Oh, some years...

[kate_schaefer]

This hasn't been the most entertaining fall or early winter I've ever experienced. From October 15 to about December 7, I had a respiratory complaint which we characterized progressively as a cold, a bad cold with a nasty cough, bronchitis, and walking pneumonia (in modern medicine, they call it atypical pneumonia, but it's still a brontosaurus to me). The treatment was push fluids and rest, push hot fluids and rest, push hot fluids and rest and antibiotics and albuterol, push hot fluids and rest and albuterol and inhaled steroids and are you sure you understand the concept of rest? At which point my butt spent significantly more time in bed, and my lungs miraculously got all better.

While all this was going on, for weeks and weeks, I canceled some things and did some others, coughing pathetically the whole time. I made Camille jokes and Chopin jokes. My father made Gipper jokes. I reminded him that George Gipp died several years before Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, and that I'd have considerably better treatment, though probably no one would ever make a saccharine movie based on my life or death. I got better; I relapsed; I got better again.

My atypical pneumonia was caused by home improvements. We did a big round of stuff: earthquake retrofitting, insulation retrofitting, and long-overdue exterior repaint. The house looks great, if you like primary colors as much as we do, it's less expensive to keep warm, and it won't fall off its foundations for anything less than a 9. Probably. The whole process generated an immense amount of dust. In retrospect, it would have been better had I gone on a nice trip to practically anywhere rather than staying at home while the work was done. We tried to keep the house as dust-free as possible, but it's hard to keep up with blown cellulose.

At any rate, it's all over. No more pneumonia, and we'll have the daughters and grandchildren visiting soon to celebrate the designated midwinter holiday of your choice. Yep. Things are fine fine fine.

I have shingles.

Comments

[redbird]

My sympathies, and does that last paragraph count as burying the lede?

I like the bit about the brontosaurus.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Maybe, given that it's the new news, but I'm hoping the shingles won't be as bad as the pneumonia, nor as lingering. I am currently taking the most expensive drug I have ever consumed. It isn't supposed to cure shingles; it just makes the virus less awful. They say.

Thanks. I liked the bit about the brontosaurus, too.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

And I was complaining about my situation.

I'm so sorry and you have all my sympathies.

Shingles are not fun, I know. One of my best friends suffered with it for a while some years back.

Love, C.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks. You have every right to complain about your situation; you've had a really tough fall. You're going to be hit with another big storm in a few hours, although you'll probably experience it as rain rather than snow. May you stay warm and retain power all through.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

I am a) so very sorry and b) giggling.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It's gratifying when one hits the mark at which one aims.

[bedii.livejournal.com]

When my Mom came down with shingles, the local pharmacy recommended an ointment with Capsin in it. Yes, just what a woman with a badly cracked spine needed.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

It seems counter-intuitive, but that's one of the standard treatments. Dunno how it would sit with the spine damage, though.

Good to see your electrons, anyway.

[bedii.livejournal.com]

Well, after we got enough washed off for the uncontrollable screaming to stop (the person in the pharmacy had failed to mention that you shouldn't rub it on any open skin, and her shingles had opened up to the air--I don't know how) the doctor advised her never to try OTC medicines without calling him first.

And I always read your posts. Don't post much myself because everyone ignores the film reviews I do...

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Good lord!

Had shingles once. Painful as hell, the pills were blue and yeah, they were the single most expensive medication I've ever paid for. Hope you recover very quickly.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Yes, they're blue and large. Mercifully, I can swallow them without them going sideways, so far.

[e-bourne.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry you had such a difficult time with the whole lungs and breathing thing. It sounds utterly vile.

I have shingles also. They recur during periods of stress, although never as bad as the first incident. The pills make a huge, huge difference.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It's encouraging to know that the pills really do help, since they're so ginormous and seem to be giving me mild hives. Then again, the number of things that give me mild hives is uncountable.

I intended to get the shingles vaccination, but with the respiratory stuff, I prioritized whooping cough and flu vaccinations, and getting another shot right than seemed like just too much.

[fantasyecho.livejournal.com]

Good grief! It's like playing whack-a-mole with misfortune! Glad to hear you're holding up.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks. All of life is whack-a-mole. Sometimes you get to be the whacker, and sometimes you're just the mole.

[lindadee.livejournal.com]

And I thought my autumn was bad! Glad you're on the mend and that the pills are helping relieve the pain from shingles. (I had a very mild case of shingles about 14 years ago, and we caught it early enough that the horse pills took care of it quickly. I hope never to experience that again.)

