It's amazing what competent medical personnel can accomplish. I got another chest x-ray and medicine that I wasn't allergic too. Hooray. The diagnosis this time: pneumonia.
Oh, and, it turns out the InstaCare never sent any of the records or chest x-rays or anything to my GP to let him know I'd been. About this time I begin to think that maybe InstaCare is out to destroy the reputation of the medical practice one patient at a time, but the more realistic side of me realizes that they are very busy and probably just forgot.
I had to wait a few days for the results of the chest x-ray, but my doctor was fairly certain that it wasn't going to be "just fine" and it wasn't. I had a shadow in one of my lungs. My doctor gave me even more, stronger, antibiotics and told me to stay home the rest of the week.
Yay, a whole week off before Christmas, I just wish I was feeling well enough to actually do something.
Eventually I am able to breath again and I return to the most excited faces of children. My return was triumphant, you'd have thought I was the president the way they acted. I was bigger than the upcoming holiday!
Granted, I only went back to work for a week because then it was Winter Break.
The holiday comes and goes. I'm still all kinds of achy and most mornings I have to psych myself up before attempting to move from my bed. I am also literally living on aspirin. I just assume that it's the lingering effects of the pneumonia.
I survived until my pulmonologist appointment at least, and if it wasn't for this lady being very curious I probably would have self-denialed myself to an early grave.
She did yet another chest x-ray, low and behold the shadow has grown bigger, not smaller. I have a tiny little tree growing in my lung, which is cool, but also not cool in so many ways. She has me walk around and notices my general stiffness.
Here I must pause and address the fact that almost a year prior to this episode I had to have some scar tissue removed from my sinuses and my ENT Dr. sent me to a rheumatologist to try and figure out how it happened (the discovery of the scar tissue episode will be posted at a later date) but the results of the tests were inconclusive.
Back to the current rambling story: The pulmonologist decides that she should run some blood tests, just to be on the safe side.
Here comes another gorey bit, though. Her resident vampire is not very good at her job. I have difficult veins to begin with, but this person did not believe me. They never do, much to my pain and suffering. She infiltrated the vein in the back of my hand, meaning, she stuck the needle completely through my vein. It was very painful, but she didn't move it because she was getting blood into the vile.
Now, I'm not saying that it was the infiltrated vein or was a result of what I later turned out to actually have, but my hand ballooned up to the size of, well, I don't know what exactly but it was huge. Looking at my red, swollen and very bruised hand was like looking at some deranged, hybrid fruit. You couldn't see the bones in the back of it, even the fingers were swollen. I couldn't move it at all and there was intense pain and suffering, which caused me no short amount of whining and a spilled tear or two or maybe lots. Fortunately, Loretab took my it all away.
Much too soon, the holiday break is over and I go back to work. I haven't heard anything from the pulmonologist, so I don't think much of it. Of course, I now can no longer wear my own shoes, my feet and legs are too swollen. This is nothing, I can handle it, I tell myself.
Thursday I get the phone call: The results are..........
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