Pneumonia Hiatus

Grrrrr.  Arrgh. 

Well, it looks like it's going to be a while before I'm running or doing much of anything again.  Right now walking down the hallway is leaving me breathless.  I found out on Tuesday that I have pneumonia after a weekend of being horribly sick.  It took me a while to realize that I was actually sick though.  Maybe it's because the symptoms were vague, maybe it's because I made some stupid decisions, maybe it's because I procrastinate going to the doctor too much.  Probably all of those things.  But here's why things were so shady...

Last week we bought a pool to put up in our backyard.  Nothing fancy, just one of those do-it-yourself type things but it's a big deal to us and especially to our kids.  The first step in setting this up is making sure you level the ground where you're going to put the pool.  With Wifey's crazy schedule, unless I wanted to wait for her help on the weekends and have this project take forever I knew it fell to me to deal with during the week.  And let's face it - it's mid/end July - there's not a ton of summer left so if we're enjoying this thing it has to go up soon!

I don't know if you remember last week or not, but this was the forecast, and I think the actual temps were even higher than predicted:

So I spent every day that week outside pulling up grass & weeds and leveling the ground.  It doesn't sound like it would be much work but it WAS!!  Those grass & weeds had some deep roots to be pulled up and that weather was H-O-T!  I set the kids up in the kiddie pool that we've had so that I could do the work outside & keep my eye on them, and also so I could keep myself cool on breaks.  I knew it was hot, I knew we were in a heat advisory, and I made sure that I was drinking a lot of water and some Gatorade to keep those electrolytes up.  I took plenty of water breaks and pool breaks and out of the sun breaks and come Thursday I had cleared the area we would be setting up the pool in.  Yay!  But I felt like I had been through the wringer.  4 days of hard work in pretty intense heat was getting to me.  I was slow on Thursday, I took more breaks than I had to any day before that, I just didn't have any more energy left.  So I took Friday off & took the kids to a friend's house. 

But on Saturday Wifey was home so I wanted to take advantage of her being here to help lug and empty the fifteen 50 lb bags of sand we had to put on the leveled ground.  I should mention here that on Friday night I imbibed quite a bit on some very delicious double chocolate stout.  Not the smartest decision I ever made but we all need a night to let loose once in a while, right?  And I worked hard all week so I deserved a night of fun.  I should also mention that at the beginning of the evening I felt like I had a sunburn even thought I didn't have the slightest trace of one.  Chocked it up to the beginning "warm" phase of alcohol and didn't think about it again.  However, this is where I believe my fever may have started.  So when I woke up on Saturday sluggish & dehydrated I wasn't all that surprised.  So I got some food in me, drank a lot of water, had some caffeine, and got myself in what I thought was pretty decent shape before we got outside back into the heat.

The second we got started I knew something was off.  At first I was thinking it was just dehydration from the hangover but I had felt relatively OK by the time we went outside.  But once we started working I was super sluggish & needed a break about every 10 minutes.  Clearly I still needed fluids but I also started feeling like I was completely worn down and couldn't catch my breath, similar to how I felt during the 4th Of July 5K, but at least that made sense to me.  This wasn't that much work and I was dripping with sweat and panting like I had just run 2 miles.  Sure Wifey was sweaty too but it was pouring off of me unnecessarily and she was barely glistening.  I was struggling, I felt a headache coming on, I couldn't catch my breath, it was horrible.  I pushed though (taking many, many breaks) and I got the pool set up & filling with water.

By the time we came inside & showered and started talking about dinner I knew something was off but I couldn't figure it out.  Nothing really went together;  I was just overall blah, I was still dripping with sweat and couldn't catch my breath right away.  It felt like my heart was beating out of my chest at about a million miles an hour but I assumed I just overdid it for the day and that I was probably dehydrated from both the drinking the night before and now the day of work I put in.  Add in the week that I just had and I assumed it was all just catching up with me.  I was hoping a lot of fluids and some rest would help me out. I took it super easy the rest of the night, Wifey put both kids to bed and I myself went to bed soon after. 

