@gina I am compelled to comment because this has been me for weeks . At my third doctor appointment, they finally did a blood panel. Turns out, I have mono. FFS.
@gina I just had this illness from hell. I did my best to work from home until I hit that level of sickness that made being vertical terrible. It started with a cough and my throat feeling like I was up all night gargling razor blades and then I was feverish for 6 days. I went to the doctor in the middle of this and got an inhaler which helped my cough a little and then when the fever wouldn't quit my six-year-old caught it and immediately started with the cough, fever and ear infection.
I went to the doctor again because I was having trouble breathing and was sent for a chest x-ray which found pneumonia. I've never had any breathing issues before let alone pneumonia. I had to check my birth certificate and make sure I was, in fact, not 85 years old. Two antibiotics later I'm finally keeping my pulse ox above 90% and back at work.
If you have any breathing issues take another trip back to the all-knowing male doctor.
@colbyjames So real question. Did your lungs sound like Rice Krispies? Because when I breathe out it sounds like pop rocks and I can’t take deep breathes.
@gina They did, especially when I was lying down. I had to do a ZPack antibiotic and then amoxicillin on top of that. I just finished the two 5-day courses yesterday. If you have a pulse ox keep and eye on it!
@colbyjames Yes! I had a similar thing back in Nov.
amoxicillin 5 day course didn’t do it, what knocked it out was a combo of Z pack and Augmentin together for 10 days (first 5 only for Z pack, 10 days for augmentin). Plus regular nebulizer treatments and 2 inhalers (I also have asthma).
@gina Yeah, you definitely have what we in healthcare (health care professional turned med tech professional who actually makes stethoscopes for lung sounds) call either crackles or rhonchi … Rice Krispies is a great description for them!!! Well done! It sounds like they are already treating you for pneumonia (antibiotics plus steroids and inhaler), but would be worth a second visit. Occasionally, an upper respiratory with unrelenting fevers requires a different/stronger antibiotic or IV antibiotics to cure. Definitely go back to the doctor since you should have seen fever improvement with the antibiotics by now….
Side note…. This thread has made me so happy with how funny everyone is. I also had the plague recently and had to take a ton of meds to get better.
@wifeandmom Oh no, now this has me a little worried. I saw a NP who said she thought I had a bad sinus infection and told me to take Zyrtec-D. She listened to the crackles but said it was because my nose was congested. I had a telehealth call with the male doc 3 days later because at that point I was on day 6 of 102+ fevers, chills, headache, joint pain and being delirious. My wife even stayed home to take me to the doctor because I looked so bad. I asked him for antibiotics, he said he thought it was viral and the antibiotics wouldn’t help but gave me 5 days of Azithromycin and prednisone anyway. My fevers have been lower 99.5 (I’m usually 97.5) but I’m still exhausted, coughing and having lung cracklies. The joint pain and being delirious has stopped though. I still have one antibiotic left, should I wait and see if it gets worse?
@gina My two boys, husband, and I are all experiencing a similar illness and it just won't quit. My boys both got tested for COVID, flu, RSV, and a few other viruses. They both ended up positive for three overlapping viruses - paraflu, enterovirus, and rhinovirus. They're overlapping in worst ways and have caused all four of us to be miserable for two solid weeks now. My poor little guy has had the worst croup of his life. Our fevers have come and gone and started again, but the chest cold symptoms and never-ending cough have persisted throughout. It's been a disgusting time.
@debbiemorrison My wife (I am woman) said I’ve been coughing like an old man. I coughed so hard I peed myself and she said she was surprised I didn’t poop too. She said I’m coughing so loud I need a pillow over my face like a silencer.
@gina My husband is regularly coughing so hard that my son asks "daddy, are you coughing or throwing up?" Our pediatrician was legit excited to call and explain to us exactly why our plague has lasted as long as it has. He wasn't expecting the test to come back positive for anything. Lucky us! Between daycare, pre-k, and me working in higher ed, we've got all the germs, everywhere all at once.
The hippie dippy stuff that works for me is as follows:
Echinacea
Elderberry
Tons of Vitamin C & zinc
Hydrate like a motherfucker
Hot ginger baths
Apple cider vinegar shots (fire cider is even more hardcore)
Colloidal silver
Quercetin
@gina I'm worried you have pneumonia and need stronger antibiotics and possibly a hospital stay. Do you have a pulse ox? You can buy them on Amazon. If your room air resting o2 sat is less then 90 I would go to the hospital.
@gina The older women in my family taught me to use booze to get through these kind of challenges, maybe the alcohol just scares my immune system straight, but I swear it works for me. Only time it didn’t work was covid.
You need lots and lots of rest! I missed 3 weeks of work to properly recover.
Every time I thought I was better, I'd try to be normal and then get worse again. It wasn't until I rested for a solid 5 days that I started to turn for the better.
All jokes aside, it could be serious, rest rest rest!