Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Sick and stuff

So it's been over a month since I've posted and here are some things that have happened:

1. It became November
2. The new Harry Potter came out
3. I almost visited my friend, Sam. Almost.
4. I missed a week of school.
5. Oh yeah, I got Pneumonia
6. I heard a woman die.

So last week, on Friday, T-'s dad came and I felt like crap. My head was hurting, as were my eyes, I was exhausted, my body ached, and I was nauseous. However I assumed I had a day or two virus/illness. Saturday it got worse, but I went out, stubborn as I am. I went to the farmer's market, whole foods, and HEB with T- and his dad, and got home with a fever of 102.5 and vigorous chills. My mom suggested I go to the hospital, she was very worried I had a bacterial pneumonia, but again I argued: No mom, I have a short-term flu, I'll be fine.

T-'s dad left on Sunday, and I felt worse and began throwing up. My fever went up, it was not 103.4. So we went to urgent care since I didn't want to wait for hours in the emergency room at the hospital. They gave me an IV, advil, and a butt-shot of Rosefin (an antibiotic). They also took a chest x-ray, and confirmed the first of many things my mom was right about: I had a lower right lobe Pneumonia, small but present.

When my mom heard this she said she WAS coming down to SA because she knew I was seriously, seriously ill (something I thought was over zealous and over-reacting, however I would soon find I needed to thank my lucky stars my mom came down).

See, the amazing thing about my mom -- she's a genius. I'm not lying, my mom has her faults, as we all do, and we are both stubborn women which can cause head-butting some times, but I cannot deny that my mom is a brilliant doctor and an awesome mom. When she got there, she took my temperature: 103.7. She stomped her foot and said "M-, you're very very sick, you need to go to the hospital" so she took me to the ER. She thought I was very sick, I thought she was over-reacting.

Long story short -- she was right, right about everything. Over the next 4 nights, I was kept in the hospital. For the first three days, they gave me antibiotic after antibiotic, changed my IV three times, gave me IV morphine, innumerable doses of advil and tylenol, and watched my vitals -- trying to see if my fever would go down, and nothing happened. The antibiotics didn't seem to be having an effect, advil worked for four hours, breaking my fever, but it came back like clockwork, higher and worse than ever usually: 104. I had chills, meaning I was septic (meaning I had bacteria in my blood).

Worst of all, my body was not producing its own antibodies. I had a massive illness and my white count was normal. NORMAL.  And my protein levels were those of a "malnourished HIV patient" to quote my brother. Apparently, I got so caught up in TFA and teaching, that I forgot to eat, for several weeks. I had noticed my weight drop dramatically, but I didn't really pay attention to it. I was too lazy to make food for myself, so I just ate random stuff around the house, not taking in enough protein. So they pumped all this medicine into me, because I couldn't make my own antibodies...but it didn't seem to be working.

Eventually on the fourth day, it seemed to take affect, my fever only went up to 100.2, and then the next day, I didn't have a fever at all.

So far it's been a little less than a week that I haven't had a fever, and I'm loving it. I'm still coughing a lot, I get tired very easily, I need to drink tons of water, and oh yeah, I'm still on tons of antibiotics, but no fever so far.

I'm disappointed in myself. When I got out of the hospital, everyone told me that I was life-threateningly ill, primarily because my body was too weak to fight off illness. I didn't take care of myself, so I had to have other people come and take care of me. I'm not trying to sound melodramatic, but it's disappointing.

My mom is old, she's not well, and I should be taking care of her. Instead she's down here taking care of me. So a new rule: my job with TFA takes a back seat to my health. I love my students, I love that I'm helping some of them, I love that I heard that some of them were worried about where I was, but I need to look after number 1, and that's me.

If I can't take care of myself, I can't help other people. Because of my foolishness and bad luck, I will have to miss a good deal of school because I will be too weak to really go and give it my all with my students, and really -- with my kids I need to be giving it my all. So now, I take care of myself.

Going to go play video games --

M

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