Pneumonia

So, after taking a 5 day round of Zpac as well as the cough/cold med, I was no longer throwing up and no fever... which may have been because I was alternating Tylenol and Motrin.  However, it was NOT masking the pain in my right side!
I was in such pain!  I was taking hot steam baths daily... even getting up in the middle of the night to soak... to help relieve the pain.  The pain wasn't just in one spot... it was in my ribs... from top to bottom with the bottom hurting more when I'd cough or anything like that.  I was putting Icy-Hot stuff on it and it reacted and got really hot and helped somewhat.
We really had no idea what was going on.  Jeremy thought I may have pulled a muscle in my chest from coughing or perhaps even fractured a rib.  I had no idea.  I couldn't bend over; pain.  Laying down wasn't helping.  No position was without pain.  And shortness of breath.

On Nov. 21st, Jeremy came home from work bc he was worried about me and we went to Urgent Care again.  This time, the wait wasn't so long.  I cried on the way there... I guess I was afraid of what I'd hear.  You have to understand, I don't get this kind of sick.  My kind of sickness is colds, allergies, and a handful of flu or flu-like symptoms; Mostly colds and sore throats.

I cried in the waiting room... and again, for those that don't know me, I'm not one of those girly girls that cry. I cry more now since having children... but, still not a crier... I guess we waited for an hour to be called in.

The Dr. recognized me (I had been there Nov. 9th) and I told him what was going on.  I told him of the pain and he tried pinpointing it but, there's multiple areas where it hurts; I guess the worse spot was on my lower ribs.  He got a nurse to come in and give me a shot in my upper butt for pain.  This time he sent me to get a X-ray.  The lady who took them (2 of them, front and side) took the slide out, put it in this machine which began to show it on a large screen.  It was reading the x-ray from right to left.  She asked me if I had taken a deep breath and held it.  I told her I did as much as I could... and she's thinking we may have to take another one bc I didn't inhale.  But, as it goes to my left side, you can see black space; which meant there was air there.  She says that it looks like I did inhale now and perhaps I have pneumonia.  She calls the Dr. in and he starts asking her if it looks like I have nemo or something like that.. she nods... so, he tells me that I may have this nemocromosis or however its said/spelled.  So, of course, I have NO idea what he's talking about and he tells me that means a collapsed lung!!!  I immediately start crying... which is awful because of the excruciating pain on my right side.  So, we walks me back to the little exam room Jeremy's waiting for me in and tells him.  He says for us to wait a minute while he consults someone else.  Well, not much time passes before he opens the door and tells Jeremy to bring me immediately to the emergency room at Opelousas General!!!  I cry again.  He tells Jeremy that he's calling ahead and they'll take us once we get there.

It's not a long drive, so, we're there in a few minutes.  And yes, I was taken in within a couple of minutes to pre-admit.  The lady there asks me a few questions, takes blood pressure and temperature and gets a wheelchair for me to get wheeled into an exam room (#5).

A nurse, Sara, comes in and starts getting my blood pressure, oxygen levels, and temperature.  Of course, questions are asked.  Doctor Patrick Gillespie comes in and asks questions as well.  While I'm talking to him, Sara is putting a hemp-lock on me.  She draws blood and forgets to close it off and blood's pouring out of my left arm... LOL  I had no idea until Jeremy said something.  It was kind of funny.  Big area of blood on the gurney and drops of my blood on the floor.  She closes it off, rushes to the sink to clean herself up and clean my arm up.  She didn't even have gloves on... good thing I'm clean, huh?

So, they get my blood and urine as well as vitals.  Order another set of x-rays because they said their machine is much better than Urgent Care because it needs to be... since they're a hospital and all.  I have no problem with that.  So, I walk to the x-ray area with 2 nurses and I'm feeling better, not so much pain because of that shot I was given at Urgent Care.  I think I'm able to take a deeper breath.  They take the 2 x-rays and walk me back to my room.

While waiting for them to examine the x-rays, they're telling us that I'm going to have to get admitted!  And get a tube stuck in my back to drain the fluids and hope my lung expands again!  Again, more crying... this is the day before Thanksgiving!!!  Jeremy had already planned on cooking!  Cherie was coming up; her youngest two girls (8 & 10) were already at our house.  Not to mention the fact that I have no insurance.  The ER will cost us enough... imagine a few days' stay at the hospital!!!  I couldn't stop crying.

Meanwhile, I'm given a breathing treatment.  Afterwards, Sara comes back and opens the hemp-lock and gives me a steroid shot, antibiotic shot, and hooks me up to an antibiotic drip that lasts an 1½ hours!  She said it has to go slow because of how potent it is.

I'm actually feeling much better by then... my pain has decreased so much!

We're in the ER for like 6 hrs!  In that time, both of our phones have died.  Jeremy had been texting my family about what was going on with me... they were all on pins & needles.  Some, who had no plans to come up, would have changed their plans to be with me if I required hospital stay.

