Man Cold

I have to let off some steam on this one!

Hubby got sick about 10 days ago. Gave it to me, first by transmitting the bug, and also by keeping me up all night.

I am hearing impaired. Normally I sleep through anything.  However, here's what hubby did:

Coughs. Builds to a crescendo. THROWS off covers and LEAPS out of bed to spit the phlegm into a rubbish can (gross!).

Gets back in beds and starts HUMMING, tunelessly & loudly, because it "makes his throat feel better." Wheezes, MOANS, clears throat loudly, goes back to humming. Blows nose very loudly. GROANS. Hums again.

Finally drifts off to sleep, and starts to snore (this, I can live with, normally)...  Then coughs... (repeat whole cycle)

This went on from 1:30 am to 6 am.

Finally at 6 am I moved to another bed. By then - I developed a sore throat and felt ill.

I stayed in bed for 2 days, drinking water constantly (annoying, 'cuz then I must pee, but it helps clear toxins out of the body and thins my  mucus). And I stayed in the spare bedroom.

On Day 3 of my own ailment, I woke up with massive conjunctivitis (both eyelids glued shut!). My hubby, meanwhile, was convinced he had pneumonia, even though he had no fever. He called the MD first thing in the morning. I told him to make an appointment for my conjunctivitis while he was at it, but nope, he hands the phone to me. I need to make my own appt. OK, fine, I did. They wouldn't take me until the next day.

Hubby went to doctor. Back very quickly, walking up the steps slowly, breathing laboriously and painfully.

"What did the doctor say?"

Hubby questioned the competence of the MD. No Xray, MD listened to his chest, said all was well, he just had a URI, and he simply should take a OTC cough suppressant if he couldn't sleep at night. Hubby stressed the dire nature of his symptoms, so MD wrote a prescription for a stronger cough suppressant, which mollified hubby slightly because it was a PRESCRIPTION, which meant, perhaps, that his symptoms were serious and warranted STRONG STUFF.

Hubby has been sick for TEN DAYS.  In bed with eye shades. He seems to be able to watch TV, read, play computer solitaire, and listen to music with no problem, when he isn't in bed with eye shades, but that's it. Forget about asking him to do ANYTHING around the house - he is suffering a dire ailment.

In the meantime, once I was able to crawl out of bed, I still had to take care of all our Xmas stuff. On Day 3 of my ailment, still quite sick and with that massive conjunctivitis - I kept calling the pharmacy about my hubby's prescription (he, of course, was in bed and too ill to do anything himself). I wrote our Xmas newsletter, then put together our Xmas photo card:  chose the pix and card style, uploaded the pix, and cards were ready 2 hrs later - ah, how I love modern technology!  Unfortunately our local pharmacy was out of the medication for my husband's RX. After repeated calls, we finally agreed that I would pick up the RX at a different pharmacy, much farther away. OK, it was cold, raining, and I was still quite sick. I wiped all the conjunctivitis gunk out of my now-very-red eyes, and forced myself to get out there to pick up the Xmas cards from one place, and my husband's RX from the now-far-away pharmacy. We also needed some groceries and dinner so I stopped at a nearby supermarket to get both. My husband dragged himself out of bed to eat the dinner that I'd bought, then returned to bed. I started writing and addressing Xmas cards until I decided my health was more important, and went to bed, staying in the separate bedroom. Like my hubby, I was coughing at night and couldn't sleep, but I skipped the moaning, groaning, and humming and just lived with it. I figured I'd get better eventually.  The following day, I finally got to see an MD for my conjunctivitis (he confirmed my lungs were clear and that I just needed to wait out the coughing), started eyedrops. Continued to write Xmas cards.

CONTINUATION 10 days later:

We planned to visit our son in NYC for Xmas and the weekend. My brother was coming to meet us there on the weekend. My hubby developed knee pains, adding his cries of pain to the moaning and groaning. He canceled his ticket, which was fully refundable. My ticket was not refundable and I could still walk, so I went by  myself. It was raining in NYC when I arrived (I took a very crowded bus & subway to our son's place - probably spread the virus amongst all).  Dealt with it and walked up 4 flights of stairs with my stuff (brought a bottle of expensive whiskey as a Xmas gift, among other things). Thankfully the next 5 days were clear, dry, and mild. I was thankful to stay in a warm apartment with nothing to do, and finished up most of the Xmas cards. Called hubby every day to see how he was doing. He made an appt to see an orthopedic MD. So, how was the bad knee? Uh, doesn't really hurt anymore but "still stiff."  But even speaking to me obviously required superhuman effort and energy on his part and was constantly interrupted by coughing right into the phone so I could hear it. As for me, after 2 nights of being unable to sleep due to my own coughing & discomfort, I finally turned a corner and had a good night's sleep, and recovered steadily after that. I drank lots of water and ate very healthily. Took my brother around, cleaned our son's apartment, since life must go on.

When I returned, hubby was STILL sick. He still sat bolt upright when coughing at night. But at least he now ceased the singing, and he slept (unbeknownst to him, since he was convinced that he was up all night) for hours at a stretch, so I could sleep at night, more or less. He had now been sick for 3 weeks. He seemed to walk just fine. He ate an ENTIRE CAKE (which he told me not to buy) while I was gone - a cake that was supposed to serve 8-10 people. He also finished the big pot of beef stew that I left behind, and seemed to be well enough to go grocery shopping (he wanted orange juice), but not to do anything else (I requested that he deposit something at the bank, but that was too much for him to manage).

He also claimed he was running a fever. What! He was running a fever? How high was it? "Almost" 101 F. I felt him, not even warm. He said he was taking Tylenol to keep the fever down. Did he have this fever a long time? No, just once, but he had been taking Tylenol constantly to keep in down. Huh? How would he know if he still has a fever or not? I can see taking a fever for 103 and higher, but for such a low grade fever? I demanded that he stop the Tylenol. OK, no fever. But he called the MD, who was too busy to see him, and stressed the fever part, the length of the illness, the inability to sleep, and some upcoming biz travel to the Far East, so the MD finally prescribed some antibiotics "just in case."  That satisfied hubby, who now felt his illness was being taken seriously. I, on the other hand, told him he'd better not take those antibiotics unless his fever returned (it never did).

Now I've been home for 3 days, it's been about 3 weeks from the start of hubby's ailment, and he's FINALLY taking a turn for the better.

Halleluia.