Thank You Marco's Mom!

Prior to December 2003, I was one of those people who was constantly sick with sinus infections and strep throat. It was no big deal for me to have strep throat five or six times a year. My senior year of college I went to visit Health Services to get yet another round of antibiotics and the doctor asked me why I had never had my tonsils out. I remember my mom telling me she had asked my doctor about it when I was younger and they wouldn't do it. I knew getting your tonsils out as an adult was supposed to be horribly painful, but I knew it was something I needed to do...especially before I started teaching around a bunch of sickly children. So on December 23, 2003, I had my tonsils out. And it was the worst pain I had ever been in, but was 100% worth it. Since then, I have been healthy with the exception of a few random sinus infections over the years and bronchitis once, last year.

Well now, I am on Day 9 of my virus. Yesterday morning I woke up and thought I might be dying. I had just had my third night of little sleep. My whole body ached and my throat was raw from all the coughing. Kevin told me if I wasn't better by next week, he was putting me on a plane and sending me home to get checked out (he's a little extreme). But this is, by far, the sickest he has ever seen me.

I made the decision yesterday to quit all the over-the-counter medicines I was taking (Tylenol Cold Multi-Symptom and Robitussin-DM). I didn't think there was any point in pumping myself with all those chemicals, especially if it wasn't helping me at all. I continued drinking my tea, sucking on lemons, and chugging water by the liter.

Basically, I spent all day yesterday laying in bed, watching a CSI marathon, and coughing up a lung. And then Kevin got home from practice and had a bag of medicine for me. He had told one of his goalie, Marco's, mom about how sick I was and she gave him some tips for me.

#1- Take a hot bath every night. And the water should feel like it is boiling me.
#2- Drink tons of water and tea with honey and lemon.
#3- Sleep (which is easier said than done)

And then, bless her heart, she went to the pharmacy and grabbed me some German/Italian medicines (without Kevin asking or anything) and brought them back to the rink. She explained to Kevin how I was supposed to take them and what they were for.

All my goods from the pharmacy.

Say what?

Of course I cannot read the packing on the medicines, but I was able to Google the directions in English and determined they were probably safe for me to take. I took them last night a few hours before bed and the coughing started subsiding within about an hour. I went to bed at about 1:00am and ended up sleeping until 11:00 this morning. I woke up a few times with the occasional cough, but overall it was a good night's sleep.

Today I am feeling better and my coughing has probably decreased by 75%, but my body still hurts, especially my abdomen. Is it possibly for my ribs to be in pain from coughing so much and so hard? And the gland in my neck is still swollen, making me feel like some kind of freak.

This is actually a picture of my swollen gland. Looks like I'll be wearing my hair down for awhile.

Adventures at the Krankenhaus

For about the past week, I've been feeling a bit under the weather...sore throat, runny nose, cough, headache. I tried to pump myself up with Vitamin C and Zinc, hoping to get it before it me, but I failed in my attempt. Instead, it's only gotten worse and my cough is ruining my life right now.

Monday, I woke up feeling horrible so I decided to take some cold medicine even though I despise the stuff. It worked for everything except for the cough. I even felt good enough to go for a workout. Since the cough was getting worse on Monday night I decided to take some cough syrup also. Well, it didn't work. I basically just rolled around in bed all night coughing my head off and clearing my throat, which also was keeping Kevin up so he went and slept in the spare room. I finally got a few hours of sleep in between coughing spells.

Kevin had goalie training Tuesday morning, but when he got home he told me we were going to go to the Krankenhaus (that's hospital in German) to see their team doctor. When we got there we obviously had no idea where to go or what to do and since we can't read the signs, we walked around for a good 10 minutes looking like idiots. Luckily, I ran into Sylvia (the blood lady at the hospital who is also a regular at the hockey games) and she pointed us in the right direction.

Well the team doctor was busy so he told me his wife, who is also a doctor there, would see me. She asked for my medical book, but I don't have one. She asked for my residency card, but I don't have one. So we gave her the long story about my visa situation and how we were still processing everything and yada, yada, yada and she said not to worry about it since Kevin had all his stuff. And I think the fact that Kevin is her son's coach helped too.

I got the usual exam. She asked about my symptoms, listened to my breathing, checked my throat, and checked my ears. Then came time to feel the glands in my neck. I had noticed a few days ago that one of my glands was abnormally large. I mean, it's so big you can actually see it sticking out of my neck. Well, when she got to that one she was all over it. She asked me how long it had been like that and if it hurt and then she said we needed to do an ultrasound on it. What?

My gland is not quite this big, but it's pretty close. Kind of gross, huh?

Of course, nine thousand things start running through my head, all of them being the worst case scenario. The doctor squirted the cold gel all over my neck...and shirt and hair. And then she started checking everything out, but didn't say anything but "okay" while snapping the pictures. "That's it, I'm dying" was my initial reaction. She told me to get up and then handed me a paper towel to clean my neck off with. And then she broke the news to me...I'm going to live and my gland is just swollen as a result of the infection and virus my body has.

But now she needs to get a sample of my blood. Great! Now I have to worry about not passing out. For some reason, the past few times I've had blood taken, I have passed out or been on the verge of it. So we were off to see Sylvia, who stuck a needle in my arm before I even knew what was going on. She took two vials and, luckily, I was still conscious.

My doctor was going home for the day, but her husband was going to finish up with me. We were told to go take a coffee in the bar while we waited for the blood sample results. They said it would only take about an hour so we headed to the bar. An hour passed so we walked out to the waiting room to sit. The doctor came out and told us the results still weren't back yet so to go take another coffee. How many coffee does this man think I need to drink?

After about two hours, the results came back and the doctor called us in. After an exam, an ultrasound, and blood work, I was diagnosed with a virus. Something I knew before I walked in the hospital three hours prior. And the doctor told me there was nothing he could do for me. No drugs, no prescription. I was told to rest and drink tea, coffee, and plenty of water. Although, I'm pretty sure you are supposed to avoid caffeine when you are sick. He did give me some type of powder substance to put in my water in the morning that is supposed to flush my system though. All of this for a grand total of €1.80, which is what it cost us to park. I don't even want to imagine what all this would have cost me in the States, especially without insurance.

Needless to say, I coughed all night and Kevin slept in the spare room again. I think in total I got about three hours of sleep, but I woke up this morning and had 2 cups of tea, 4 bottles of water, and my powder...just what the doctor ordered.