Emergency Rooms, Kittens and Pertussis - An All-Around Update

Today marks the beginning of the third week in a row that I've been home sick from work. After two Emergency Room visits I finally got a diagnosis of Pertussis. Apparently, even if you've had the vaccine as a child, it wears off. 

I work with infants. 

During finals week, I had an interview at a school that offers childcare for kids from infancy to Pre-K in San Francisco. I got offered the job the same day. After applying to more than 70 jobs since January I quickly accepted, knowing how I was going to be one of the lucky few in my class that would be graduating with a job.

In the month following graduation, I found a place to live, moved in, got a kitten and started work. 

I started work on June 5th. 

June 30th, my cousin who now lives in Boston came back to California to get married. I went down to Laguna with my family for the weekend for what turned out to be the most beautiful wedding I've ever been to. My cousin's older sister had given birth to a miracle baby, Lucy, a mere 9 days prior to the wedding. (Lucy was a NICU baby as her intestines were growing outside of her while she was in the womb and had to get all her GI stuff taken care of before she would even be able to be held for the first time. Lucy had been expected to be born on her aunt's wedding day but made her arrival just in time for her mommy to be at the wedding. Lucy is now doing phenomenally and is home, released from the NICU weeks ahead of schedule. ) Due to the Lucy's miracle in the air, I think everyone at the wedding was just appreciating life more. There was no drama, no controlling parents, everything went off without a hitch. Not to mention that the wedding was done on the beach and everyone watched the sun go down over the ocean as we ate.

The night of the rehearsal dinner though, at the end of the night, I lost my voice. I figured that I had simply been laughing far too hard as my voice was back the next day, in time for the wedding. I lost my voice on and off the day after the wedding and back at work, I started to get a cough that got worse as the week progressed. By Friday, I was using my asthma rescue inhaler every  four hours and still not able to catch my breath.

I went home to my parent's house for the weekend and to the doctor. I was told I had a virus, not to go to work for the week and was put on Prednisone and an inhaler that I ended up being allergic to (which landed me at the doctor the following day). A week later and I had been through a round of Prednisone, a round of antibiotics (for a possible bacterial infection), a rescue inhaler every four hours and a chest X-ray. That Sunday I was put on another round of Prednisone and was told that I could go back to work. 

I went to work on Monday and Tuesday and was absolutely miserable. I couldn't catch my breath or stop coughing and was super dizzy and weak. All the while I was trying to take care of nine infants.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights, my mom drove down to stay at my house overnight in case I needed to go to the Emergency Room. Wednesday morning I scheduled an appointment and was given cough medicine and told that I shouldn't be at work for the rest of the week. 

I called in to my work and then went home to my parent's house. 

I took two doses of the pills for the cough on Wednesday and after the second dose, realized my throat was closing up and I needed to go to the ER. 

I was given a ton of tests, treated for an allergic reaction. One of the blood tests that they did came back as having a high glucose level that signified having Diabetes. Due to the fact that I was on Prednisone they said they wanted to wait and retest me in a few weeks before actually giving me that diagnosis. (I'm still a few weeks out from that retest but they are guessing I'll be fine based on my past, lower glucose levels.) As I was being discharged had another attack. So I was readmitted and kept another couple of hours. During the readmission, I had an allergic reaction to the IV Benedryl that they gave me which had my chest burning and my legs appearing to be having a seizure.

I got there at Five-to-Nine and by 2am I was back home in my own bed. 

I didn't seem to be getting much better over the next few days so I went in to one doctor after another. 

Saturday, I was finally feeling somewhat decent so my mom got me out of the house to go see Brave which I had been wanting to see for a while. Just as it got to the climax of the movie, I was overwhelmed with nausea and dizziness and had to rush to the bathroom. The nausea calmed down and I was able to get back to the movie just as the last two minutes of the Disney-Happily-Ever-After appeared on screen. We left as the credits began to roll as my throat began to feel like it was getting hard to breathe again.

We went to the ER where I was informed that the Pertussis test that had been performed during the Wednesday night visit had come back positive, I hadn't been informed because the doctor who saw the results noticed I had already been on antibiotics (though the antibiotic course had been completed prior to the testing). 

I was sent home once again, this time with a diagnosis (and the information that there is NO treatment) and the fact that I'm not contagious because I've been on the antibiotics. 

And so it is Monday once more and I'm cleared off work until Friday.

Certainly a good way to spend 3 weeks of my 90-day probation at work huh?

I'm now caught up on all of my television shows and Pinterest obsessions and am trying to work on eating at least one meal a day. 

It's a start right?

Oh! And my kitten, Shaylee, is here with me which makes everything SO much better.

And it doesn't look like my parents are minding having an extra little one around for the moment either.

For now? It's almost 2pm and I think it's about time for a nap.