"GOOD GOD! NOT THE ANAL SEEPAGE!"
Posted on 03/06/2014 3:56:31 PM PST by Lazamataz
I had a bacterial pneumonia over this last week.
It manifested as flu-like symptoms, at first: Low-grade fever, dizziness, chills, then sweats, and a constant fatigue. I thought nothing of it for the first day, having been the self-administered victim of minor food-poisoning before. However, this illness didn't seem to want to pass. By the second day, Sunday, I became more anxious as to the true cause of the malady. It was less likely to be a true influenza, because I had received a flu vaccine shot this year. So what was it?
I almost thought to get to the doctors, but it was Sunday, he would not be open until Monday morning. I did contact a friend who is a health care professional (an anesthetist) and knowing he was not versed in general practice of medicine, figured he might have picked up a thing or two along the decades. He was quite alarmed at my symptom list and suggested that I might have a bacterial or viral pneumonia. Upon looking the symptom list up, on a one-for-one basis, each symptom listed corresponded to a symptom I was presenting. The various literature indicated that a viral pneumonia was (generally) less severe, although more dangerous because they tended to occur in infants and elderly. Mine was likely a bacterial pneumonia.
The treatment indicated was a good antibiotic, and the one most commonly mentioned was one I just so happened to have: Amoxycillin. It is part of my Grid Down supply kit. I decided -- based on all available input -- to start a 7 day course of 750MG a day.
The next day, before the antibiotics had a chance to work, was the worst. I was completely unable to get into a car to get to the doctor. I genuinely felt at deaths door. I seriously considered, several times, calling 911 to get help, but backed off. It was awful.
Things improved, and now, six days after it started, I am well enough to pen this article.
The thoughts I have had emerge from this event:
1) While it would have been best to go to a doctor, it was an interesting experiment (thankfully, a successful one) to be able to treat yourself with supplies on-hand, with the guidance and expertise of someone in the medical field. It may well be that under the new 'Health Care System' we will be living under, we'll be needing to be a lot more proactive with our health. We may need to be able to diagnose and treat ourselves to the best of our abilities.
2) I do recognize I got lucky, and that this is not my best option while the system still works. However, it was the best I could manage without calling an ambulance, and until Monday, I wasn't that bad. I seriously considered it four times on Monday.
3) SHTF supplies are useful. They were critically useful for me. SHTF does not NECESSARILY mean societal breakdown. The SHTF for me, personally, last week. I am glad I had the proper supplies ON HAND to treat the probable disease.
4) This has caused me to do a mortality check. I am not bulletproof and 10 feet tall. Death is an option for me. I need to have my spiritual house in order, and to try to maximize the order in my physical house.
5) It's important that there be instructions left on things to do after my death. Contacting relatives, friends, and perhaps this very forum, might be one instruction. Another may be an 'unofficial will' ... I have no great wealth, so the various items I have acquired should be allocated by my instruction. Important notes to loved ones might be something I also want to leave.
Damn Laz, you are indestructible!! If and when you do kick........it will most likely be due to some super-nuclear hi-powered creepy crawlin’ STD ya picked up from hittin’ anything that lives!! (Or maybe even some dead stuff...hell I don’t know!)
Breathing was compromised. Not to the point of distress, but... it was noticable.
Better!!! and she does more than purrrrrr!
I am not indestructible.
I am RUSSIAN and ITALIAN.
Welcome to the club.
Not quite that mouthful, I had bacterial pneumonia once. I went from cheerful and healthy to very nearly dead in a few hours one afternoon, it was that sudden.
Antibiotics saved my life; be sure you don’t end your regimen too soon, though - my understanding is you have to continue the antibiotics for a while even after you feel okay or those last little bacteria can grow back with a bang.
Glad you’re still with us.
Of course. She also lunges after the red dot.
If that is true Laz, then what the hell are you doing self prescribing medication and self diagnosing when you feel at deaths door?
Really. This is scary. It could have turned out quite differently. I won't get into specifics, but as someone who believes in holistic medicine as self care over a doctor most times, I am horrified at your story. Especially having recently been very sick myself for a month. Let's just pray that it work for you this time and there is no rebound or underlying infection growing inside.
You got big trouble now Laz!
Am I in your will and what do I get?
Hahahahahaha....all I could see when I read that was "vulvavulvavulvavulva"...too many "V", "U", "A" and "L"s in one short segment!
In any case, take care of yourself...hope you are feeling better.
Glad you pulled through. Pneumonia is nothing to fool with, which is why I went kayaking in the everglades the first time I had it.
Mine was somewhat more gradual and not quite as fatal feeling. It was a milder case, but a case it surely was.
You get to send me a Lamborghini that my corpse will be buried with.
You gotta do it, too, IT'S IN MY WILL!
I caught a bout of pneumonia last year, and it was not fun, but I got through it without prescription meds. Probably stupid of me, but I’m young and pretty hearty. Coughed up a few buckets of phleghm getting through it, but it wasn’t so severe I felt in any real danger.
That's not the way Better Half describes you!
exactly! great points. who knows how much and how long and what kind he really needed to truly end such an serious attack of his body. Let’s hope he got it the first time and that it doesn’t spring back worse and leave him antibiotic resistant. Hopefully no pride before the fall. I’ve also had pneumonia twice in my life and it is scary, serious stuff even for us healthy middle agers or young ones full of health, piss, and vinegar :).
Seriously, glad you're on the mend. I was seriously worried about you the other day.
Save a little every time you get a prescription legitimately? Order some veterinary antibiotics that are identical to the human ones? Go to an online pharmacy?
I found that screaming and passing out on the floor will also get you admitted fairly quickly.
They had my name misspelled and SSN wrong. I debated whether to correct them since I clearly remembered giving them the right info after I passed out.
"GOOD GOD! NOT THE ANAL SEEPAGE!"
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