I'm glad to see you're going to the doctor..back in February I came down with the flu..this was before swine flu was a big deal in the news so they never tested me for it but my whole family is convinced that's what it was. I ended up going to the ER on Feb 11, my kidneys had shut down by that point. It took several days to be diagnosed with Strep Pneumonia.
I was in my hometown hospital for 4 days, then life flighted to Hamot in Erie for 10 days, then life flighted again to UPMC in Pittsburgh. I was in a drug induced coma for all of this and stayed that way for 5 weeks. While in Erie, I was in a Roto Prone bed, they used this as a last resort because I was supposed to be dead. I was awake at UPMC for another 2 weeks where I had to learn how to walk and move and swallow again...I had lost every ounce of muscle that I had from being asleep in bed. I ended up with 3 chest tubes to drain fluids, a feeding tube in my nose that was changed to a GJ tube (stomach tube) when they put my trache in. My kidneys, liver, and stomach stopped working, both lungs collapsed, my heart was damaged from what they thought was a blood clot and my lungs are now permanently damaged and I will never be able to breathe as well as I used to. I came home to live in a nursing home for another month for physical therapy to get my muscles working again.
I feel awkward putting this story on here because, even though I'm on here everyday, I barely post and no one knows me. I've just been seeing so many people with swine flu on here that I worry that someone else will go through what I did and I don't want that. I'm much better now, I'm able to work again and my breathing is ok even when I'm out hunting and walking up hills even though my muscles still have a ways to go. Now the only things that let people know I was sick is my scars and the short hair...it fell out and is finally growing back in.
I may have posted about being sick on here before on another thread about being sick, but I don't think I can tell enough people about getting to the doctor. I'm terrified to get sick again because I honestly don't think I'll live through it again, not this soon at least.
I was in my hometown hospital for 4 days, then life flighted to Hamot in Erie for 10 days, then life flighted again to UPMC in Pittsburgh. I was in a drug induced coma for all of this and stayed that way for 5 weeks. While in Erie, I was in a Roto Prone bed, they used this as a last resort because I was supposed to be dead. I was awake at UPMC for another 2 weeks where I had to learn how to walk and move and swallow again...I had lost every ounce of muscle that I had from being asleep in bed. I ended up with 3 chest tubes to drain fluids, a feeding tube in my nose that was changed to a GJ tube (stomach tube) when they put my trache in. My kidneys, liver, and stomach stopped working, both lungs collapsed, my heart was damaged from what they thought was a blood clot and my lungs are now permanently damaged and I will never be able to breathe as well as I used to. I came home to live in a nursing home for another month for physical therapy to get my muscles working again.
I feel awkward putting this story on here because, even though I'm on here everyday, I barely post and no one knows me. I've just been seeing so many people with swine flu on here that I worry that someone else will go through what I did and I don't want that. I'm much better now, I'm able to work again and my breathing is ok even when I'm out hunting and walking up hills even though my muscles still have a ways to go. Now the only things that let people know I was sick is my scars and the short hair...it fell out and is finally growing back in.
I may have posted about being sick on here before on another thread about being sick, but I don't think I can tell enough people about getting to the doctor. I'm terrified to get sick again because I honestly don't think I'll live through it again, not this soon at least.
