Ah, The 'Joys' of Pneumonia

If you have never had pneumonia, count yourself very lucky! I have only had it once before in my life a long time ago and was in the hospital for 11 days, but also had Septocemia with it that time. This was a much easier time of it after I got started on the Levaquin. My husband used to have it 2 or 3 times a year until they found out he has no immune system and now he gets infusions once a week (we do them at home). I woke up about 3 AM that Sunday morning, about 3 weeks ago and actually thought that I was having a heart attack, took an 81 milligram aspirin (I take one every night, so this made two), used my nitro and walked the floor and cried for almost an hour. The pain was in my left shoulder and down my arm. Finally woke my husband and called my son and it was off to ER, what fun.

When we got there, they swooped me on back and gave me an EKG, which showed (Thank God) that I wasn't having a heart attack, they drew blood and did a chest X-Ray. After a wait (seemed like hours) while still hurting, the doctor came in and honestly never used a stethoscope at all or examined me, said that he had looked at the X-Ray and it was clear, he felt my shoulder and said it was musculo-skeletal, told me to see my Orthopaedist, gave me a prescription for pain pills and sent me home. Well, I don't usually take pain pills, so I set them aside and tried to forget the pain.

The nurse at the hospital called me back about 3 hours later, said they took another look at the X-Ray and I had pneumonia and they called me in a prescription for Levaquin and told me to follow up with the doctor and I did the next day. Took one pain pill that Sunday night and it kept me awake, the others are still in the bottle. The doctor told me the pneumonia was in the right lung, couldn't understand why the pain was in the left shoulder and arm.

Well, let me tell you, it is very hard on someone like me who is so very active and is never sick to have pneumonia! Naturally I didn't want to give in but the doctor said I had to and told my husband to see that I did. It wasn't easy, but I did take care of myself, even went to bed ond day and tried to take a nap and that is something that is very foreign to me. I was told to rest after a few days and I told the person that my recliner had seen more of me at that time than it had in the past 6 months. It was so hard not to be able to work on the computer or in the yard.

When I went to get my second X-Ray about 10 days later, I went and bought 10 rose bushes and several packs of bulbs to give me an incentive to get well. And I have, went to the doctor on Tuesday and the pneumonia is gone, still have a little rattle so I am doing deep breathing exercises, but the best news is that I can do things in moderation, just listen to my body.

The sad thing is that the ground is too wet and muddy to plant my stuff and that is driving me crazy!  As I tell people, I am a gardener, not a housekeeper and the pneumonia drove me crazy and now the weather is doing the same thing. I want to dig in my yard and plant things!!