Worst Case Scenario

Several weeks ago, I started with the same cough/cold like symptoms that Charlie had back in December.  The cough was miserable and made me feel like I was gasping for air at times, but other than that, I felt okay.  Then, my voice sort of went toward the end of last week.  That was annoying, but still I felt okay.  On Saturday I started having pain when I coughed.  This wasn't good and by Sunday I wasn't feeling too good.  I had a four-year-old birthday party to put on, so I took some motrin and got on with it.  By the time we were cleaning up after the party, I knew I had fever and felt lousy.  I went to bed pretty early and hoped that sleep would help.
Monday morning I headed into work with plans to visit the onsite minute clinic after I dropped SG off at school.  I had never visited this clinic before and the woman working there was a nut job.  While in the middle of taking my address she commented that she knew someone on my street.  Her description was a woman who is blonde and attends her church...yeah, that didn't ring any bells for me.  Then, while taking my vitals her office phone starts ringing, so she quickly hands me the thermometer setup, but doesn't reach the phone in time.  She fumbles quite a bit trying to figure out who just called her.  Eventually, she concluded that it was her cell phone dialing her office phone and just couldn't believe me when I commented that she butt dialed herself.  She tried hard to convince me that I had a sinus infection, but I insisted that I did not have any congestion in my head and my headache was not sinus related, but from the fever I had.  While I am describing my symptoms she began to tell me how sore her shoulder is!  After all this, she gave me the recommendation that I should go to Urgent Care to get a chest x-ray.
I limped through a meeting and then headed off to get the chest x-ray.  During this time it became very painful to take a breath and I am taking the shallowest breath possible to avoid the stabbing sensation.  I must have looked or sounded awful because the Urgent Care receptionist asked a nurse to come over and triage me immediately.  They took me back and of course it took a while for the doctor to come in.  I figured out that bending over made it easier to breathe - this was also my favorite way to cope during labor, so maybe it is just my all around pain coping position!  The doctor finally came in and listened to my breathing and concluded that he didn't think it sounded like pneumonia, but would do the chest x-ray to be sure.  After the chest x-ray, he came back and said I did not have pneumonia, but it could be a pulmonary embolism or they did see a dark spot that could be a tumor causing me so much pain.  He even had a radiologist at the hospital review the film and she recommended I come in for a CT scan to rule these out.  Pneumonia was sort of my worst case scenario that morning and the thought of a tumor totally scared me.
I did what any scared woman does and I called momma to come take me to the ER.  She was there quickly and the hospital wasn't far and supposedly knew I was coming.  Of course, she had Charlie with her and what better place to bring a curious toddler than the ER.  He actually did awesome and stayed in our laps the whole time so he might not catch any yet to be named hospital borne infection! It took several hours before we were brought to a room, but the doctor quickly came in to see me.  He listened to my breathing and said things had changed from what the previous Urgent Care doctor noted and he wanted more chest x-rays.  Around this time Dad was able to come pick up a growing more restless by the second Charlie.  After a while the nurse came in with an IV and steroids and another lady came in with a breathing treatment.  Then, we got the new chest x-ray and after just a while they diagnosed me with acute bronchitis.  I asked about the tumor or the embolism and the doctor sort of chuckled and the nurse explained that no I really didn't fit the profile for either.  Duh!
Nearly twelve hours later I had been to three different medical establishments and finally had a diagnosis of bronchitis!  Seriously!  I was prescribed an antibiotics, steroids, inhaler, and decongestant and today I feel much better.  Actually, I felt a lot better just hearing it's not a tumor!
I am so grateful that my mom was able to come with me and Aaron and Dad could help with the kids in the evening.

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