So, Charley brought home some nasty bug last week and I did everything in my power to avoid myself or Addy getting sick.  But, inevitably, I did...

It started Monday night with the chills and a cough and congestion.  I chocked it up to the flu since I can't get the flu shot bc of my Crohn's.  Well, Tuesday morning rolled around and I called my mom.   Charley was sick and so was I and Addy was in the middle of our bed playing with her feet.  She came and got her and Charley and I rested for a bit and he ran some errands and picked her up.  I drank Dayquil by the bottle yesterday and it felt better.  I did Vicks Vapor-rub on my chest and took Nyquil and slept well, so even though I felt awful I felt reasonable enough to *attempt* work.  I went in an hour late as a compromise and was *ok*  But, as the day went on, I started coughing so hard that it forced me to breathe deep and I just continued to lose my breathe completely.  It scared me to death a few times, so I called my doc (after momma forced me too!) and got an appointment for 12:45.  Well, about 12:15, my mom was holding Addy and she was asleep and my 10 month old nephew was crawling around and getting into everything and she asked me to help.  I took him knowing he'd be the *easier* one if I wasn't feeling good as I can sit him with some toys and run if I needed to.  Well, I grabbed him and tried to put him down and he was tired so he started crying.  I picked him up with all the muster I had and walked to our secretary and with whatever voice I had left, I had her come get him and I fell to the steps and just started wheezing.  I could NOT breathe.  They called my family doctor and the family doc said "Go to ER!"

So, my mom rushed me down there and this is the FIRST time (and I HATE going to ER - but it's necessary with Crohn's - I've been about 4 times total.. I could be missing a limb and I would avoid the ER!) they RUSHED me back to a room.  They called a RT (respiratory therapist) and they checked my oxygenation level and my vitals.  My O2 level was 98, perfect.  My blood pressure was high 136/94 (VERY high for me!).  They could NOT for the life of them figure out why I couldn't catch my breathe.  They gave me a breathing treatment and it helped, but then it made my chest hurt WORSE than it already did.  So painful that even when I breathed too deep, I was in excruciating pain (and pain is nothing to me! REALLY!).  After they let me sit after the first treatment to see if I felt better (which I did and didn't - could breathe a tad deeper, but it hurt so bad now I'm not sure which I preferred).  So, they transferred me from a temporary ER room to a more permanent one.  I got a new doctor and nurse and had to retell the story in a whisper.   That's all I can/could do...whisper because I couldn't breathe.

The new ER doc came back and was trying to figure out what was going on.  They said before AND after my breathing treatment, my chest sounded fine, but if it were bronchitis, they said they wouldn't usually hear it until it broke up, so it was possible.  They ordered a chest x-ray AND a throat x-ray.  They were stumped.  No fever at ALL with ANY of this!  Just HORRIBLY labored breathing.  Between waiting for the chest x-ray, they did another breathing treatment.  This time, it broke something up in my chest and I started vomitting up mucous and green snot boogers and I was shaking.  RT came in and so did my RN and they took the Alburterol away and went to get me some nausea meds, but by then it calmed down.  All was well again, but I felt awful! 

I went for the chest x-ray and I was just SO terribly dizzing standing up or sitting up too high, but I had to sit up in order to breathe.  The chest x-ray was normal.  So, the doc was officially stumped.  So, he ordered up an EKG and a CT scan.  He wanted to rule out blood clots, abscesses, etc. in my lungs and/or throat.  He wasn't happy with the chest x-ray being normal, he wanted to be sure we ruled out everything!  The CT only found my tonsils to be pretty severely inflamed, but that's no surprise for how bad my breathing was.  He did a strep test too and it was negative.

He came in and was going to give me some pain medicine (because it hurts/burns when I breathe and then it would help me relax a little too - a lot of anxiety when you can't breathe - now I know how asthmatics feel!!) and antibiotics.  When I told him I could not take antibiotics because they really played havoc on my gut/Crohn's...I stumped him more.  I told him to call my surgeon, but I think he appreciated my knowledge to an extent, but he felt bad as there was really nothing he could do for me. Granted, the breathing treatments helps tremendously!  He said if I had strep, he'd HAVE to give me an antibiotic, but since he was pretty certain this HAS to be viral, he told me we can wait it out.   He understood I needed to take the lesser of the 2 evils. 

So, here I sit.  He told me to stay home the rest of the week (my nephews 5th birthday is this weekend too! ) And, he gave me an Albuterol inhaler and Norco pain meds to help relieve the pain and relax my breathing just a tad. 

If you read this far, good for you!  I'm home now.. resting.. and Daddy is taking care of Addy.  This sucks!  Most of all, I miss being able to take care of my little girl, in which they said to stay away from her as much as possible, if it's viral, it WILL spread!

ETA: They told me my potassium was low at 2.7.  This is possible with Crohn's, but I have YET to have this issue, so I was VERY surprised when they brought me 3 BIG horsepills of potassium!  Yet another thing I'm going to have to check out with my GI.  I'm sure this is NOT good news.  There is an innate possibility that my Crohn's has moved to my small intestines now...