Bronchitis

Tuesday as we were heading home from the reunion in Nevada I started getting sick. My inner ears felt itchy which to me is a sign that a sore throat or cold is coming. As we drove on, my ears had that clogged feeling. Now, traveling from Nevada to Utah there are mountains, hills and canyons to drive over and through, which means altitude changes. Normally, your ears will feel clogged and you just have to swallow or something to adjust the pressure in your ears. Well, add a stuffy nose and clogged ears into that scenario.

Then throughout the rest of the week the cold gets worse. My nose is stuffy, I'm constantly blowing my nose or sniffling. Then the cough starts. I get to coughing so much I give myself headaches and a sore throat. I can feel the glands in my throat are swollen. I don't have a fever and I don't feel blah, in general. I don't have that taste that signals it is strep throat.

I skip church on Sunday, 1) because I don't want to spread my germs, and 2) I don't want to annoy everyone with my hacking cough. That night my chest feels kind of rattle-y and wheezy. Kyle hopes that I don't have pneumonia, I wonder if it is bronchitis. So, Monday I go to the doctor. I tell him all that's happened for the past week, all the meds I've taken for it, and all my symptoms. He checks my ears, my eyes, my throat (by the way, they have me wear a mask in the waiting room, and the doctor wears a mask during our visit) and he listens to my lungs. He has me do several deep breaths which sets off a coughing spasm. I told him that I didn't take any cold medicine that morning because I wanted him to see this illness in all its glory. He then said, "Oh, putting on a show for the doctor, eh?"

He didn't think I had pneumonia but probably bronchitis. He put me on a Z-Pak, which is the antibiotic azithromycin. He also put me on a narcotic cough suppressant that has hydrocodone, and he put me on a ventolin inhaler of albuterol.

Within a day, I can feel that my ears are less clogged and I can breathe better. Hopefully I am cured by the weekend because we are doing a bbq booth at a city event.