Why I Dropped Off the Face of the Earth

I got sick of blogging...

... No, seriously, for those that haven't already heard the story ...

On Saturday, 12 April, I went to the baptism of my nephew Morgan Hansen. It was a wonderful service and our family met together at Iggy's near South Towne Mall for lunch afterward.

The food was alright; nothing to blog about... but we went home and that evening I started getting achy all over my body and nauseous. My first reaction was, "Crap, I got food poisoning from Iggy's!" ... and I took it easy the entire night hoping to ride out the effects with minimal discomfort/damage.

I woke up Sunday with the nausea gone, but the aches remained. I went to Church and decided I was just going to roll with the aches in hopes they'd go away soon.

I reported to work Monday still aching. I started developing a cough; which at first seemed harmless, but with each passing day got worse until I was sounding like a chain smoker.

By Wednesday, I was aching and coughing so bad, I decided mid-afternoon that I'd go to the Instacare after work and find out what on Earth was wrong with me. By the time I made it home, I slumped down on the couch and started feeling cold.

It turns out I'd now developed a fever to compliment the aches and cough. Gwen called her parents (thank you so much!) to come watch the kids while she drove me to the Instacare.

The doctor was very kind and quickly discovered that I had Bronchitis induced by Influenza Type-B.

Now, let me the explain the irony here, cause it's a kicker... I have refused to get flu shots for years, because the first time I got one, I got dang sick from it. I swore I'd never do one again. However, this past year was different. I was so worried about our twins being delivered near RSV season, that I got one in hopes of protecting them some through their first winter.

So... we made it through the winter with no apparent signs of flu... but come April, I was screwed. The other kicker... the shot for that year didn't cover Influenza Type-B; so it didn't matter anyway!!! (Anger ensues...)

It gets worse. The doctor told me that had I come in within 72 hours of feeling symptoms, they could have killed the Influenza with "Tamiflu." Well, I WOULD HAVE gone in, but doctors always tell you to wait like 10 days before coming to see them when you have a cough. Here I had just missed the 72 hour mark, so was forced to ride it out.

So that was Wednesday night. By the next Tuesday, it evolved into full-blown Pneumonia in my right-lung, lower lobe. All I could do was breathe shallow to try to avoid incessant cough attacks that I swear were going to invert my torso structure. Many times I was near meeting my lungs and intestines. I coughed so hard, I pulled muscles I never knew I had.

When I went to my real doctor and was diagnosed with the Pneumonia; by the end of the visit, I had to just sit on the bed with hands on my knees, head bowed barely able to hold myself up. The doctor said, "Are you going to be alright?" and felt quite bad for my condition.

He monitored me very closely and did all he could to make this the least of an uncomfortable ride as possible (which is pretty much IMPOSSIBLE.) He was very good, though and I'm grateful for his help.

So, I continued to work, but via telecommuting for the rest of the week. While at home, I avoided everyone (especially the twins) and pretty much stayed in bed when I wasn't sitting at the computer working. The next week, I was in such bad shape, I couldn't even get out of bed. I would muster up enough strength to shower on some days, but by the time I was finished, my day's energy was spent and it was all I could do to get dressed again and get back to the bed.

Needless to say, I took that entire week off work.

The next week I decided to try the telecommuting thing again, still very weak and coughing up the lungs. We had a deadline to hit, so I felt obligated and didn't want to leave my buddies hanging any longer than I had to. I was an idiot and pushed myself too hard... working til 10:00pm on the Monday at home, then trying to go in to the office the next day for our demo. By 2:00pm my head was swimming, I was short of breath and thought I would soon pass out. I drove home and was forced to work the rest of the week at home.

Even after I finally made it back to work permanently, it took another several weeks to get my voice back (for which I was mocked profusely) and the cough lingered for about as long.

I'm still not conditioned for anything very aerobic and get winded very easily. I have a slight residual cough that aggravates when the allergies are in full swing and on rare occasions my voice starts to go out around bedtime; but for the most part, I'm "back to normal."

I've never been so sick in my entire life; and I hope I never get that sick again. During the climax of what my doctor's intern referred to as a "lung injury" - I coughed so hard it not only sapped all my energy, but felt like it strained every muscle in my torso. Just when I thought I couldn't possibly cough anymore... my body was spastically seize into a frenzy. It hurt so bad, I was near praying for death.

Bless Gwen's heart... she informed me I wouldn't be able to leave the Earth at this time. She was so patient and understanding; and tackled a family of seven on her own the entire time, including our infant twins.

I'm so not worthy of her, nor deserve her; but am sincerely grateful the Lord saw fit to bless me to be with her. I now need to get some free time so I can plan a really killer date for her to get away from everything and escape to fun for some time. Heaven knows she more than deserves it.

Thankfully, none of the rest of my family got nailed with it either. The twins had an ear infection near the end of my bout, but it seems non-related.

So that's the state of my union. I've become so backed up on everything that I'll probably never catch up. My goal for the next post is to get some pics and potentially some video up of the kids.

Talk to you soon; and thanks for not giving up on me completely! :)