Thursday, October 25, 2007

Oh, for criminy's sake!!!

I have no idea who Criminy is and why I would be saying anything for his (or her) sake, but that is the phrase that has been going through my head in the last few hours.

I thought I was getting over this cold/flu thing that I had, but as evening neared, I developed this suspicious-sounding cough and my temperature shot back up. Since I have basically been a lifelong asthmatic, I decided it was time for me to visit the local "Urgent Care" center (of course, as my symptoms became more suspicious, it was later in the day, and thus impossible to make an appointment with my regular doctor).

Luckily, the urgent care center that I visit in these times of medical inconveniences was not very busy tonight. So I got right in, and saw the doctor (who looked like he was about half my age, but I digress...), who immediately ordered chest X-rays and Motrin, since my temp had shot up once again.

I still believed that he would come back to my room and say that I had a bit of bronchitis, prescribe me some antibiotics and a cough syrup, and let me go on my way. I was actually so sure of this that I called my new boss to let her know that I may have developed bronchitis, but I would try to make it in by tomorrow afternoon. No such luck.

The doc, after telling me that I had a "mild lower-lobe infiltrate," ie. pneumonia, almost immediately told me that 1: if my symptoms don't clear up in a couple of days, I should go to a hospital, and 2: I was not destined to go to work tomorrow (or rather, today, since it's past midnight).

Of course, since I have been a lifelong asthmatic and the doc presumably knew about the effects of illness on the respiratory tract (major inflammation and irritation), he prescribed, along with the antibiotic, prednisone. This medication, which brings my breathing problems under control in a matter of hours, is also a steroid derivative (forgive me, I am rather simplifying this at the moment).

What this all means is that while taking the antibiotic, I will be very tired, but the prednisone should make up for this tiredness as whenever I take it I feel more than a bit high, and want to bounce off the walls, so to speak.

Anyway, for anyone reading this blog, I hope that you don't come down with what I have, and if you do, I hope it doesn't keep you up at night making silly blog entries as it has done for me.

Sniffelingly yours,

Willow

8 comments:

Agatestone said...

"Criminy" is a euphanism for Christ, as is "Crikey," Willow. So, I don't know how you feel about cursing, but it looks like that's what occured.

Agate

Agatestone said...

euphamism

Agatestone said...

See Webster's New Millennium dictionary, by the way. That's where I found this. The word "Crikey" was first used in 1838, by the way. Not sure when "Criminy" was first used. I think sooner.

Willow said...

Oh, no, I took Christ's name in vain without even knowing it! Does that make me a sinner? And I wonder if that poor guy from Australia (his name escapes me--he's the guy with the reptiles who was killed by a stingray in a freak accident) knew what he was saying?

Something else to keep me up at night. :)

BTW:

euphemism
occurred

Sorry, couldn't resist!

Agatestone said...

I don't know. If you sin but you didn't know you were sinning, are you a sinner? Probably not. I think you're good to go. The aussie guy, I don't remember his name either, I hope that stingray wasn't retribution for saying "crikey" every other word! :)

Occurred is a hard word to spell! As is euphamisn. It should really be euphanism.

Agatestone said...

Willow, as you are familiar with medical terms, when you go to the dr, do they say that you have a lower lobe infiltration or pneumonia? How does that work? Do they treat you like a civilian, or one of the guys?

Agatestone said...

euphemism

uggggghhhhhhh!

Willow said...

Hi, Agatestone,

Actually, I probably noticed "occured " and "euphamism" because I spell those words wrong myself.

Oh, and the crocodile guy's name was Steve Irwin, I'm fairly sure. I actually liked the guy and his shows, but figured that with the amount of risk he took on, something was bound to happen eventually. I don't watch his shows anymore (I don't even know if they're still running on Animal Planet) because it's too depressing to watch him and know that he died so recently.

But anyway, although I have a theory that God (or Creator, or whatever you want to call him--or her, let's be fair now) has a sense of irony and humor, I usually have veered away from thinking he has a sick sense of humor. So I don't really think God would get a stingray to off Steve Irwin just because he said "Crikey" too many times. I could be wrong, but that's my take on it.

About the doctor thing: I've used this after-hours clinic once before, and I'm pretty sure I put my profession down in the paperwork someplace. But I didn't have any shop-talk conversations with this doctor so I don't know whether he used the technical term knowing I was a nurse or not. But when other medical professionals do know that I'm a nurse, we usually do talk shop a bit of the time.