I hope to see you soon.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Linda. Sorry to hear your autumn was bad, too. One of the side effects of being so sick so long was that I saw hardly anyone and got seriously out of the social loop in keeping up with people.

[irontongue.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, so sorry about both the respiratory stuff and the shingles. Glad you have good drugs and figured out what rest is; hope you will be all better soon.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Now that I've mastered the concept of "rest," I'm working on this challenging concept of "all better."

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Let's hear it for the medication. Having been through it myself, I know that shingles has to be hit early and hit hard to prevent the worst. Otherwise it puts people down for the count for weeks, even months. May you be spared that.

On the lighter (ha!) side, I've rarely had a cold or pneumonia attack for which even the precision of "about December 7" would serve for its ending. What I usually finish up with is a cough that carries on so long it's hard to tell when it finally goes away.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I started taking the drug early enough that there isn't anything on which to base the diagnosis except how my arm feels, how old I was when I had chicken pox, and the doctor's experience, so I should miss most of the true excitement of shingles. I hope.

December 7 was the date on which my doctor was satisfied with my blowhard capacity as measured by a peak flow meter.

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

Sympathies on all the health stuff. Just what you need when you're finally recovering from one nasty thing - another nasty thing.

Glad you're pleased with how the house looks. I don't think they're ever going to finish the earthquake retrofitting at my work place. I was going on when I interviewed there in July, 2009, and it's still going on.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks. For us, the earthquake retrofit was the fastest part. A single-family house is definitely a less complex article to retrofit than a high-tech manufacturing facility, but I would expect them to finish some year. There's a limit to how much they can do, after all.

[tinaconnolly.livejournal.com]

Oh no! Sympathies (and laughter too.)

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I have now obtained Ironskin and am holding it in reserve for the collapsification period after the grandchildren go home.

[tinaconnolly.livejournal.com]

Woot! Thanks! :)

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

There is No Justice.

Just readers giggling at the brontosaurus and cringing in sympathy over the shingles.

Congratulations on the impressive set of home improvements. Way to go! I hope you don't get to find out whether or not the house stays on its foundations for anything up to a 9.

Here's to happy times across the generations, and to a happy, healthy, and trouble-free new year!

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Same back at you for the new year; you've dealt with enough tsuris for a while, I think.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Oy. What an autumn! Well, maybe . . . maybe the shingles is pre-catasrophe-ing you for 2013 and it's going to be a great year. That's my position. Fingers crossed! In the meanwhile, do what the doctors tell you to and get well soon, girl.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That's my plan, insofar as I have a plan. I am currently avoiding making predictions and promises.

[jinasphinx.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I'm so sorry; I hope the shingles abates soon.
You're the second person I know to have suffered the same months-long progression of respiratory diagnoses.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks. The expensive drug works. I can still tell that I have shingles, in that I'm more aware of my arm than normal -- one does not normally think, hmm, I have an elbow over there; I can really feel my elbow right now -- but the drug works, in that my arm does not hurt, ache, burn, itch, or otherwise bother me a whole lot. The drug also makes me somewhat dizzy and sleepy, so no operating heavy or complex machinery for a while.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Thank you for writing about your misery so entertainingly.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks. In the new year, I hope to have some non-misery to write about, and then actually to write, rather than just think about writing. Also: gardening. I still have lots of iris that could occupy less space in my garden and more space in yours.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

That sounds good to me, both the writing and the irises. I don't know whether you've seen in the latest Chunga that the rhizomes I planted last year didn't come up, and I'm not sure yet whether they'll come up in the second year, which the internet indicated might be normal for Siberian irises. In any event, my random garden could probably absorb more rhizomes one way or another.

[lintninja.livejournal.com]

Oh no. I am so sorry. Loren and I got the virus thingy that goes from cold to bronchitis to more evil stuff, but managed to stop it at bronchitis. No remodels to blame for ours, just not enough down time in th eholiday season. I have had teh shingles and it is not fun at all. I know that stress made it worse for me. I hope that you can relax and enjoy the grandkids,kids and assorted others now. Here is to a healthier new year!

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks, and a healthier New Year back at you. I've been following your health bulletins with dismay.

[lcohen]

oh, honey! feel better soon!

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks. With the help of early intervention, it's not so bad. I had a few hours where I wondered if I actually even have shingles, followed by a vivid episode yesterday in which I was acutely aware that in fact I do. The drug works well enough to keep the total misery others have described at bay.