An extra week of vacation???

Last Sunday, I woke up with a little sore throat. Sunday evening, and throughout the night, my sore throat became worse, and I couldn't swallow or breathe. By Monday morning, I had what I felt like was the flu. I called in sick, and tried to mend myself. Monday evening, I was supposed to meet with the Girl Scouts at the library, and I had to call in one of my moms to fill in for me. Monday night, it was worse, and I couldn't sleep. Tuesday morning, I was even more sick, and had to call in sick again.

I tried at this point to get an appointment with the doctor. I've always been able to get an appointment with other doctor's, no matter how booked they say they are. But this new doctor's office wouldn't budge. First available was Wednesday morning. I took the appointment, reluctantly. I thought that if this thing blows over, I'll be almost well by the appointment time, and I'll just cancel the appointment and go to work.

Wednesday morning came around, and I was still sick, so I called in sick AGAIN and went to the doctor's appointment. What is this thing that I have?? Sore throat, chest congestion, wheezing (I have asthma), coughing, low grade fever = bronchitus. The only thing you can do for acute bronchitus is get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids. She prescribed a strong antibiotic, mainly because I have asthma and the antibiotic will help stave off a secondary infection. Acute bronchitus is viral, so the antibiotic won't help it, but it sure helps in other ways.

The doctor also wanted me to take the rest of the week off to help me get well. At first, I told her that I couldn't do that. (I have enough vacation days left, but it will leave me with one day left for the year). My plan was to return to work on Thursday, but as I woke up on Thursday and Friday, I still felt bad. I also didn't want to expose everyone at work right before Thanksgiving, especially one lady who is on chemo.

I didn't realize how much bronchitus can take out of you. Thursday evening, I had to teach a Girl Scout class to new leaders, and so I started the class with a full bottle of water. During the class, one of the students, who was also sick, gave me some cough drops to help with the coughing. I used those cough drops and water to help me control the coughing, which helped a little, but not a whole lot. The coughing also seemed to come when I was right in the middle of the lecture part of the class. (We also had video). During one of the video portions, I suddenly had this urge to fall asleep. I don't think I was ready to face the public yet. I even told one of the students that when the bottle of water ran out, that was it. Class was over. They softly laughed, not sure if I was serious or not. Of course, I would finish the class, but we came really close because I had about an inch of water left in the bottle at the end of class.

Today, I was stronger, but I can tell I was still weak. I'm still coughing up a storm and I don't think I would be able to stand being at work, coughing it up everywhere. I'm tired because I couldn't sleep last night. I went from bed, to couch (trying to prop myself up), back to the bed (propped up), to laying down flat on my bed (because my neck hurt), to getting up with a bad headache from all of the activity. My cats must have thought I was crazy, going back and forth and coughing all the way. (Isn't that a Christmas song??)

Pray for me. I would like to be well before Thanksgiving so that I can enjoy the day. I also have to cook for the first time. Yeah, pray for that, too. Even though I'm only cooking for Corinne and I, I would still like to be good.