Jan 07 2009
pneumonia
IT HASN’T BEEN A FULL WEEK YET SINCE THE START OF THE YEAR AND ALREADY IT’S BEEN A DOOZY! The past seven days have been intense in ways that only a Stanley Kubrick film could convey — all volumes and movements and angles and tracking shots, all emotions rendered as part of the landscape, and the landscape casts long and deep shadows on all of its inhabitants. The past week has been a challenge and a new experience for my sensorium. So, where should I begin?
From Christmas to December 29, I took a short trip down to San Francisco with Greg just to get away from Seattle, to have a little holigay, and to visit my sister. We almost didn’t get out of the city because of all the snow. We got up early Christmas Day, drove down to the airport, and found that there was no short, mid, long term parking anywhere. Rather than take our chances and given we had an early headstart, we drove back up to the city, parked Greg’s truck at my house, and got a taxi down the airport. It was smooth flying from there (given a short delay). Pictures of the trip are here.
The overall trip was great. We did a lot of things, saw a lot of things, shopped a lot of things, and hung out a lot. Exactly what the doctor ordered. I even stopped in on the last day of the trip, Monday, to the Modern Language Association’s annual conference; I just wanted to hear Alenda give her paper and then duck out. I did run into a few people from both UW and UMD. It was a very frantic conference. I do not look forward to having to do that gauntlet this year for the job market. Monday afternoon, we headed to the airport for our flight back. And it hit me like a bouquet of sledgehammers. I got achy, stiff, chilled, fevery, sore throaty, sinusy all at once. It felt like the flu.
Over the following week, my symptoms seemed to subside and come back, subside and come back. New Year’s Eve was curtailed by the fact that I just felt downright crummy. The end of the week came, and I kind of knew that I should go into see the Health Center. But, I felt so bad and so alone that I didn’t want to trek by bus all the way to campus. When the weekend hit, my fever hit astonishing highs and depths, though my sore throat was gone. Basically, I had had a running temperature between normal and 103 for a week. Something was very not right. Alas, the Health Center is not open over the weekend. I would have to go to the ER, which I was loathe to do. I called a counsulting nurse and she was nice but not very helpful. So, I decided to ride it till Monday. The night between Sunday and Monday was probably the worst I’ve felt in a long time. My fever was so crazy and I had sweated so much that I woke up literally in a puddle with everything slick to the touch. Hideous.
Monday morning, I went in, barely taught and introduced my syllabus to the class, and then headed straight to the Health Center. I was seen pretty quickly, and right off the bat, my vitals were alarmingly high. Temperature: 103. Pulse: 131. Blood pressure: high. Signs of extreme dehydration. The doctor immediately put me on a nebulizer and on a saline IV to get my hydrated as bloodwork was done. Then I had to get chest x-rays. It turns out that I had pneumonia but only in my left lung. Intravenous antibiotics were given, more tests, more questions, more vitals checking. Over a period of about seven hours, I did cool down, I did calm down, I did level out a little. But my ability to draw in enough oxygen was still severely compromised. The doctor felt that I should get admitted to the hospital for further care and for observation.
So, I got medically admitted to the UW Medical Center. Greg came to pick me up from school and escorted me over to the hospital. I was given my own room. And the same battery of questions, examinations, pokings and proddings started all over again. It’s a teaching hospital, so I had the whole Grey’s Anatomy thing going on, too. It wasn’t too bad. Greg kept me company for as long as he could (though it was cute that the nurse listed him as family). I got more antibotics. And I had the best night’s sleep (which was still interrupted) I had had in a long time.
The next day, I felt better. Still really weak and short of breath. But the doctors decided that I could safely go home. I would be given a regimen of oral antibiotics. I was to rest for the rest of the week. And follow up next week with the Health Center on campus.
The details are left out because I just don’t have the energy right now to write them all out. I have just been trying to keep things low-key, low-stress, low-worry. I cancelled the rest of my first week of classes, which I felt horrible doing. I assigned online work the students could do via our class message boards. I updated family and friends. And I have just been convalescing at home like some Victorian woman.
