I got sick again.

[Kyle]

Y'all. This pneumonia was something. After getting better, I suddenly got really bad lung pain. I was told this was normal and that it would resolve itself in a week or so- it was an inflammation in my lung lining as a side effect of the pneumonia. Apparently it's not that uncommon. But then it got worse. And it "travelled" around my lungs to different parts, moving from the front of my lungs to the back and then the sides before isolating itself to the whole of my right lung. The inflammation was so bad, taking a breath, laying down on it, or using a muscle over the affected area would cause a sharp terrible stabbing pain.

I was told this should resolve, but if it didn't, they treat it with steroids to knock the swelling down. But they didn't want to give me steroids because if the pneumonia wasn't all the way knocked out, then it would suppress my immune system, the pneumonia would come back and might be even harder to get rid of the second time. So I just grit my teeth.

Then the unexplained foot swelling started. And let me tell you something to not do: Don't google lung/chest pain with foot swelling. Because there's no good answers there. Google says, "Well, you're either having congestive heart failure or you've had a pulmonary embolism that's spreading through your circulatory system. Both are potentially fatal."

So back to the doctors which led to going to the hospital (outpatient) for a shit ton of tests, scans and ultrasounds. They ruled out blot clots. My heart looked (surprisingly) healthy on all the tests and scans. And great news: my lungs were clear and the pneumonia was gone! Bad news: my right lung lining was terribly inflamed.

BUT HEAR ME OUT! This meant they could give me the steroids, which I just took the first dosage of two and a half days ago and the lung pain is GREATLY reduced and has diminished to just a tightness in my right lung. Imagine being happy about feeling an uncomfortable tightness in your chest.

Anyways, there was a lot of questioning my mortality this week, which hasn't happened to me in about 15 years (when I had the surgical infection and almost died). But I'm feeling better again and hopefully this is the beginning of the end of this ailment.

[Phoebe]

OMG that is too much! But great that you can actually get the medication for it now. Let's hope it's over soon!

[poorpete]

Hope things are finally moving to the better.

Two of my wife's close coworkers have COVID. Vacation coming up in 6 days, we've lost two vacations to it before, we'll see if we can sneak past these close calls...