You Just Have to Laugh

I look back at my weekend and all I can do is laugh.  (This was supposed to be posted two weeks ago - so back up two weekends)

I have had an incessant cough for over a month.  Thursday morning I wake up after a terrible night sleep of coughing and wheezing attacks to find myself horribly nauseated.  I find my way to the bathroom and camp out.  Roland is already gone for the day, bummer.  6:30 comes and my little ones burst out of their room.  I know there is nothing I can do for them as I am dead on the floor of the bathroom.

Luckily I have the nicest sister in the world who accepts an early morning wake up call and happily comes over to make sure my kids don't die.  Five hours later, I send Andrea home but I am still completely out of it.  I have no energy, can barely move, don't feel like my head is connected to my body, and am sore from head to toe (not to mention incredibly sore from dry heaving all morning).  Throw on top, still not being able to breathe.

Somehow I manage to make it to nap time.  I vaguely remember Weston asking me for chicken nuggets and cucumbers for over an hour.  Poor little guy.  I did eventually muster enough strength to stand up and get it for him, then it was off to bed for all three of us.  Luckily Roland made it home before the kids got up, and I laid around in misery for the rest of the day.

Friday was much of the same, but I suddenly no longer felt nauseous.  Hallelujah.  Breathing still was labored and I wanted nothing more than to just be able to breathe.  That afternoon was my doctor appointment.  Diagnosis - bronchitis.  Of course.  I honestly was thinking it was pneumonia because I felt much like the last time I had pnemonia my sophomore year of college.  Bronchitis doesn't knock me out like this.  But, I didn't care.  I got my antibiotics and I was happy. 

Silly me though.  He prescribed me azithromycin.  I knew that would clear me right up so when he asked me if I was allergic or had reactions to similar antibiotics I promptly replied, "nope."  It wasn't until I went to take it that night that I realized my grave error. 

My freshman year of college I was prescribed a close relative of azithromycin - erythromycin.  I took my first dose the night of a dance.  Guess who I happened to be going to that dance with?  None other than my future husband!  We were only friends at the time.  He really liked me but I was only interested in remaining friends.  He was fun company though!  I was house sitting at the time with Stephanie, Marisa, and Megan.  Roland stopped by to pick me up and I was already starting to feel the effects of the medicine.  I was severely dizzy, very lethargic, and my heart rate was rapid and "strange."  But, I felt bad and didn't want him to miss the dance so we went anyway.  I remember I was very frustrated with my hair.  I was so dizzy, I couldn't really stand up to get ready.  So, oh well. 

We arrived at the dance and stood in line for dinner.  I remember being so dizzy that I could barely stand up on my own.  Roland was such a gentleman.  He held me up and made sure that I was steady.  I remember him placing his hand on the small of my back and gently guiding me as I walked.  I thought to myself at the time, "too bad I don't like him more - this would be so sweet and cute."  Definitely swoon worthy. 

Alicia and Roland at dinner

Much of the night was a blur.  I remember eating dinner, taking pictures, and I remember attempting to dance.  That didn't go so well.  I spent much of the night sitting, trying not to pass out.  I'm so lame!  What a boring date.  One thing I remember quite well though was a conversation we had over dinner.  We were sitting with Norman and Stephanie.  Somehow we got on the topic of exercise and I remember Roland making some comment about how he exercised and tried to be healthy and that he wanted his wife to do the same.  I remember thinking to myself "His poor wife someday.  That's awfully presumptuous.  Good luck to her!"  I was then suddenly very aware of my body and felt extremely self-conscious.  Thinking back to this just makes me laugh.  Oh, and for the record - I don't think he meant his comment as it came across to me.  And, I do exercise of my own free will and choice and am not self-conscious of my body one bit around him!

Anyway, the night ended pretty early as I clearly was not up for much of a party.  Roland took me home and I think he was rather disappointed.  I just went to bed and crashed.

This picture was taken a few days later at Roland's house since I was too out of it for a nice picture of us together at the dance.  I don't know whatever happened to the professional pictures taken that night.

Now that I went on an incredibly long tangent, suffice it to say, I probably should not have been taking azithromycin.  But, I thought I would take a chance anyway.  Bad choice.

Shortly after taking the medicine, I found it even harder to breathe, and it felt like my throat was swelling shut.  It was very difficult to swallow.  I felt like there was a giant ball in my throat.  I started to panic and make sure I let Roland know that if I suddenly passed out, it was because my throat had swollen shut and I couldn't breathe.  I know - so dramatic!  To top it all off, I started to get incredibly nauseous again.Oh boy.  I guess I forgot to mention - I was offered the flu shot while at the office.  I thought, "what the heck - I am here - I may as well get my money's worth!"  So, welcome flu to all of this.

I progressively got worse.  My throat never swelled shut, but I was definitely struggling to breathe, was spewing up all kinds of mucous, dry-heaving every few minutes, was dizzy, lethargic, and then started getting tingly in the fingers and toes.  I must have been hyperventalating.  Upon reviewing the allergic reaction symptoms though, they included under "severe" :  swelling of throat, difficulty breathing, swollen lips, hands, feet, etc.  I then realized, I wasn't hyperventalating - my hands and feet were swelling.  I then noticed my lips were too!  I was a mess!

Roland eventually called the Dr's office to get the on-call doctor (it was now late at night on a Friday).  The on-call doctor didn't seem to understand why we were calling.  I don't know why the medicine inserts tell you to call your doctor immediately for certain symptoms if the doctor seems to not understand the reason for the call.  Do you want to know his suggestion?  Take Benadryl.  Well, okay, I'll take Benadryl but what do we do about the antibiotic?  His suggestion?  Finish the full prescription, just make sure to take Benadryl with each dosage.  Oh gosh.

The Benadryl helped, but it also knocked me out.  I was brave and finished out the rest of my antibiotics - making sure to take the largest dose of Benadryl that I could each time.  I was a loopy mess.  Do you remember the movie Hitch and his episode with a bottle of benadryl?  That's about how I felt each night.  I was saying and thinking all kinds of strange things.  I could barely speak, slurring all of my words.  I was lightheaded and could barely lift my arms.  I must have been a sight!

Eventually that episode was over and done with but here comes Sunday.  Roland was starting to feel sick and the kids were not looking so hot, so we decided to skip church.  Lesson learned.  We were called that night to give talks in church the following week.  Apparently we had radar on us due to our lack of attendance that day.  To top the whole weekend off, I broke my finger.  I was trying to close a baby gate we had, but it was stuck.  I pushed really hard so that it finally shut together, but my finger got stuck between the two halves.  It crushed the top part of my finger.  To make matters worse, I couldn't re-open the gate to get my finger out!  I really do not like that gate!

What a weekend huh?  All I could do was sit back and laugh.