Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Annoyed & Stewing & Thankful

I.hate.bedrest. In case you haven't heard from all my facebook statuses, I have pneumonia. I'm partially annoyed because of all that. However, I'm mostly annoyed and stewing because I've had pneumonia this entire time and a certain professional, we'll call him Dr. Certain Professional, neglected to tell me. I'm here to rant about this Dr. CP because I now have plenty of time to be annoyed and stewing and ranting. ;) Maybe I'll be of sound mind later and delete this, but alas, you have been warned: this is a rant!

It all started last week on spring break when I woke up with a sore throat, which turned into a cough, which turned into a low grade fever. Probably allergies? So I cancelled my doctor's appointment I had made last Friday. Dumb move because I woke up on Saturday with 101 fever and lungs full of yuck and had to go to urgent care and pay double to see the Dr. Certain Professional (who isn't my usual awesome doctor, Dr. Beau Meyer!) Dr. CP listened to my chest and diagnosed it as bronchitis and sent me on my way.

Saturday night was wretched. My fever was up to just about 103 and I couldn't catch my breath for anything. Sunday when I *thankfully* woke up, I went back to the doctor - and Dr. CP was still the only one there - and I requested an x-ray just to make sure it wasn't pneumonia. He was highly offended that I'd be scared of a doctor's misdiagnosis and haughtily said that I needed to give my meds some time to work. Sorry, buddy, but I know of a girl my age who just went to be with Jesus last week because of pneumonia. As much as I'd love to see Jesus face to face, there's still plenty of work to be done around here, so I want that x-ray. So Dr. CP takes my x-ray and shows me this streak of white on my lung and tells me that it's a collapsed lung and thinks it "wouldn't hurt you to be on another medicine to prevent pneumonia now." Those were his words. He writes me a prescription for Levaquin - maybe you know what that is, however I didn't. I thought it was a preventive med.

I go home and do all these breathing treatments and exercises Dr. CP told me to do, thinking I'm trying to reinflate my lung and prevent pneumonia. I make a follow-up appointment with my amazing usual doctor, Dr. Meyer, for Tuesday (yesterday).

Yesterday, I saw Dr. Meyer's precious face and told him that I had a collapsed lung and I was just here to see if I reinflated it. He takes a look at my x-ray from Sunday and says, "Girl, you you have pneumonia!" ...... what? I asked him if Dr. CP knew it was pneumonia. He did, and "that's why he prescribed Levaquin. Levaquin is the 'big guns' for pneumonia. You usually see collapsed lungs with pneumonia." .... WHAT?? Dr. CP didn't tell me I had pneumonia or any of this about that medicine. So Dr. Meyer whisks me off to get another x-ray to see if this medication is working. It is, thankfully, so I don't have to be admitted to the hospital, however I can't go back to work the rest of the week and I have to be on bedrest.

Sigh.

I have plenty to be thankful for, though. I'm thankful I'm still breathing which means I can still take part in all the work God has for us to do. I'm thankful that God gifted people with the abilities to make big gun meds like Levaquin so I don't have to go to the hospital. I'm thankful for Dr. Meyer. I'm thankful for amazingly understanding principals and co-workers who wouldn't let me in the building yesterday to fix sub plans for the rest of the week. They did the sub plans for me. Wow. I'm thankful for my mom who went with me to all these doctor's appointments - and who was a witness to Dr. CP's behavior so I know I'm not crazy! I'm thankful for my dad who makes me laugh because he's highly susceptible to pneumonia/respiratory illnesses, so he's avoiding me like the plague (I'm avoiding him too... as I'm on bedrest at my house. I don't want to give this to him - or anyone for that matter!) ;) I'm thankful for my cute boyfriend, who, when he found out I was now on bedrest for 6 more days, got me a video game to play. That made me smile because it was so randomly thoughtful. And of course, I'm thankful that my God is a healer. The Healer, who can and will do anything to set His children free.

"I run in the path of Your commands, for you have set my heart free." Psalm 119:32

1 comment:

Amanda said...

Wow! So thankful you got the correct diagnosis and that you are on your way to recovery. Rest and Relax and let your nice boyfriend take care of you :)