Bleh!

I finally forced myself to go to the doctor yesterday. I always dread it when I have to go for my annual bout of bronchitis because I feel like I’m drug seeking. I know what works. I’ve been doing this for years and yet, for years, the doctors always do the same thing. Give me various different things like steroids, inhalers, or whatever new drug they are pushing. The only thing that works is the steroids to calm things down and the cough medicine with the codeine to stop me from coughing, either until I puke or pee. Even then, it often takes several rounds to get this crap to go away and by then we are into February or March.

Yesterday I finally went because I also needed to take MC as he was complaining of a sore throat and running a slight fever. He tends to get strep, so he really needed to be looked at. That and he actually WANTED to stay home from school and that kid hates to miss school. The doc didn’t even bother to test for strep since he had an ear infection. Funny, he never said his ear hurt, just his throat, but apparently it has been all along. Stubborn kid!

For him, they gave him an antibiotic that would cover both. The problem? It is a take every 6 hour thing. There is absolutely no way to avoid sending the medicine to school which is a massive hassle and you practically have to sign your life away, in person, while drawing blood from a stone and standing on your head while singing the alphabet backwards in ancient Egyptian. Poor Hubby got the job of taking it to school this morning.

For me, my counter now looks like a major pharmacy. Either that or I’m a drug dealer. I have my usual steroid and cough medicines, but this doc, for the first time ever, really wanted to try and figure out why I get this every year and to, hopefully, help me to get ahead of it and not have to suffer each year. Because of that, I now also have an asthma/allergy script and two other over the counter meds that I have to take for the next couple of week. The theory is that this may potentially be triggered by allergies that aren’t being treated. There are a couple of other potentials, but he wanted to try this route first.

I hope like crazy he is right and this works, because it is incredibly miserable to start coughing around Halloween every year and keep going until early spring. As usual, it gets worse when I’m overly active or worn down, which I’ve done with the nutcracker project.

Unfortunately, the medicine with the codeine works in a way that knocks me out pretty hard. I try to only take it at night so I’ll sleep, but this first few days I’ll need to try and keep things under control so all the rest of the stuff can have a chance to start working.

I hate being sick.