Megawhine

Well I can definitively say this is the sickest I have ever felt in my entire life. Whooping cough sucks. It's not just a small cough, nagging and persistent. It's doubled over whole body wracking coughs that last a minute and make you gasp and wheeze and lose oxygen while coughing. It's exhausting, after a particularly bad episode all I want to do is sweat and cry.

Early August we had the bat mitzvah and a lot of excitement. Being immune-weak, this left me open to pick up random bugs and say HEY! How's it going?

August 11, 13 and 15 I was at the doctor having skin allergy testing done to try to determine the cause of my rash which, surprise, is autoimmune. At least it's confirmed. The doctor said they can't do anything for it except steroid creams for my arms, hands and a different one for my face. Unfortunately with autoimmune things, there's not much to be done, she said.  Ah, the autoimmune song and dance. However, I feel at this point my body was so irritated (as the thing I AM allergic to? Is the adhesive) that I was even more open to random bugs.

First symptoms noted Sunday, August 10. Just a run of the mill cold? Plus a lot of sinus pressure in the face, unusual for me. Fever.

By Thursday, August 14 I went to the doctor. I was fairly sure this had to be a sinus infection - the fever increased and didn't go away, and whereas everyone else who had a mild cold as a result of Great Wolf Lodge got better, I got worse. So I figured best be looked at.  The doctor gave me an antibiotic to start Tuesday if I wasn't better - she said wait until I'd been sick 10 days.

Monday August 18 I had a job interview (which I subsequently got the job offer and accepted, yay!).  It lasted 1 hour. I sipped tea, sucked on ten cough drops and still had three bad coughing fits during the interview, and I landed it anyway. The strain of that made me actually collapse on the floor on August 18 and I wound up at the doctor. They said walking pneumonia. They gave me prednisone and albuterol in nebulizer form, as the albuterol rescue inhaler wasn't working as I couldn't take a deep breath anymore.

Wednesday August 20 I begged my doctor for some ativan so I could sleep. The prednisone had left me with 2 hours and 1 hour 15 minutes of sleep on the prior nights. The doctor gave it to me, and I was taking the antibiotic now on top of the inhaler. They also said I should start taking a codeine-based cough syrup, not more than 48 hours because then I'd become an addict. (yes, that's what the doctor said. I go to a practice with a lot of student doctors.)

Thursday August 21 I couldn't breathe, I just couldn't. I went to the doctor AGAIN and this time he put me on mega-albuterol every 2 hours instead of every 4. He put me on a nebulized steroid to add to the prednisone. He suspected pertussis. He changed my diagnosis to whooping cough to be confirmed the next day.The nebulized steroid was the key - my wheezing and gasping turned into just horrible coughing fits, for about 8 hours after taking it. It only leaves a 4 hour gap of unable to breathe twice a day.  He also extended my prednisone but luckily, I've adapted and get 4 hours of sleep a night now pretty routinely, without the ativan. I'm monitoring for any emotional instability and aside from drama-queen weepiness, I seem OK thus far.

Friday August 22 I got some x-rays and the doctor said yes, it's whooping cough. Sadly you're going to have this for a month or more.

I'm going to go in for a follow-up today. Basically my day looks like this.

1 AM - wake up. Cough until 3 AM. Fall back asleep for a couple of hours.
Between 5 AM and 7 AM - wake up. Cough hard enough to throw up routinely now. Wheeze, gasp, albuterol, prednisone with breakfast. Any physical activity in this stage will result in throwing up. Coughing fits every 2 - 5 minutes.
9 AM -  inhaled steroid and more albuterol. More albuterol at 11 AM as well.
9 AM - 1 PM - coughing fits only about every 10 minutes or so. This is WONDERFUL and I wish it would continue. Physical activity is tolerated during this stage, when defined as getting my own damn cup of tea and taking a bath as long as someone helps me out of it. I will eat lunch in here.
1 PM - exhaustion sinks in fully, but no naps come - thanks steroids.  Let's nebulize.
Between 3 PM and 5 PM the coughing gets harder and more insistent.  Nebulize twice more. By this time, I'll be wearing the nebulizer with just moist water in it to keep my lungs from barking.
5 PM - 6 PM - dinner. Which invariably makes things worse but thanks to steroids I'm starving so I eat anyway.
7 PM - 9 PM we watch the clock until steroid time again. Lots of coughing.
9 PM - steroid!
10 PM - lay in bed and start to try to sleep because steroid has controlled cough!
11 PM - sleep.

Fairly sure I've cracked a rib already. I've coughed so hard that I have also torn a hernia - I can poke my guts back in when they pop out and hurt. I've hit my head passing out at least twice. I have to wear certain control things because tiny girl bladder can't withstand the coughing at all. There's not even a point in pretending. And I have to do this for another month?!?  I am told it will hit a convalescent stage soon where I will be able to function more normally, with major coughing fits. Which is good because I start a new job on September 8. I'm debating reaching out to them and asking if I can start a week later just to make sure I'm okay.

So if you read my whine, thank you. I needed to get this off my chest into the twisting aether.  Also, if you suspect you have whooping cough - I'm very sorry. Ask your doctor about inhaled steroids.