For more than four months, I have had a nagging cough. It hangs around constantly, and then subsides a little...making me think it is going away. Then, a few days later, the cough is back in a bad way. Everyone keeps telling me that I need to go to the doctor. I HATE going to the doctor. I already know what he is going to say, and it just seems to be a waste of time (and money since we have a huge deductible). You see, I tend to get this cough every year, and it is usually during the cold weather after I have been exposed to cigarette smoke. I actually have two other friends fighting the same thing, and their cough is from the same thing--cigarette smoke (and none of us are smokers).
Last Friday, I finally went to the doctor. He told me it was from allergies. He told me that is why I have "those shiners." Well, I was born with those black eyes. I am very fair, and in the winter when I have no color in my face, they really show up. The only thing I have an allergy of are drugs. There is nothing constant that bothers me (except maybe cigarette smoke--which is not constant, because I'm not around it a lot).
The doctor put me on a couple of inhalers, and Septra. I started taking all this Friday afternoon. By Wednesday, I was having a low grade fever and aches and pains. I thought, "Oh great, I'm getting the flu now." Thursday, I was a little better once I was up and going, but by early that evening, I was running a fever and felt horrible. I went to bed at 6 and stayed in bed til 10 then next day. When I woke up I was running a pretty solid fever and still had my aches and pains.
Since Valentines Day was coming up, I had planned on having a nice dinner for my boys (the two sons who are still at home and my dear husband). Their favorite dinner is lasagna and they all love cheery cheesecake, so that was on the menu too. Fortunantly, on Thursday I had put the meal together, and all I had to do Friday is put the Lasagna and veggies is the oven to cook and set the table. Earlier in the week, I had put together place settings, and planned on what candles, centerpieces, etc. We went ahead and had our nice dinner, but as soon as it was done, back to bed I went.
Saturday morning--Valentines Day--my DH set the table including a dozen beautiful yellow roses (my favorite) and made a nice breakfast for us all. It was really nice. I was still feeling pretty crappy, but I came to breakfast anyway. Noticing that I my skin was very itchy, I lifted my long sleeve to reveal--hives. I ran to the bathroom, and found that I was covered with hives. I had hives on my hives. By the end of the day I looked as if I had spent 2 full days without sunscreen on the beach in the Caribbean. Even my eyeballs had hives. I had to take a rain check on our Valentine dinner date that evening. I called the doc and now I am on steroids. During this time I have lost about 6 lbs. but these stupid steroids are causing me to be VERY hungry. I sure hope I don't gain it all back.
Did my cough go away? NO. Now what? Well, first thing is to get to looking normal again, and then to plan B, whatever that may be...
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