Listening

I am finally back to the land of the living (I think). I learned a very important lesson this past week. I learned to listen to my body and don't keep pushing it when it clearly is begging for a break. I started feeling bad last week and had a horrid cough. I occasionally had a low grade fever but nothing too worrisome. But I felt awful and could not seem to shake it. I got that steroid hot on Friday and was a tad better Saturday. But the wheezing was not going away. When I would lay down you could hear me breathing across the room and Carly kept telling me to quit making that crackling noise. I was using albuterol around the clock but it seemed all it was doing was making me jittery as hell. Finally on Sunday, I could not take a deep breath and could not walk from the couch to the bathroom without getting short of breath. I reluctantly finally had Kenneth take me to the ER. My chest x-ray showed a nasty pneumonia. I got some IV antibiotics and was sent home with more antibiotics and was to continue the breathing treatments. Yesterday I was feeling a little better early in the day but by the evening I was barely able to speak 2-3 words without getting short of breath again. I tried to take a shower and ended up puking and barely able to get my clothes back on afterwards. Kenneth had come home to take care of the kids from after school until bed and then he was going to go back to work. I started crying because I knew I couldn't even take care of the kids. I can't stand the feeling of not being bale to care for my own children. It makes me feel so helpless. I was afraid they would wake up and need something and I wouldn't be able to help them. Kenneth's mom ended up keeping them last night so he could go back to work. (It isn't that he wouldn't stay with me, it is that he couldn't. When emergency services are already down to minimum staffing, leaving isn't a choice no matter what is going on at home.) I was half afraid to go to sleep last night because I was having so much trouble breathing. I made it through the night though and am feeling so much better today. I took a shower this afternoon and still got short of breath but recovered quickly with another breathing treatment. My point to all of this is not to whine about how sick I was. Instead, it is just another example of how we must listen to our bodies. They are pretty smart and when they say enough is enough, we should listen!