Posted 9/9/2012 3:17 AM (GMT 0)
So I felt I had been getting relief from health anxiety/hypochondria for a good long while, then BAM! I get a good dose of acute bronchitis, never been that sick from a cold before, it started around my birthday of all things too, July 15th, all started off with a urinary tract infection AND yeast infection which I never get. So of course I kept thinking the uti was going to my kidneys and I would die, and that I would never get rid of the yeast infection, and it would spread up to my uterus and then through my body.. *shudder* anyway, I got over both just about at my birthday, THEN I felt a slight cold coming on, but I took my vitamins and such like normal and figured it would pass like all others... not at all, by the 20th I started to get a cough, then by the next day the 21st it was a really bad cough, felt like I needed to constantly clear my throat and upper lungs, other than that I felt normal, by the 24th, it got to where I couldn't stop myself from coughing constantly, everyone told me, "you're fine, don't worry about it" but, something told me I better go to the ER, so I do, and find out I have bronchitis, they took an x-ray and I didn't have pneumonia thank god, they put me on a 5 day course of some antibiotic and a 7 day course of prednisone, along with an albuterol rescue inhaler. I work with these things for a few days and it started to get worse, felt as thought I couldn't catch my breath and wasn't getting enough air, so I go back, they give me another x-ray, all is still clear, and then they put me on a nebulizer every 6 hrs. of albuterol and bromide which is a steroid too, well after all this stuff, I hadn't been able to sleep, wasn't able to sleep laying down for sure, so I started to sleep sitting up, or try to sleep, at the worst I hadn't slept in 3 days in a row and barely ate, no appetite, so I finally GO BACK cause I still felt as though I was getting worse, my sats were at 94, and they are normally at 100 for me, the doctor was really short with me cause I kept asking questions and explained that I hadn't slept in 3 days, she felt I was overly worried and needed to see a counselor, I agreed to talk to one from the hospital, I explained to her, I'm sick, I haven't slept, my anxiety is super high cause I'm on steroids and other meds that are amping me super up, she feels that I'm also over reacting, *boggle*, so anyway, the Dr. comes back in and prescribes me something for sinuses and codeine cough meds to help me fall asleep, she also wants me to go to a crisis center afterwards and speak to them, I say "okay" and go ahead to the crisis center, I meet the lady there, explain to her whats going on, she looks at me and is shocked that they felt I was over reacting, with the lack of sleep, and not being able to breathe very well.
Anyway, I go home, take the cough meds, finally fell asleep and slept as much as possible, I start to get better very slowly, and basically take about 3-4 weeks to get over the constant cough, but I don't feel fully well, I could hear and feel rumbles in my lower lungs for a few days when I was finally getting better, which the Dr. said was totally normal, no worries, so I just figure its normal and after a quick Dr. Google search, I read others who did the exact same thing, so I think I'm in the clear, only to start losing my voice a week or so later, mind you this has been going on for about 4-5 weeks at this point, so I go to another hospital in the area cause I feel the other one was getting tired of me lol, and they seem to care a whole lot more, and recommend an ENT in the area, after putting me on augmentin, so, I get into the ENT about 5 days after the hospital visit, my voice at this point is ssssssssslowly getting better, I see him and the first thing he does is feel my throat and says "oh you have a nodule on your thyroid, 90% of people have this and its usually benign, have you ever had problems with it?" I reply no, and explain that my voice is giving me the trouble, he has a look at my throat and sinuses and ears, then says, well you have probably rhinusitis and post nasal drip, which is probably causing your hoarseness, then suggested to take augmentin for at least another 10 days for a total of 20 days, to help it all along, also, he gave me a neti pot to help clear out my sinuses.
While there I explain to him that since I started taking the augmentin, about 3 days into it, I started to get what feels like, rumbling in both lower lungs, and each day sort of gotten worse, at first it was when I was laying down, then it was when I took in a really deep breath, only when breathing in, not breathing out, he said that wasn't normal and probably something to see a pulmonary doc about etc. but, after having bronchitis he wasn't alarmed much and figured it was part of the process, so he schedules another meeting in 2 weeks or 3 weeks, and I have an apt. with him on the 17th of September, now, all this time, its been 10 days or so, I STILL have that rumble in my lower lungs, so a few days ago, I went to the hospital FOR SURE that I now have congestive heart failure because I have pitting edema on both legs and ankles, which, I have had for about 10 years, and it gets worse the longer I sit up with my legs down, I've been told by many docs that its from weight and having my son years ago, since then is when it started and I've had no troubles with it, it just happens when I sit for a long period, SO NOW I feel like the rumble in my lungs is water on the lungs, and my edema on the legs is part of it, since I Dr. Googled it all again and read about people having asthma to having the same type of rumbles with allergies and rhinusitis, which I was happy with, until I read a few posts saying thats how their congestive heart failure started, so now, I'm still totally freaking out about it, as its been at least 10 days or so since this new rumble started and its not going away.
*scared out of my wits*
:(