The Cough

For those of you who saw me or heard me over Christmas, you probably noticed I've been under the weather with coughing. Around 2 AM on Friday morning, several hours after returning home from a quick vacation in Florida, I suddenly had a dry coughing fit that lasted for 10- 15 minutes. I couldn't breathe, and I didn't know why I was coughing since there was nothing in my throat for me to cough up. Mom grew worried and moved me to the couch. She remembered that about ten years ago I had coughed like that... when I had had pneumonia. While I lay coughing on the couch, an amazing thing happened. At that moment, Mom received an e-mail that said, in case of a cough, to rub Vick's Vapor Rub on your feet. She told me to rub it on, and it worked! I had a great night of sleep, one of the best in a while. I'm sworn on it now.

On Friday afternoon, Mom took me in to the doctor to find out about my cough. After asking some questions, I was given a breathing treatment and told to go upstairs to get an x-ray since the doctor wanted to make sure that I didn't have pneumonia. I was so shaky, and my heart was racing from that breathing treatment of albuterol. When I got upstairs, I had another dry coughing fit while waiting to get an x-ray done. I got two x-rays done and took them back downstairs for the doctor to look at. He confirmed that I had pneumonia, in the early stages, in one of my lungs. Then I was given my prescriptions of albuterol, prednesone, and an antibiotic. I know now the pain Mandy goes through when she has her asthmatic attacks in the winter.

I'm feeling fine, except that I sometimes get a small fever and cough. I hope I can go to Audrey Mae's baptism tomorrow, and I would hate to stay home alone while everyone else goes. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's when I'm sick and everyone else is away with others. It makes me feel alone, and I don't like it. But, I hope, with this medicine, I should get better within the next week. I hope so, since I don't want to be sick while starting the second semester of school.