I'm updating on my update. I've had this bad cough for weeks now, it's really bad. My chest hurts so much that coughing, even breathing, is painful. If I start coughing I can't stop, it just keeps on going until I'm gagging. husband has just been diagnosed with whooping cough ahd has been started on antibiotics. difficult child 3 probably DID have wqhooping cough also, he should have been on antibiotics when we first took him to the doctor (while away for easy child's wedding) but thta doctor didn't want to do anything, was insistent that difficult child 3's cough was post-viral when in fact it was getting worse and very gunky. Plus the fever was an issue, that was new. A blood test would have been a good idea, but hey - the doctor had overcrowded waiting rooms and we were strangers...
And now it looks like I have caught whooping cough, and I CAN'T take antibiotics. No treatment options.
I count back the weeks - it was two weeks ago that we had tickets to a concert and I had to miss it. I'd already been sick for a couple of weeks at that point. I don't feel any better than I did the day of the concert. OK folks, it's not just a cold then...
I see the rheumatologist next week, I'm going to ask him if I can go off prednisone, at least during winter, because I suspect I'd be fighting this bug more effectively if I wasn't on prednisone. I'm only on 4 mg a day, but I've been on it for several months now. The only good thing was, I was able to slightly reduce my strong pain medications. But I feel so sick right now that I might need to increase the pain medications to compensate.
My weight - currently about the 76 Kg mark. At my lowest, my weight was down to 73 Kg. It was still dropping when I was put on prednisone (about Easter, a bit before I think), then the weight loss slammed to a halt and began going back up. But I'm pleased - I seem to be able to hold it at about 76 Kg. I'm doing my best to keep my healthy eating habits. At the moment though, I can't drink as much water as I need to because drinking ANYTHING cold, or drinking it fast (faster than a small sip at a time) will trigger a coughing fit. And they are really, really bad. The way I feel right now, I want to go find every parent who is sooky about immunising her kids against whooping cough, and go breathe on them (the adults) to let them know WHY this is so important. Of course there are people who need to avoid immunisations (like me, from here on - although I had all my shots when I was supposed to; the ban on them is a recent one for me, since I have auto-immune problems which flare badly with immunisations) but whenever the immunisation rate drops below 65%, we get whooping cough epidemic. SO we need ENOUGH people to be immunised, to protect those of us who can't be. Who GENUINELY can't be, not simply prefer not to because 'it's not natural'. "Natural" is what I'm enduring now. Natural is the death rate we get when small babies or elderly people get diseases like this.
OK, I'll get off my soapbox now. This cough and sore chest is making me cranky and mean...
Trish, welcome to Healthy Living. We do what we can here, it's not always an easy answer. I think everyone here knows you're relatively new, you don't have to have been on the board longer than Methuselah to join in.
Marg
