I had these grandiose ideas of publishing links the week after BAW to highlight your magnificent brain (and okay, nervous system too) and all the amazing things it does.
And then I was going to wrap things up, head on a plane, go to San Francisco, tour the Six Apart offices, meet one of Steve's good friends, meet WhitneyB in the flesh for the first time ever, eat alot of sushi, enjoy some sunshine possibly, and wear some new threads I bought exclusively for the excessively hip SanFran fashioni.st scene.
What did I do instead?
Everything was canceled when I was admitted to the ER and subsequently the hospital with an acute case of bilateral pneumonia. I was sick for a few days with what I thought was a particularly bad flu: chills, aches, coughing, mild fever. This progressed however, until I was so dehydrated and sick that I had to take an ambulance to the hospital and spend 8 days recovering with a barrage of antibiotics, oxygen (15 L when I was admitted just to keep my O2 stats around 90%), and some excellent expert care from the good people at Cooley-Dickinson Hospital. The diagnosis: bilateral community acquired pneumonia and sepsis (!). They couldn't tell what particularly bad bug caused the pneumonia; pneumococcal pneumonia and streptococcus were both initially listed as culprits, but the patter of infection fit more of a virus based pneumonia than a bacteria (diffuse infection across both lungs, three out of my five lobes were infected!) and my white blood cell count never jumped. So they were thinking a virus, but then why did I respond so well to the antibiotics? Did the antibiotics address the sepsis, and hydration and oxygen addressed the virus? As my doctor said, we won't ever really know. My admit status? Critical. Three days in the ICU and four days on the floor and I'm on the mend.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, I hope that if someone else has similar symptoms that they will perhaps Google pneumonia and stumble across this and go to their doctor if they have fever, chills, cough, and shortness of breath.
I am back home now resting with lots of tea, blankets, and an oxygen tank. I never knew stairs were so difficult, IVs such a pain in the rear, and antibiotics so disgusting tasting. But I'm on the mend, and perhaps SOMEDAY I will get to San Francisco for that tour of Six Apart, for the beer with WhitneyB, and for a vacation.
Hope you feel better soon!
Posted by: Kristina | 03 April 2008 at 03:09 PM
OMG, so glad you're back home and on the mend. I was sending healthy vibes your way! If you don't make it out here soon, I may just have to head that way! (I may be in Boston in May, but not 100% sure yet.)
Posted by: whitneybee | 03 April 2008 at 03:44 PM
Dang, that's awful! I'm glad this post had a happy ending! Take care of yourself, get 100% healthy and enjoy the spring!
Posted by: Rick | 04 April 2008 at 09:09 AM