So, since I last wrote on February 15th, I just published it today, I have been really, really, really ill. My guy was visiting President’s Day weekend which was our Valentine’s. We went to dinner and went to the ballet and all seemed dope. But that Sunday, he started getting really sick. So I spent that Sunday night and that whole day Monday because we were all out of school and work, cleaning and organizing and caring for ML. So that Tuesday, I went to work and I started to get chills and I could not stop coughing and I suddenly felt like I could not hold my head up. So, the tables turned. Before, I was taking care of ML. Before he got on the bus to head back to his city, he started to care for me. That was 15 days ago!!!!

Since then I have been through hell. I spent the rest of that week of the 19th, super ill. On the 24th, my guy came back to town and took me to Urgent Care. I went there barely able to talk, breathe without coughing, eat or exist and I left there with effing Sudafed and these useless Tessalon Pearl cough meds. I was so angry that after 2 hours and unneeded x-rays and test for flu and pneumonia, the plump and idiotic southern doctor, literally prescribed me over the counter B.S. !!! I was so rude to the doctor and told her how I wasted my time and that they did not help me at all. Not to mention that I spent 60 on the appointment and meds. My guy looked at me like he didn’t get it and he was resisting what I was saying and acting as if I was being unreasonable. It wasn’t his fault, he actually thought the doctor had a freaking brain and was perhaps there to aid and help.

NOT! This lady was a fat blubbering mass of platitudes and nothing else. She didn’t offer steroids. You don’t think I have an infection? Fine. No antibiotics. I get it. But steroids! They would have helped me. When someone cannot breathe due to coughing incessantly for 4 days, steroids are a moron’s place to start. I was so sick and so angry, that I didn’t bring it up. I also did not ask for a breathing treatment. During one of my many steam sessions in the bathroom over the next 24 hours, it hit me that it may be my allergic asthma and that a breathing treatment may be in order. Around 6 pm on the 25th, my knight took an Uber to the bus, I was just that sick, and I cried as he left because I had not improved one bit. I had already missed a week of work and I couldn’t care for my kid.

So, in the middle of the  night, I called Kaiser and asked for an appointment the next morning. They had none and put me on a list. And I woke again at 7 am and called again, and alas, they had one in my neighborhood. So, I mustered every ounce of energy I had and drove the 1.5 miles to the facility. I took baby steps into the building and even had people ask me if I needed help. I made sure to almost hyperventilate as I was speaking to show the gravity of my medical situation. I knew that if they thought I could not breathe that they would move me to a room with a breathing machine and that I would not have to wait in the lobby. Was I super sick and pale and weak? Yes, was my breathing so bad that I could not speak? Not 100 percent. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

So, when they took my b.p. in this private lab area, it was at almost 140 over 90.  My normal pressure is 95/65 or 100 or 80. I kept breathing rapidly and in a shallow fashion so that they would take notice. The doc’s office was packed, but this dear doc came back to the lab so that I would not have to come to her. She ordered 3 breathing treatments, a steroid shot, 7 days of steroids, an antibiotic and 2 inhalers and allergy medicine. Quite a freaking difference from effing Sudafed and some lame a– cough pills, hmmmm???? She put down on the paper that I had bronchiospasms. And though I could not stop coughing, truly, I am not sure how effective those breathing treatments really were, but the nurses swore I had color in my cheeks again. I sat for 30 minutes afterwards and ambled to get the rx’s.

That was last Monday the 5th of March. If I had not had the smarts to not take that B.S. that the UC doc gave me the Saturday before, I would be hospitalized, possibly on i.v.’s and with pneumonia as I type. How could a doc get it so wrong? They are so busy with this government propaganda of forcing flu shots on everyone, but they aren’t really helping anyone! I have friends in the profession who are brainwashed with the no antibiotic thing and to make everyone get the flu shot, and they themselves have the flu and have had the shot. And they and their family members have been sick since Christmas because of what crap one of these government agencies is peddling at this time. What has happened to the Hippocratic oath? What has happened to common sense medicine or just compassion?

