Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
Snowing and coughing
As predicted, some snow is falling. Most of St. Louis was announcing closures last night, in anticipation of the possibility that the weather people might be right this time. That’s a lot of “maybe’s”, but that’s St. Louis weather for you. So far it’s sticking on the grass, but not on our concrete patio. That will satisfy Mollie Dog for the time being.
While the spotty rain started last night I was visiting an Urgent Care place near the house. I’m usually pretty stoic about disruptions in my health and have been known to wait too long before seeking help. That might be the nurse in me – in a twisted sort of way, I use my medical knowledge to believe that the worst will not happen to me. Usually I’m right but there have been a few occasions when I was certainly not in the right. On two of those times, I found myself in an Intensive Care Unit, not sure if I was going to make it out.
Yesterday morning I was coughing a lot, but as the day wore on the coughing stopped and I felt halfway decent. However, as the afternoon unfolded the congestion in my chest worsened and I was coughing violently. Getting more and more short of breath I finally did the right thing and got a little scared for myself. St. Luke’s Hospital has an urgent care less than a mile from the house so I told Jan that I was going to visit them. She was relieved. Off I went.
My experience there was a good one. There were not a lot of people in the waiting room so I got in pretty quick. When the nurse came to get me the people in that room were glad to see me go, even though I was wearing an N-95 mask. By this time, you could hear my chest rattling from across the room. My vital signs were good – no fever, a decent blood pressure, and a pretty good oxygen level. That was comforting for the moment, but I did not feel as good as the numbers would have demonstrated.
My next visitor was the Nurse Practitioner, Don. He was kind and supportive. He ordered a chest x-ray so he could see what was going on and so I would have a picture to take with me to my Primary Care doc this morning. He called in prescriptions for antibiotics and steroids, which was my fervent wish as an outcome for this experience. He did a COVID test – negative. When my chest x-ray was ready it looked ok to him – no heart problem, no pneumonia. Pneumonia is what has gotten me in trouble before, so I was grateful to hear the results.
As soon as CVS got my scripts ready I motored home and took the first doses right away. I was not hungry at all – right there you have to know that something was wrong – so I ate a little pudding to make a nest in my stomach for the antibiotics and the steroid pills to rest in. I have a lot of faith in their ability to make me better!
So here it is, 5 a.m. and flakes are falling outside. I feel a smidgeon better, but still somewhat congested and still coughing. (My history includes quite a few years of smoking a pack a day, which I regret but can’t take back.) I predict that the roads will be fine for my short trip to the doctor’s office, so all is well in my world today. I am grateful for the kindness and expertise of strangers doing a job. I’ll see my Primary Care doc later this morning – he is so enthusiastic about what he does for a living that I can feel the positive vibes emanating as soon as he enters the room. If there is any sunshine to be found today, he will do it.