health & wellness « champuru.net

Sick of being sick

I am so sick of being sick.

Baby Champuru developed a fever on February 22, nearly two weeks ago, which turned into croup, and now she just has a persistent mucousy cough and a runny nose. Not long after, I got sick — then, Hubby. Now my parents are sick. Be warned: those baby germies are potent and latch on to anyone who has contact with them!

Being mostly sequestered indoors for two weeks is not good for my mental health. Yesterday, we hit the mall for a few hours, which was therapeutic for me, but perhaps resulted in us overexerting ourselves. Today, we’re all lazing around the house recuperating.

I called the pediatrician’s office this morning and talked to the nurse about Baby Champuru’s progress. Since she’s still coughing, the nurse prescribed Albuterol and advised to keep her on it for another week. If the cough doesn’t improve within a week, we will need to bring her in for a follow-up visit.

In this milieu of sickness, it feels like a long, dark tunnel and I still can’t see the light at the end.

Croup

On Monday, February 22, I wrote that Baby Champuru had developed a fever. Her fever peaked during the wee hours of Thursday morning at 103.5º F and did not break until Friday. This is our first experience with such high fevers and I was constantly worried about the chance of febrile seizures. During this past week, I was on the phone with the pediatrician’s office about half a dozen times and brought her in-office twice. At both visits, the doctor checked for signs of infection or wheezing, and assured us that it was just a cold and we just needed to ride it out.

Although her fever had gone by Friday, she started coughing — or more like “barking,” which started during the wee hours of this morning. It was frightening to hear her barking like a seal, laboring to breathe and obviously upset by it. The more she cried, the worse the coughing became. Thankfully, I’m still nursing her and was able to calm her with the Great Mommy Pacifier and she fell asleep. She woke several times throughout the night and each time I nursed her back to sleep.

All of this in between the excitement of news flooding my Twitterstream of an imminent tsunami to hit Hawaii in the morning. Needless to say, it was an anxious night for me and I got little sleep.

After the tsunami warning was canceled today, Hubby went out to buy a room humidifier. I never thought I would be buying a humidifier in Hawaii. After all, this isn’t Nevada. Isn’t Hawaii humid enough already? But advice from numerous sources and experienced parents poured in, all of them suggesting bringing Baby Champuru into the bathroom while running a hot shower — or using a humidifier. We did both and she seems to be doing better so far.

I’m hoping for a markedly less exciting night. I could use the rest — especially since now I’m the one that’s sick, too.

Clean Bill of Health

Wednesday marked my last doctor’s appointment for a while. I wrote an entry back in January entitled, Doesn’t this thing come with a warranty? lamenting about the numerous doctor’s appointments and tests I had scheduled for the months of January and February.

I have one more test scheduled for next month, an ultrasound to check on an ovarian cyst that they found on a recent CT scan. If there’s anything that I learned after enduring two years of fertility treatments is that I am prone to all kinds of weirdness in my girl parts, thanks to endometriosis. Endometriosis is also what necessitated fertility treatments to begin with. If you’re interested in reading the whole story about my struggles with infertility, complete with its ups and downs, emotional rollercoasters, and a subsequent happy ending, you can read the conception/pregnancy archive starting here.

The doctor suspects that the “cyst” they saw really is just a benign endometrioma, so they’ll do the ultrasound to be sure. I hate those ultrasounds, since it requires a full bladder. Since childbirth, I don’t do well with a full bladder so I’m not looking forward to a morning of squeezing my legs together while waiting to be called.

What started this flurry of appointments was the previously mentioned CT scan. Most troubling was that the scan detected mild sclerosis in the bilateral sacroiliac joints and could be caused by a number of different issues all of them not good. Differential diagnoses: Ankylosing Spondylitis, Sacroiliitis associated with inflammatory bowel disease, or degenerative joint disease. Whoa. Scary stuff, eh? I thought so, too.

I was referred to a rheumatologist for follow up. After reviewing my scan and ordering a battery of blood tests, the doctor did not seem concerned and believes that the radiologist simply “over read” my scan. In my opinion, it’s better to be safe than sorry and I’m actually glad the radiologist raised the red flag on it — even if it caused some moments of anxiety over pondering the what-if’s. I would guess that it’s probably standard operating procedure to note even the smallest anomalies, because what if there was indeed something wrong? In this highly litigious society, it’s better to disclose every little thing than to be sued for malpractice.

I will return to the rheumatologist in six months to do another x-ray to see what’s going on with those sacroiliac joints of mine. I’m praying that the sclerosis will be gone by that time. The doctor gave me some back strengthening exercises to do since I also complained of some lower back pain which is not related to the sclerosis they found, but completely due to my poor posture, weak abs, and lack of stretching and activity.

I feel like I’ve been given a new lease on life. After being given the differential diagnoses last month (when I wrote this entry) I was really starting to feel my mortality — and I’m not even out of my 30’s yet. It did serve as a wake up call to take better care of my health, however. Not just for my sake, but for the sake of my family.

Don’t push the envelope because it’s prone to push back

Day #4 of the Evil Stomach Virus of 2010. The first two days were torturous, but day #3 was starting to look up. The trips to the restroom were not as frequent and the fever and fatigue had lifted. Although the symptoms were not completely gone, I was feeling somewhat better. Today, I got a tad bit too ambitious. Or maybe I was just sick and tired of eating soda crackers and chazuke (tea rice).

Okay, I admit. I got cocky. I decided to push the envelope. I was jonesing for something with FLAVOR! Something tasty-delicious on my tongue. I asked Hubby to bring me home an M&M McFlurry from McDonald’s on his way home from work. Against his better judgement, he obliged. After I devoured it, Hubby kept asking me how I felt. Never better! I thought I had kicked the tummy bug out on its nasty, virulent ear.

So, for dinner I finished off the last of my chicken soup and ventured to have a teeny-tiny piece of meatloaf. That was when my stomach decided that enough was enough and promptly put me in a headlock and made me cry “uncle!”

That little piece of meatloaf kicked me back to day #2 in terms of symptoms, just minus the fever. My poor stomach is so alarmingly bloated that it looks like I’m about 6 months pregnant. (For the record, I’m NOT.) Oh, and the abdominal cramps. The cramps! It almost puts labor pains to shame. I said, “almost.”

And by the way, this illness has totally put a kink into my NaBloPoMo and Project 365 plans. Yes, it was THAT bad. When order returns to my bowels, we will return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Mommies aren’t invincible?

Apparently, I forgot to take my Mommy Invincibility Vitamins the other day because I succumbed to this awful stomach virus. This is the worst case of gastroenteritis I’ve suffered and it’s literally flattened me to a useless pulp the past few days. Thankfully, Hubby was able to take sick leave the past two days to care for Baby Champuru while I’ve been convalescing. Now it seems that Baby Champuru may be coming down with a cold: sneezing, coughing and runny nose. I am praying that she doesn’t catch my tummy bug because it can be very serious (even fatal) for children under 5 years of age. Hubby, too, has developed a stubborn headache that refuses to be banished by Tylenol and we’re hoping that he’s not falling victim to illness as well.

Prayers for health in the Champuru household are appreciated!