3's

I have always heard that bad things come in threes.  Let's just hope I have hit my three.

May I was hit with pneumonia.  It all started with allergies in Austin at one of Roland's rugby matches.  I stepped outside and it was like I slammed into a wall.  I was dying and my nose was literally dripping like a leaky faucet.  By the end of the day, it had already dropped into my chest. 

A few days later I was having such a difficult time breathing that I went to the doctor.  He gave me a steroid shot, prescribed me a week's worth of oral steroids, an antibiotic, and an inhaler.  He told me the steroids would attack the asthma and I should be better within the day. 

But, I just continued to get worse.  I finished my steroids and was still struggling for breath.  I could hardly function.  I didn't sleep because I would stay up with asthma attacks all night long.  The most sleep I had was when I propped my pillows up and "slept" sitting up.  Even then, it was only about two hours a night.  The rest of it was spent coughing and struggling for air.

So, it was back to the doctor.  They took a chest x-ray.  Pneumonia.  Fabulous.  It was a significantly large mass in the lower quadrant of my left lobe.  He was so concerned by how big it was that he wanted me to come back in four weeks once the pneumonia had cleared to check for a tumor.  That wasn't very comforting news.

Best part is we were scheduled to leave for San Diego in three or four days.  I could hardly breathe and was very very tired.  I didn't know how this was going to work.  The doctor told me to sleep, rest, sleep, take it easy, and rest some more.  Yeah right.  Did he forget I was a mom?  What I did was far from restful.

There was no resting for me and pretty soon we were on the road to Arizona and San Diego for Roland's rugby tournament.  I was hopeful as I was beginning to feel better.  Lucky for me, I did pretty well.  I had one really rough night that resulted in a terrible spasm that practically paralyzed my entire left side.  We almost ended up in the emergency room that night, but I waited it out and didn't have any problems after that.

A few weeks later my pneumonia had cleared.  I returned for my follow-up x-ray and the doctor informed me that all was clear.  Great news.

Then we have Thursday July 14.  The Saturday before I had woken up feeling like I had a sunburn across my shoulder and collar bone.  I thought it was strange because I couldn't see any burn.  By Sunday I had what looked like a pimple appear in the same general area.  I thought it was strange.  By Monday night it looked like two or three.  Roland told me it looked more like a spider bite.  That creeped me out a bit.  Wednesday it was now looking like five spots and was really beginning to hurt.  I had a burning sensation and stabbing pain.  Thursday morning I called the doctor and they told me to come in so they could have a look.

The doctor looked at me for not even two seconds and pronounced, "It's shingles."  I would have loved to see my face when he told me that.  I about fell out of my chair.  "Shingles?!!!!" I said.  I am thinking to myself...that is an old person's disease.  How in the world do I have shingles?

I think he sensed my utter bewilderment and proceeded to tell me that he sees it a lot in young women with children.  "It's the stress" he told me.  Well that is just hunky dory now isn't it?  Funny thing is that it really isn't the children that stress me out that much.  Roland has been so swamped with summer school that the pressure of all of that has me more stressed than anything.  Looks like I need to learn how to chill.

So, I was sent on my way with another round of steroids.  Oh joy.  I really don't care for that stuff.  He told me that I needed to take it to avoid any permanent nerve damage from the shingles.  I was also sent with an antiviral and was told to again - rest.  Yeah right.

I was very fortunate to have caught it soon enough that I really didn't get hit that hard.  The antiviral stopped it from spreading so it was confined to just that small spot under my right collarbone.  The pain spread across my shoulder and into my arm and back but it was tolerable.  The steroids took care of the pain within a day or so though.

I was feeling pretty lucky and figured I had beat this thing when on Wednesday the 20th I got slammed with the "post viral fatigue."  I was pretty much rendered useless.  I woke up and couldn't move.  I gathered enough energy to plop myself onto the couch and let the kids jump on me all morning.  I think I got them breakfast, but really don't know.  I was a mess.  Not to mention, the steroids had me eating like a horse.  I could not pound enough food in a day to keep me satiated.  I was retaining water and was an overall mess.

Eventually that also did pass.  I still have the outbreak on my chest but figure over time that will slowly go away.  I am crossing my fingers that I am in the clear.

Then there is round three.  Friday night (July 22) I was sitting on the couch when suddenly the underside of my forearm started itching.  I looked down and I watched as they both started to swell and turn red.  I soon developed little pinprick spots all over the underside of my arm.  It itched and burned incessently.  I was trying to think of anything I touched, ate, etc.  I rubbed some anti-itch cream, took some benadryl, and went to sleep.  By morning it was still slightly irritated but had pretty much gone down.  I could still see the pinprick spots though.  They just weren't as prominent.  I went through my day not thinking much of it. 

Then, Saturday night the same thing happened.  They became more pronounced and I had an unbearable itch.  I started thinking it was maybe from the shingles.  But, that didn't make sense.  It didn't look like shingles and shingles stays to one side of the body.  Heat rash?  No, didn't look like heat rash.  Hives?  No, they were too small for hives.  I started an internet search.   What did I find?  It appeared to me to be a classic case of scabies.  Scabies?!!!!  I about died.  If you don't know what scabies is, they are little mites that burrow into your skin and lay eggs.  Bleh!  I freaked and refused to look at my arms.  I sat on the couch in total and utter panic.

I was trying to figure out how in the world that happened.  I knew that Tuesday one of my piano students kept scratching his entire body every two seconds.  I started to think maybe he gave them to me.  Then I read that you usually don't see signs of the infestation until 4 weeks after exposure.  Well, the timing didn't add up for that one.  I have no idea where this would have come from.

Roland was a hero and at 12:30 at night ran out to Walgreens and picked up some medication.  All they had was the lice shampoo (it has the same ingredients that we needed).  So, I spread the shampoo over my entire body and had to let it sit on there for 8-14 hours.  Roland did the same and I put it on the kids when they woke up too. 

I still have no idea if it was actually scabies but after that the pinprick spots slowly went away.  The bottle said it would take about a week.  It has now been four days and they are pretty much completely gone.  So, who knows.  I would rather not think about it.  Grosses me out beyond belief.

So, that is my set of three.  I really hope I am done.  I am tired and need a break.  My HSA needs some time to recover too!  After all, it's summer!  I would hate to see what winter has in store!