropriate for this post.

Bronchitis. Got antibiotics and cough syrup with codeine. Gonna try to make myself stay offline for a couple of days. We'll see how that goes.

Huge thanks to everyone for their well wishes on my last post.  It must have helped - no pus pockets here!  It was 'just' a cold, although I feel like I'm still recovering from it.  I've just been exhausted and sleeping a ridiculous number of hours a day - though never more than 2 or 3 hours at a time UGH.  Add to that my monthly loathing of my uterus and my gradually increasing problems - back, neck and chest pain and headaches - due to my over-sized boobs... and things aren't fun physically.  But... that's all taking a back seat for the moment. 

Mom spent most of the day in the emergency room today.  Her blood pressure was really low (74/46) and she was really dizzy and lightheaded and nauseated.  They gave her IV fluids and did a ton of lab work and got her BP back up into the normal range.  The lab work really didn't show anything that just jumped out and said "this is what caused the drop in BP."  There were a few levels that were slightly off, but nothing really significant.  She's home tonight, but still not feeling well and has a doctor's appt. tomorrow.  I've had major issues with her doctor's prescribing habits for years now, and the fact that he's had her on BP medicine when she hasn't had high blood pressure in quite some time and has never had excessively high blood pressure makes me especially irritated now.  I've never met the man, but I plan to tomorrow.  One way or another, I'm going to that appointment with her.  I've been 'threatening' to accompany my Mom to one of her doc appointments for a long time now, and this ER visit today was the last straw.  There have been all sorts of other medication issues too, but I won't get into all that here.  My Dad sees this same doctor and has had the same kinds of problems with prescribing issues.  Nothing illegal, mind you.  Just an excessive belief in 'better living through chemicals' and dosing and drug choices that constantly make us all go "huh?"  So we'll see what he has to say tomorrow.

Now, I must try to get some decent, restful sleep.  Drugs will probably be necessary.

::content but exhausted sigh::

Made it home safe and sound (well, safe anyway.. hehe) late last night after an almost-too-long and yet not-quite-long-enough visit with my brother and his family in Virginia. I was sick most of the time I was there, but that quickly became a minor worry as my Mother got much sicker... we had to take her to the emergency room (the damned urgent care clinics out there refused to see her because she has Medicare ::angry grimace::). Diagnosis was COPD with possible pneumonia. She's doing some better now (much better stress-wise now that we're home, of course, so hopefully that will help her recovery), and she saw her own doctor this morning, got some different antibiotics, and he confirmed that she is slowing improving. So that's a relief. But it's pretty damn scary when your Mother tells you that she'd rather die than keep feeling the way she does.

Had a great time despite the health issues though. Saw some fantastic places, and took... not sure... somewhere around 500 pictures. Almost 200 of those were taken at Falling Water in southwest Pennsylvania. Incredible place. Gorgeous and just... amazing. Truly impressive. Planning to set up a gallery on one of my sites specifically for all the photos I've taken on this trip, and will share the link once it's up.

I've only scanned through my email for the past several days, but I did notice a number of birthday wishes - you guys are awesome! Thanks! I'll do my best to respond to each one personally, but I have to read them all first! :-)

Anyway... just wanted to check in and let you all know I got home okay. More later.

Hugs to all,
Jen