Uniquity

It never ends.

...and now Ben is sick.

And More on my Oat Lung

... and now a bacterial infection, courtesy of Oat Lung.

Follow Up on Oat Lung

So, early this morning at about 3 am I got really bad chills. My teeth were chattering so hard that my jaw is still sore from it. I couldn't get warm no matter how many blankets were on top of me. So I tried to make a sauna in the bathroom by running a really hot shower. That didn't help either. I kept coughing really hard and it was just killing my chest. The skin on the inside of my arms and chest was starting to hurt with just the weight of my shirt. It was really weird. I really didn't know what was wrong with me. I took my temperature to see if I had a fever but the reading was normal. So finally when I threw up blood, that was the point at which I decided to go to the ER.

So Ben drove me to the ER at 3:30 am. I really don't remember everything that happened there. I know they put me on a heart rate and O2 sat monitor and took x-rays of my chest. They said the x-rays were clear with no pneumonia but I had atelectasis, which is basically where the alveoli in my lungs collapsed. They thought my lungs were just inflamed from the oat cluster. They gave me guaifenesin with codeine to help with the pain and the cough and a respiratory treatment with albuterol and ipratropium to open my lungs up. The codeine just made me crazy.

Anyway, I slept the entire day today. I have never slept so much in my life! I am still coughing and in a lot of pain but I am getting better. 

I've got the Oat Lung

So, yesterday started off as a normal day preparing for one of my Therapeutics exams. I decided I was hungry for some cereal. Unfortunately, all we had were some shavings from Ben's Frosted Mini Wheats and the full box of Cheerios Crunch that I don't really care for. I decided to go for the Cheerios Crunch... after all, no one else was going to eat it and I can't stand wasting perfectly fine food. So that decision sealed my fate for the next two days (at least). As I was eating (at a normal pace mind you) I started coughing and as I took a breath for air an oat cluster was caught up in the current. I actually felt it going down into my lung.

Of course, this oat cluster is way to large to be able to just cough it up (even when upside down). So I had to go to my exam with a foreign object lodged in my lung.  Before I begin to describe this weird feeling, let me advise you now....Do NOT try this at home!... or anywhere for that matter. 

During my exam, I kept coughing like something should be coming up... but it didn't of course. I could feel where the oat cluster was in my lung (weird sensation) and the pain radiated out from there across my chest.

So when I got home later that night, I made Ben call the Poison Control Center (1 800 222-1222) to see if I needed to go to the ER or something. They said (if it wasn't effecting my breathing) it would likely dissolve eventually and then just work its way out in the mucus. So, that was a relief.

I went to bed last night and in the middle of the night I would wake up, gasping for air and coughing harder than I have in my life. This morning also was not a pretty sight. I am okay indoors but when I had to walk from my car to the school...I thought I was going to die and my lungs were going to explode.  The frostbite air was constricting my lungs and I was hardly able to breath without feeling like I was getting stabbed in the chest. As I was walking back to my car when school ended, the same thing happened except worse... my throat felt like it was starting to close off.  So I am home now, raw throat from coughing, stabbing pain when I swallow and trying to sip on chicken broth to sooth the inflammation. I am not a happy puppy.

Suffice it to say...I am alive.

Herbal Shmerbal

I am going to be doing a research project on an herbal product. Does anyone out there have a burning desire to know if a specific herbal product actually works or about its safety? If you have any ideas...I am up for suggestions! Just post the herb and what it is used for! Thanks! ~S

And God said,"Let them be punished."...and there was snow.

Here is a quick update since you haven't heard from either of us in a while. We are doing fine. I am busy with life and Ben is keeping busy with his work. I don't care for the snow too much. Here are a few pictures of our winter harvest.

Oh yeah, we have a new addition in the family. His name is Beckett. He is my grandma's new bouncing baby boy. We are training him and then we will turn him over to my grandma. He looks cute in the picture but he's a little devil. He is a Cavelier King Charles Spaniel. He is 12 weeks old now. Awww...