Sicky McSickerson

If you’d told me when I woke up this morning that, before the end of the afternoon, I’d be having a chest x-ray and getting a diagnosis of a little pneumonia, I’m not sure I would have believed you. But such is the way of things, eh?

I wasn’t feeling great this morning. As I might have mentioned, I’ve been tired and walking around with this nagging cough for the past couple of weeks. Most of the other symptoms of the cold that originally came with it (and kept me home sick one day already) have gone away, or at least subsided, but the cough got bad enough this morning that I decided to go to the doctor. (Not to be gross or too-much-information-y about this, but I did cough up a little blood.) So I called (or rather e-mailed) in sick and scheduled an appointment for later in the morning.

She started me on antibiotics for the throat, recommended fluids and some simple remedies, and gave me a prescription for a chest x-ray just to be safe. My breathing seemed fine, she said — “I don’t think you have pneumonia” — but since I’ve had these symptoms for more than a week, better safe than sorry.

Luckily, I was able to schedule the x-ray for this afternoon. (I have a limited number of sick days, and I’m not eager for this to eat into them all at the start of the year.) It was over pretty quick; I spent more time filling out paperwork beforehand and sitting in a tiny waiting area afterward. (And let me tell you, if you’re not sick going into that, sitting in close quarters with a bunch of other people getting chest x-rays for twenty minutes just might make you so.) And imagine my surprise when the technician told me there was a little pneumonia on the one lung. Didn’t he understand I was just here to play it safe? I was just dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s, so to speak?

Well, I have been a little more tired recently. And lord knows, I’m not just imagining this cough. But still: I knew I was sick, but apparently I’m more sick than I thought.

I still haven’t had it confirmed by my doctor. I was able to reach her office before they closed, but they hadn’t received the x-ray films, much less had a chance to look at them yet. It’s all complicated by today being Friday, of course, and the office being closed all weekend. Plus, I’ve already started the antibiotics I was prescribed. I’m going to try calling tomorrow morning, to talk with one of the other doctors in the practice if I can — that’s what the woman who answered the phone and made a note on my chart said I could do — and find out if I should be doing something else, starting another or different antibiotic, whatever.

That, plus plenty of rest, looks to be my only weekend plans. Exciting times, I know. I am hoping I can get this squared away — if not, you know, cured — quickly, without having to take more time off from work. Although I suppose pneumonia is a pretty valid excuse, even if it’s not the best time of year and job-wise for me to be taking sick.

For now, though, it’s plenty of fluids and an early night of it.

Hopefully when I call tomorrow, they won’t also tell me my throat culture was positive for strep. (I’ve had that once before, and it definitely knocked me out of commission for a week.)