Thankfully, after the drip was over, the Dr. comes in and says that their x-ray was much better and it looks like pneumonia.  WHEW!!!  NOT a collapsed lung!  OMG, I was so relieved!  He said there's fluid around my lung and that's causing the pain and shortness of breath because my lung can't expand.  I think he said its consolidated fluid... and that he's going to prescribe some stuff to help me manage it at HOME!!! Yay!!!

So, I get to go home!!!  Hip hip hooray!!!

From the ER, we drive to Wal-Mart.  I stay in the van while he puts in my prescriptions.  They say it'll be about half an hour... which isn't bad at all!  The 'scripts say "no substitutions".  Then we drive home; finally!  Oh, yeah, Calista was at home with not only Wyatt & Ursula, but, also Sophia and Olivia as well as our neighbor's son, Kameron (he's a year younger than Calista).  We didn't think we'd be gone for so long... But,  Jeremy texted our neighbor and told him what was up and if he could go and check in on them until we got home.  My kids are told to stay in the house and no cooking if they're left with Calista (who's almost 14 yrs old).  They listen.  They played MineCraft the whole time we were gone! LOL

We get home, everyone's fine :)  Happy to see us... wondering why we took so long!

My meds:  Levaquin (levofloxacin) - Oral 500 mg tablet  1 a day 10 tablets ($100!!!)
                 theophylline anhydrous (Theo-24) - oral 300 mg capsule, extended release 24hr  1/day for 28 days. ($75!!!)
                 Mucinex (guaifenesin) - oral 600 mg tablet extended release  1 tablet every 12 hrs for 30 days
                 Albuterol Sulfate - via nebulizer every 4 hrs   7 boxes!  That's 525 little vials!
                 Motrin as needed (regular otc) 200 mg

So, as of today, everything seems to be going well!  My pain levels went from 10 (max) to about a 2!  I need to stay inside.  Yes, I tested it out and ended up coughing 20 minutes (which still hurts) both times! :-(  I can't do much activity at all or I end up being short breathed.  It really sucks because I have shopping to do for both Christmas and two of my kids!!!  I guess it'll be online shopping for all!  Oh, while I sit here typing, I've got a heating pad on my back... helps a good bit.

Follow up... Dr. would like me to do a check-up after the antibiotics run out... for another x-ray to see if I'm good.  I need to find a doctor... ha ha  I'm trying to get in with the Port Barre Family Practice place since its so close and I've already brought Wyatt & Calista there before.  Figured it would be good for us, as a family, to go to the same place, right?

Oh, and what also sucks?  Is that I finally was able to go red (been wanting to since the summer) and bought some cool, black leather riding boots and haven't been able to really enjoy neither!!!  argh! lol

Being sick isn't fun.  Life lesson though.

End of the Year... Already??? OMG

I just can't believe how FAST this year has flown by!!! geez

My baby, my son, Wyatt will be 4 yrs old soon!!! And I'm sooo enjoying him!!! hehehe He cracks me :) He's too cute :D And being that he'll be 4 this month, I came to the realization that this has been the LONGEST time I've gone without being pregnant ever since I started having sex! lol WOW! hehehe

Ursula will be 7 this month too! Lil Ms. Bossy... ha ha ha She's doing really well in 1st grade.

I haven't even planned a bday party for them :( I'll probably just end up baking 2 cakes here for them... no biggie.

I've been using Jeremy's laptop for the last couple of weeks because something went wrong with my desktop :( I swear, everytime anyone else besides the people who live here, gets on my PC (every computer I've ever had), something happens and usually I end up having to format. It happened again... for the first time on this computer... see... I wasn't letting anyone use... I know, I probably sounded so much like a bitch... but, really, every one of my siblings has at least one laptop... so, really, no need to use mine. Well, in October, we had everyone here. My sister & her family from Georgia came in along with my sibs and mom from Houma/Thibodaux/Raceland all spent time at my house... we planned a birthday party at the local ice skating rink for the two 10-yrs old (Calista & Soleil). And even while they were still here, my PC started acting funny. Like taking forever to go through my pictures (on my hard drive) when usually it zips through them. And that progressed to other areas... severe lag... then, soon after that, it started showing errors and it shut down Windows, then the cursor would stop and control + alt + delete wouldn't work right... it would bring up another error... and then the only thing to do was to just shut it down.

So... after trying to figure it out via scans (mostly wouldn't finish any of them before it would shut down on its own), I decided I needed to get my pictures off. Generally, I had approximately 20 minutes to do stuff on my computer before it would freak out. So, I took the two usb drives I had and would transfer pics from my computer to Jeremy's. I also noticed that if I turned my computer back on right away, it wouldn't work right... its like it had to cool down for a couple hours... so, with over 35 gigs of pics on my PC (that's NOT counting the ones I had on my other computers that are saved to disc already), it took me quite a few days to get. I finally was able to buy a 1TB external hard drive and finish the process. (Able to buy because Jeremy had a gift card from Ryan Energy from last year that I couldn't figure out how to use... I registered it and all but it would never go through when I tried to purchase stuff... so, I just, pretty much, forgot about it until recently... because after a year, the card {Chase gift card} starts taking money out every month... so, I finally called the number on the back of the card - hadn't before because I loathe talking to foreign people in customer service? why? because I have a hard time understanding them!!! Anyways, I called, it was automated! woohoo! And YES! My card was finally activated!) So, to get back to my story.... hahahaha I finally was able to format my computer!

