April 2009

In real time, this blog has turned into "My Bout with Prednisone" and I wanted to finish documenting how BOOP presented with me.

Nothing could be more strange than April. In the last week of March, I had pneumonia and stayed home for several days. By the beginning of April, I actually felt better. My voice was still gravelly.

We had been invited to Charleston for Passover. To make all the connections, we ended up staying for practically the entire holiday, April 8-14th. Charleston is/was beautiful. Flowers were in bloom, the air was clean. We walked everywhere. I had a little something in my throat, but I was fine. No mucus, no hacking. It was a relief. I thought the worst was over.

A good word for our innkeeper at the Broad Street Inn - http://www.charlestonkosherbedandbreakfast.com/ -- Because like the formerly-bald guy who's president of the hair company -- the innkeeper's not just the innkeeper, she's also MyMan's Ex and my step-daughter's mom. So the whole family was there.

Gracious does not nearly begin to describe MyMan's Ex. We really relaxed and enjoyed. Thank you!

We returned home and to work. I worked feverishly, now under the strain of a "professional improvement plan," with it's threatened termination date of May 29th.

Context: This is the week when Swine Flu really hit the news. The city was in an uproar, the hospitals were filling with the frightened.

On or about April 26th, the tree in the backyard finally began to bloom in green leaves and white flowers. We don't know what kind of a tree it is, we only know it grows a c r o s s our little backyard and not up like a proper tree.

So, I began to cough. Not too bad, but I was coughing. Tuesday morning I had a long-standing appointment for a CT scan that Dr. A., the pulmonologist had asked for.

But, with my coughing becoming out of control again, I raced to the allergist at lunchtime. This was the day that both of my work colleagues, on both sides of my room, came in to see how I was, I was coughing and gagging so hard.

Surely, please G-d, this was an allergic reaction to the trees. The allergist agreed, but after a check up, he detected bronchitis. He sounded surprised, because the coughing seemed to coincide with what was happening outside, everywhere, not just with our cross-wise tree. I was given nebutol and a prescription antibiotic. I began taking it immediately.

Wednesday night, I woke with searing pain in my back. I was coughing again. I could barely speak. Thursday I had to stay home from work again.

My voice was gone, I was full of mucus again. That night I called Dr.A., twice. He did not return my phone calls.

I was too sick to be angry. I knew I didn't present as an hysterical New Yorker. Even if Swine Flu was all over the news, he knew and I knew I'd been sick since January for heaven's sake.

I gave up and went to Dr.B. on Friday. He checked me and pounded my back again.

He declared it pneumonia. He said he needed a chest x-ray. I remembered that on Tuesday, I'd had the CT scan. He ordered it up from the clinic. The report indicated of BOOP, so Dr. B. sent me back to Dr. A.

Dr. B. felt this was rare. He'd seen only a few cases in 30 years of practice.

I didn't want to go. I was tired, I was beat. I'd had enough bouncing from doctor to doctor. I lay on the couch. We called the pulmonologist, Dr. A. His office hadn't yet received my CT scan.

But, MyMan called Dr. A. It was apparently an unforgettable call. He went outside to do it, so I wouldn't hear it.

In retrospect, Dr. A. said, he knew it was BOOP after the phone call from MyMan. In another conversation, he also said BOOP was a failure of the pneumonia protocols. Dr. A. is thorough and decisive and I'm glad he's my doctor. In my opinion, it shouldn't have been MyMan's cri de coeur that settled the diagnosis. But, I'm glad MyMan did it.

That night, as I've reported before, I was in the hospital.

Within a week, I'd gone from allergic reaction to bronchitis to pneumonia to BOOP.

Shabbat Shalom