Pneumonia. I has it.

Sometimes I think God lets me get sick so that I can spend so much time being useless that I vow not to waste precious time like that when I an well.  Maybe it is so I can see how good my husband is, to give Charming an opportunity to serve and so I can feel how much he loves me.  So I can be reminded that this man is wonderful and committed and just right for me.  I know being sick allows others the opportunity to serve our family and it leaves me in awe of the loving community I am a part of.  I think being vulnerable and needy ignites a greater compassion for others-- for those who are chronically ill or housebound or for anyone who might get a similar illness in the future.  With this compassion and empathy I can then serve others in a greater capacity.

I am on day 3 of being home sick with officially-diagnosed-pneumonia.  I'm on day 8 of actually being sick, and while I am feeling better today, this is definitely the sickest I have been in my life.  I should probably count myself fortunate that I don't get sick like this often.  I am grateful I don't have a chronic illness or disease.  I am grateful for my generally good health.  I am grateful this morning that I no longer have body aches and that I slept relatively well last night.

My wonderful friends, neighbors and church family have hooked me up with dinners this week and care for the Squish for a couple hours each day so I can rest. I feel very cared for.

And today I am super lonely.

So I'm blogging about pneumonia! (Sick people need to share their experiences)

I think like most illnesses, pneumonia can manifest itself a little differently for each person, so here's how it happened to me:

Day 1: Wednesday.  Little dry cough.  I start taking my essential oils and Emergen-C

Day 2: Thanksgiving!  We drive to Spokane. I've got cough drops and I try not to cough on everyone. I feel really worn out by about 5 pm.  Starting to get little body aches around my knees. Sweat profusely and have a terrible headache all night long.

Day 3: Ibuprofren helped headache.  Feeling ok.  Still dry coughing, knees still bothering me.  We go to the movies, and then sushi lunch.  I buy cough syrup and sleeping meds to try and get some rest.  Have a night of sweats and chills.

Day 4: Saturday.  Still coughing.  Still doing okay, but not awesome.  It is snowing outside and we take an excursion where we walk around town doing some shopping.   I get soooo cold that I jump into bed as soon as we get home and fall asleep.  I wake up feeling so terrible I am walking in kind of a stupor.  Body feels weak.  My mom takes my temperature and it is 103.  The more I cough, the more my head just throbs.  Knee aches have moved into my upper legs.  I'm getting chills and moments of being intensely hot. I start taking tylenol with my ibuprofren.  When I start to perk up, Charming reminds me to take it easy as it is just the medicine talking.  Another night of coughing, sweats and chills.

Day 5: Sunday.  Drive home from Spokane.  (I say drive, but Charming did all the driving, I just rode along).  I feel awful, but the drive is bearable.  Chills.  Fever.  Pain.  I just keep taking my cough drops and pain meds.  We get home pretty uneventfully with good time.  I start googling the differences between flu, cold and pneumonia.  Flu comes suddenly, this was definitely gradual.  Colds have nasal congestion and I have none.  Pneumonia makes it hard to breathe-- this is not the case.  I take a bath to feel better but get so cold when I get out, I jump straight into bed. I wake up not wanting to move or go anywhere.  My heart is racing, the pain in my head and body is so intense and I am so, so so hot, but I know if I take the covers off I will freeze.   I always feel worse after a nap.  I tell Charming I want to see a doctor right now because I just feel so intensely sick and I just want to get some rest.  We get a sitter for the kids and drive to the ER.  They hook me up to an IV, test me for flu virus (sticks up my nose, blech!) and do a chest x-ray.  I fluctuate in between needing more blankets and wanting no blankets at all. We are there for nearly 5 hours.  Not the flu.  Definitely pneumonia.  Should be not contagious after 48 hours, will probably feel crappy for a week they say. My elevated heart rate has the doctor worried, but after 4 bags of fluid and a couple rounds of antibiotics, they let me go home.  We drive to the 24 hour pharmacy get the magic cough syrup (which makes me sleep deeply but wakes me up with intense coughing and phlegm) and we go home to bed.  More sweats and chills.

Day 6-8.  My friends are amazing and they hooked me up with dinners and childcare and sweet surprises like soup and wassail.  Charming stayed home the first day and Squish was gone all day yesterday so I could rest.  I am not going to bore you with all the recovery details except to say: the body aches went away first and then the temperature started to better regulate.  Yesterday my headache was gone.  Today it has reappeared.  I am feeling weak, but mostly okay until I start to cough.  I don't feel up to much.  But I also don't feel in the pits of sickness despair-- mostly I feel regular sick.  I have never ever felt trouble breathing or had chest pain.  Not all people with pneumonia do, apparently.

The Squish is at someone's house this morning and I am feeling alone.