I was so happy while it was doing its job... anticipating being able to use it again! Play my games (Sims 3... lol) and have a bigger screen, a mouse, no touchpad that did crazy things bc my fingers accidently drag or touch it... etc.

Well... it was working... I put in my inital stuff... it had to start over... I noticed how long it was taking but just thinking maybe this was usual for the initial process. hmmm.... apparently it wasn't because guess what???? Errors came up and failure to boot showed up!!! OMG!!! I was soooo pissed! Every time I've ever formatted my computers, its always worked!!! ALWAYS!!! WTF???

Jeremy had already suggested our hard drive must be corrupt. And I'm sorry to say this, but, he's usually right... lol He has this intuition thing because when he gets a feeling, he's usually right or close to the target.

So, after formatting didn't work, he said it again... its our hard drive... something's wrong with it.

Well, thankfully, we have a computer tech neighbor and Jeremy went talk to him Monday night. He said he'd work on it and get running again and get it back to us by this weekend! woohoo! We will probably have to buy another hard drive... but, c'est la vie, huh? He also told Jeremy it could have been a firmware problem (we haven't talked to him since he's had it)... said that sometimes, we give viruses to our computers without realizing it... with other stuff... such as cell phones. And you know, while my family was here, we had at least 3 different cell phones connected to it... to charge them because the chargers were either forgotten at home or just in the car and they didn't feel like getting them. He said that could definitely have been the problem.

Just so you know... Jeremy has helped this neighbor in the past, with his vehicles... so... it evens out :D

Yes, I know that was boring to read! lol But, it was for my own benefit... to jot that down for future reference... I have such a terrible memory... which is the reason for the plethora of pictures, videos, and blogs.

On the homefront...!

Jeremy & I have had our best year ever (I believe)! Its amazing the changes he's made and kept!!! He stopped all alcohol and hasn't had any in at least 6 mths... no hard liquor in a year! He's more laid back. He's helping more around the house with chores, cooking, and children (hey... 3 C's! lol). He's interacting with the children WAY more in positive ways.

And when I say he's helping with chores... I'm not saying he's doing major things because, obviously he works and I don't... so, he shouldn't have to do much.... but, little things... like not leaving his clothes in the living room... and taking out the garbage once in a while... he's been cooking more but really, I don't see that as a chore because he LOVES to cook.... hahaha really he does. And he's good at it.

Jeremy & I both have unlimited texting and data on our cell phones... so, we text each other all day. He calls me on his breaks and for lunch. He's on facebook too but he isn't very active. He's taking compliments people give me MUCH better and he'll comment afterwards... hahaha Its funny :D

Another thing... we dressed up for Halloween along with the kids... we went to his brother's house and the kids trick or treated out there :D His brother and sil also dressed up :D We had a good time :) It was a first for us.... sometimes, Jeremy wouldn't even come to the house with us in the past! This time, we all walked together!



We're doing sooooo much better! A year ago, I thought it was truly over. I saw no hope for us/our family. I only saw it getting worse and worse... as it had been over the course of 11 yrs we'd been together. But, as we approach our 13th year, things are better than ever. :D woohoo Hip hip harray!

Oh, going back to neighbors... our neighbor also apologized for her behavior two years ago and said we showed her what it was to be charitable and she left crying. We, of course, forgave her and I gave her hug. We haven't really spoken since... but, at least that weight has been lifted and its okay again between us.

About our neighborhood... we live in one of 4 rent houses. We keep hearing talk about our landlord wanting to sell a couple of them. We hear this from his son, who lives across from us and from a neighbor behind us. If he gives us a good enough price, we may buy. If we do, Jeremy's gonna have to add-on to this house! And we'll have to give it a makeover!

In just 3 more paychecks, Jeremy's garnishment will be over! woohoo! That's been 25% of each check, each week for a year! With that garnishment gone, we'll be able to save up for a down payment for our own place (if we don't get a good price for this house). We'd like to get a doublewide. I know the common thought about them... but, really... they're very nice. And in this area of world, they have to be built even stronger/better because of the hurricanes we get. To those of you who aren't familar with how doublewides look nowadays... you should really go check them out! There's some really beautiful ones out there! And to make the outside look better, we may have my brother-in-law, Shane, brick up the front... Also add a covered porch, and a flower garden, nice driveway, and you have yourself a good-looking doublewide!

Anyways, things are looking up :D Like I told Jeremy, I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel now! woohoo!