Random Pneumonic Thoughts While the Fever Is Only at 99

Pneumonia is a deceiver.  It lets you think you're doing better, maybe even turning the corner, and then it slams you back down.

This morning I woke up about 7:00, having slept 8 1/2 hours with only brief periods of waking up during the night, and never having to get up.  (The three nights before that I had to take showers at all hours just to get warm.)  And, I woke up - HUNGRY.  A word that has not been in my vocabulary much for the past week.  Mike fixed some scrambled eggs (even though he is sick with a cold himself), and though I could not finish them, or a piece of toast, they were good.

Then, an hour later, fever went back up to over 101 and the cough came back with a vengeance.  It's two steps forward, one and a half steps back.

Pneumonia is different than other illnesses.  The person dealing with it is quieter, just somehow sicker.  I remember when ML was very sick at age three.  I knew she was just sicker than usual and could see it in her face.  Our doctor was out of the office that day, and I told Mike we needed to take her to his brother, who practices in a city an hour and a half away.  He was unsure if that was necessary, but he was willing to do so.  Sure enough - she had pneumonia.  She was a very sick little girl.

This go-round for me is worse than last winter, when the dr. labeled it "pneumonitis/pneumonia."  I'm just sicker overall.  It reminds me of when I had pneumonia in 1983, the sickest I've ever been in my life.  Fevers above 105, 12 days in the hospital, three weeks + Christmas vacation out of school.  Had to go home to my folks' in Alabama to recuperate.  I don't feel that bad, but the pneumonia feel is more like that than a year ago.

My sister still teases me about the bag of M&Ms on my bedside table during that hospitalization.  I had asked her to bring me some, but didn't eat them.  Finally she said "Why aren't you eating those M&Ms?"  And I responded that I just felt better with them being there.  I make no explanations for such an addled response.

When you have this condition (it really isn't an illness - it's a condition of fluid in the lungs due to some underlying infection) you have to conserve energy, just to make sure you can get air in and out.  During the worst times, every breath is something you have to think about.

On Monday the doctor said minimum 5-7 days at home.  I was thinking about trying to push and go in Friday.  I've changed my mind.