An Expensive Way to Find Out You have Pneumonia
Yesterday I went in for a check up because I believed I had a bad case of bronchitis, in fact I get it every year. A week prior I had woke up to a weird rattle in my chest, which I told my husband I felt like that toy in Toy Story that lost his squeaker, only mine was there and it would rattle every once in a while just not in place. I knew it wasn’t good, he insisted I had pneumonia but since I hadn’t been sick I didn’t believe that was the case, it had to be the beginning of bronchitis. Over the weekend I would get the feeling of someone putting a weight on my chest. He told me again to call it in or he would. On Monday I did but I had to wait a few days due to the times they had available.
Throughout the week my chest would get worse. The rattle was back and constant, until Wednesday night it had completely disappeared but it was replaced by phlegm and a deep cough that hurt. When I went in on Thursday I thought “great they aren’t going to hear what I hear in my lungs and think I’m some person trying to get attention.” I knew I had heard it, my kids had heard it and my husband knew that I get this every year, only I always thought it was bronchitis. The doctor checked me out and told me my lungs were clear. Clear as in no liquid at all and I just had a dry cough which could be because of the cold air lately. Really? Really? But that isn’t what concerned him at all. It was my heart rate. Gulp? Ummm, I went in for my throat/chest…a cough, nothing else.
Apparently my heart was beating as if I had just got done running a marathon, which caused him concern. Now I have no history of bad hearts, blood pressure, etc. So this isn’t normal. Knowing I had a high tolerance for pain he was worried I wouldn’t have known if I’d experienced pain in my chest (due to hurting my thumb a while back and dealing with it for months until they couldn’t fix it) Not wanting to scare me much he checked my pulse and my heard two more times during the visit before revealing he did not want me leaving the hospital until he got it down. It didn’t drop. I asked again if he was sure my lungs were clear. No they sounded fine. What had I felt all week? I could hear it during the week if I even left my mouth open, it was a weird wheezing sound. Now we were doing an EKG just to be sure. He did that three times in case it wasn’t in the right spot. Each one came back abnormal. I was starting to worry at this point. I’d been sick and I knew it but maybe it was because something really was wrong with my heart, after all it was my chest. When the EKGs came back abnormal he insisted I shouldn’t leave without doing a CT Scan to make sure my heart was okay because he thought something wasn’t working right and didn’t want something bad to happen.
Ya’ll this is the last thing you want to hear. I couldn’t reach my husband, the phone was on silent since he is normally at work. Today he was at home with our 2 yr old. I kept having these flashes of being 18 and finding out my dad had died and they’d brought him back with the zappers. This was something I’d always feared. Okay I’d get it done. Once it was done I went back up to the waiting room, waiting to hear what was wrong with my heart and hoping it wasn’t anything serious. During this time I would text a few prayer warriors to say a prayer over me. My guy from the scan walked by and whispered, I’ve got the results and just so you don’t stress “You won’t die over this but you do have something going on your doctor will tell you about.” Phew. Relief. I wasn’t going to die but now no matter what I would start taking my goals seriously. My husband and I recently talked about death and how he said I wasn’t allowed to die before him so I had to start caring for myself more. This made it all too real.
The doctor felt horrible. I’d been through everything just to find out…. I not only had bronchitis like I thought, I had pneumonia as my husband believed. He just had to resort to a really expensive and scary way to find out. I don’t know why he never heard the liquid in my lungs as he said it was obvious in the scan. I found out a few other things which I’ll be taking care of now. I guess I learned a few things in this. Always listen to yourself, you know your body better than anyone else. If you think something is wrong find out. Currently I’m housebound, my husband doesn’t want me to get sicker. Once I’m better I’ll be walking more, just not while it is cold out…since I had just started walking at night (which was what probably got me sick). The other lesson, do as much as you can with your family, time can be shorter than you think. Hopefully it’ll be longer, but you never know.
