Estoy un poco enferma...

It's late, and I should be sleeping. But I'm not because I've spent the last three days in bed and my sleeping schedule is a little bit off. That's right! This weekend, the weekend that was supposed to be dedicated entirely to studying for the FOUR midterms I have scheduled this week, in fact saw no studying at all. I've been battling a fever averaging in at 102 and some extreme respiratory difficulties. The doctor at the Instacare made me get tested for the Swine Flu, but I still haven't heard back from the lab. I, personally, don't believe that I have the Swine Flu. I think I have something closer to Pneumonia. That is what I was JUST treated for a couple of weeks ago, isn't it?

Basically, this whole health "system" they have going on here in Utah is kind of a joke. I first became sick last April, after a month of extremely bad seasonal allergies. By the time I got to the doctor, I had developed a cough on top of my other allergic reactions, so they figured I just had a little cold on top of it and they prescribed me some nasal spray and 12-hour Zyrtek and sent me on my way. After two days of using the allergy pills, my allergy symptoms were gone and I felt great again... except that my cough was still lingering. Well, over the course of the summer, that little cough escalated into one GIGANTIC, mean cough that was so violent I actually pulled a couple of muscles in my ribs. By the time I got back to the doctor, the cough was no longer dry - it was extremely wheezy and I could feel and hear stuff vibrating in my lungs whenever I'd breathe. So the doctor takes a brief look at me and decides that I must have, randomly, acquired Asthma and she prescribed me an inhaler. A week later I was back in the doctor's office (I opted to see someone ELSE this time) with a fever and other flu-like symptoms. This doc said, hmmm... let's get a chest x-ray. Results came up clear. So he figured I just had a very bad case of Bronchitis (oh and Asthma too!), and prescribed me some antibiotics and another inhaler. While I was there, he had me do a lung-capacity test where you breath into this metric tube as hard and long as you can and it measures the force, etc. I could barely do it. My results were 92%. He said that if I had been a percentage or two lower they would probably have had to put me on oxygen. Well, After I finished my antibiotics, I felt so much better (this was around mid-September), but I still had a little bit of a cough - though it was dry again. But gradually over the next two weeks, the cough started to worsen again and, whaddaya know, last Friday I woke up feeling feverish and ill again. But my doctor's office isn't open on Fridays so I had to go to Instacare. That doctor ran blood tests and examined me and then just said, "I just need to prove you don't have Swine Flu." So he wrote me a prescription for flu pills and some cough syrup and sent me to the lab to get a nasal wash (not fun). But all the time I'm thinking to myself, Okay, but if I DON'T have Swine Flu, then what is it? But that's not how these docs operate. It's like pulling teeth to get them to tell you what they have. In my case I think it's because none of them have a clue as to what is really wrong. And like I said, I still haven't heard back from the lab about the results of my nasal wash.

Want to know what I think? I think I had allergies that got out of control and turned into a cold. The allergies were treated, but the cold wasn't, so the cough from the cold escalated until it turned into a respiratory infection. I'm pretty sure the infection part is why I'm having trouble breathing (not miraculously accrued Asthma - though, I suppose that could be a possibility) AND why I have flu-like symptoms. I don't think it got a chance to go all-the-way away with the first round of antibiotics. But hey, I guess we just need to prove that I don't have Swine Flu - then everything will be just fine.

So I don't know what's wrong with me, and apparently neither do any of the "professionals" - and I don't know when it'll be safe for me to go back to school. I really hope I don't fall too far behind.