Whether you are Godly or not, I know that God smiled on me when he brought this awesome Indian doctor to me last Monday. I mention her nationality, because I really appreciate people from the East and their ability to marry modern medicine with herbal remedies and their penchant for natural cures. If this lady would have not taken my word, or my body cues into consideration, I may be gravely ill as a result of untreated symptoms of whatever bacterial bug I had. I mean the asthma is still lingering, and I realize now that it started before I got the bug. I coughed almost a full 24 hours before getting sick from my guy. I think it was because of my deep cleaning and though I have never gotten this sick before from organization, the lack of normal weather on the east coast has really wreaked havoc on mine and many other allergy-laden people’s bodies.

So, besides following the doc’s orders, I spent 200 plus on an air purifier, my guy got me a vaporizer to breathe into, he also got me a personal nebulizer to give myself saline breathing treatment and I spent 150 on a carpet cleaning. The fact that I have a pet, a messy kid, carpet and indoor allergies, means that I must keep things sterile and it is something I will have to take seriously from now on. I wasn’t told this by anyone, it was a gut instinct that cleaning up this place, throughly, would help me. Within 24 hours of carpet cleaning and purifier, I was a new woman. Now granted, at that point I had been on steroids 3 days. But I am telling you that those things that i did that were not prescribed helped as much as the meds I was putting into my body. I also did ton’s of Throat Coat and Ginger tea given to me by my guy, and honey and lemon.

I know that this post may sound l ike a rant. It is. It may be incessant with put downs. Okay, I will agree with that. But I want you all to take YOUR HEALTH seriously. Don’t take a quack’s word for it. Read. Educate yourself. Go with your God-given instinct. If you don’t know what that is, what is your mind telling you to do? If it is saying to drink copious amounts of hot water with lemon and honey, go for it. God gave us a mind and an intuition and we must tap into it. Are all health practitioners evil? Dumb? Careless? Uncaring? Of course not. But they are human. They don’t know everything. I have 3 college degrees, so I am pretty sure that I am just as smart as an M.D. can I beat them at medical terminology? Probably not, but I am smart and capable and have to act on my own behalf.

I suggest that you guys take this post seriously. Share it with your spouse, your mom, your neigbhor, your bff, your kid. Take care of you. Don’t give a crap if a doc gets pissed. Your health is primarily on you these days. The govenrment doesn’t care. Doctor’s are overworked and underpaid with high turnover and malpractice suits. Try to eat kosher or organic. Use traditional meds with non-traditional ways of healing. Make herbal teas the norm rather than the cure-all when sick, like I often do. I forget what tea means until I am desperate. No more! I still have no voice right now, but at least I am not coughing so hard that I have to pee on myself. Overshare? Sorry, don’t care who this offends or grosses out. I literally thought I would never get better. I have missed 2 weeks of work. I have never done that in my life. Thank God I have enough character and a good rep so my employer’s are supportive.

Take care of you. Don’t believe the hype put out by whatever agency. Wash your hands, stay home. Don’t eat out until the masses are better. Be as clean as you can. Wash clothes regularly. Run the fan after the shower to avoid mold. Wet dust only. Wear that mask. I lost a ton of weight in less than 2 weeks because I was too ill to do anything but cough. I of course want to be small, but not that way. And naturally I have gained some back because I can eat again, but the point is, put you first and your family first. School, work and whatever else can wait. Ask for help. Text friends/acquaintances to help with carpools. Do not be proud. Just get better. And BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE.

It is a life or death matter and teach it to your loved ones because if they don’t hear it from you, they won’t realize how screwed up and ineffective our medical system is. Pharma companies are rich, meanwhile people are dropping like flies from the flu and people are sick for months at a time. This is the last time I will talk about this for a while, so please take heed. I have never been so scared about being sick in my life and it is primarily because people act like this lack of care and proper help and aid is the norm. Now that is something to really be fearful of! Thank God for my kid and guy or who knows where I would be right now…

simply~

Dee