I have pleurisy! That sounds like such an old-lady disease. I think I should start calling it pleuritis, its more formal name. It's when the lining of the lungs gets infected. It's usually viral, and in my case almost definitely so, since it follows on the heels of a cold. It's also horrendously painful at its worst and can drag on for weeks or months. You have to take anti-inflammatories to keep it under control, and on Sunday when the ibuprofen wore off, before my newly-prescribed Meloxicam kicked in, I would have sworn I had a kidney stone. I was on the verge of going to the ER to prove that the doctor's tentative diagnosis was wrong, but I decided to hang on a little longer, and it eventually subsided to a dull ache (which a kidney stone would not have). Last night I was a little more prompt about taking the second dose, but not prompt enough -- it wore off just as I was headed to the grocery store so I had a miserable shopping trip (but it never got to the kidney stone pain level). The most frustrating part is that when it starts really hurting, I can't get a deep breath (it is painful to yawn, cough, sneeze, or hiccup -- very maddening since I can't control when I have a sudden hiccup or sneeze!). And even when it is not actively painful, it is painful to breathe deeply, so I have no idea how I can exercise in any significant way. Maybe I should go back to one of my "Walk Away the Pounds" videos, because (a) those aren't exactly the most demanding tapes, especially the short walks, and (b) I can skip any part that hurts, or quit altogether if I have to.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Of course
It's Tuesday, so my weight went up a pound. It was 142.5 -- in a glance at my calendar, I'm happy to report that that's the highest I've seen in three weeks. Wait -- I'm happy that I've stayed under it for 3 weeks, not happy that I'm there now. I haven't posted in a while because there is SO nothing to report in my life -- my weight has been consistent, my eating so-so, and my exercise nonexistent. I've been sick forever. I had that cold that caused laryngitis, and when that wore off it was too chaotic for me to have time to exercise. Now that I'm back to a routine for three weeks, I'm sick again.
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3 comments:
Oh Emily, I am so sorry you are sick. I am totally sympathetic to how you are feeling. I had something like that last fall and it was so miserable. There were a few days where I really thought I was just going to die from the pain. It seemed so much simpler that way...LOL. I developed this coping mechanism for when I felt a cough coming on where I would brace my upper body and try to "swallow" the cough so it would come out shallow instead of really deep. That ultimately ended up making my back hurt, but the pain was incredible from coughing. And my blood pressure and heart rate where through the roof. It was so uncomfortable.
Try to take it easy and not worry to much about exercising and focus on healing.
Pleurisy! I didn't know anyone got that anymore. I hope you recover soon!
Since getting it I've heard of three other people who have had it (one my age, two elderly), and of course there are tons of people online who discuss their experiences with it, some of them starting in their teens. But it does sound like an old-fashioned disease, doesn't it? That's why I want to call it pleuritis instead (even though the spell checker doesn't like it as well). There's absolutely nothing you can do to cure it, unless the underlying cause is treatable, and once you have it you're prone to it. So it's one of those illnesses that's going to stick around in humans for a few more generations. Ick.
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