Sunday was no better - I woke up tired and with a headache.  Luckily we didn't have any real work to do.  We had to finish filling the pool with water and start running the filter, all things within my capabilities, or so I thought at the time.  But whenever I stood up I was dizzy, I started having blurry vision on and off, the headache I woke up with got worse, and now there was a burning sensation in my lungs and a crazy cough that I couldn't describe because it wasn't a throat tickle cough but more like a lung spasm cough if that makes any sense to you.  I also had cramps & aches everywhere in my neck and back.  What I thought was remarkably odd was when Wifey and I walked outside at night to put something in our shed.  It was in the 80 degree zone so not too hot at all and we merely walked and did not exert ourselves - no work was done.  When we were walking back to the house I was dripping with sweat like I had just worked out for an hour and she wasn't sweating at all.  Here is where I finally took my temperature and saw it was about 101. OK, something is brewing here.  Maybe this is more than just heat exhaustion and dehydration...

When I woke up on Monday I couldn't even sit up.  I had nothing left in me.  Zero energy, zero breath, nothing.  Migraine stage headache, pains in my neck, shoulders and lower back, leg cramps, rocking a fever in the 102's, and a cough and burning lungs that would not quit.  At one point my ears even started ringing and I wondered if I was starting to lose my hearing.  I had no idea what was wrong with me.  I thought I'd let it ride for the rest of the day, my fever isn't THAT high and if it's still there in the morning I'd call the doctor.  I kept thinking, "OK, it's not the flu because I'd have a cold.  It's not appendicitis because I'd have abdominal pain.  I've had bronchitis & this is nothing like that.  Whatever this is will pass soon or get worse & I'll know what it is.  And if it's not gone by tomorrow I'll go to the Dr."  Of course nothing changes until about 9:00pm when I can't call a doctor and my only options are wait until morning or go to the ER.  I didn't think it was an emergency at first but when my fever reached 103.5 and kept rising after taking a fever reducer, I seriously considered the ER and regretted not calling my doctor earlier in the morning.  I decided that if it reached 105 we'd go.  We got close to 104 but it did start coming down.  I was vigilant about taking acetaminophen every 4 hours to keep it at bay but even with that it wouldn't stay lower than 101.

When I went to the doctor on Tuesday he surprised me with his possible diagnosis and with what he wanted me to do.  He thought it might be a form of meningitis and wanted me to go to the ER for a workup to rule it out. Figures.  I should have just gone the night before & avoided all of this nonsense!  Luckily after a ton of bloodwork and a chest X-Ray I was cleared of meningitis and diagnosed with pneumonia and a decent amount of dehydration.  Yay!  And the neck and back pain are probably just from the yardwork for the past week.  The nurse thought it was odd that I was happy to have pneumonia and I explained that I'd take pneumonia over meningitis any day!  Plus it meant that I got to avoid having a spinal tap.  I didn't really want to have a spinal tap.  The only Spinal Tap I like goes to eleven.  This one would want ten to be louder.

So now I'm probably taking more medication that I have collectively over the past 4 years (that's a whole other blog), and I still feel kinda crappy.  I have a follow up with the doctor tomorrow so hopefully he can shed some light on when I'll get some relief from this.  I hope it's sooner rather than later because right now I can't make it through much.  I had a 40 minute phone conversation with my sister and I had to hang up because I couldn't breathe anymore.  This is reminding me of my asthmatic youth where my lungs would hold me back from everything.  The rest of my body feels fine - I have energy back, I have pep, my headache is gone, the other aches aren't so bad either, but my lungs can't keep up.  It's just frustrating, especially with 2 young kids who want to run all over the place and I just can't right now.

You have probably guessed that I didn't run the Christmas In July Boardwalk 5K that was this past Sunday.  I can't imagine why?!  I have my first DNS :(  I guess we all incur them at some point.  But it will probably be a while before I am able to run again.  Hopefully I can still do the Color Run at the end of next month, and I'm actually happy that I haven't already registered for more races yet this season because I just don't know what to expect.

So keep your fingers crossed that this doesn't take long!  I'm really, psychotically looking forward to fall running & I can't do that if I can't train!  I'll keep you posted!