Hack Cough Gargle Blargh

FYI: blog closed for rest of the week, I think. Got me the PNEUMONIA all up in my lungmeats, and gonna take it easy. Thanks, folks. See you on the other side! Er, of the illness, ideally. No, uhh, “the other side.”

61 comments

  • Amanda Hagarty

    December 2, 2015 at 1:24 PM // Reply

    Take care. Last January I had the “worst case of the flu” my doctor had ever seen, which escalated to the worst sore throat I’d ever had. Which led to me landing enough times in the ER that they finally decided to keep me only a few hours before I went into respiratory distress and had my throat so badly swollen they couldn’t intubate me, which led to them doing an emergency tracheotomy. Then my lungs and heart went into failure as my chest fullest with fluids. They had to put 2 chest tubes in me and pump me with enough fentnyl to keep me unconscious for 10 days, during which time they told my mom not to touch me because any stimulation could kill me. And then when I woke up from that I couldn’t speak, my whole body had atrophied and I could barely use my hands even, and I had hallucinations (from ICU psychosis and drugs) so bad that I thought the nurses were zombies and foxes, I told my husband I had 3 enemies there at night, and I had long conversations with the nurses via the email system I could access with my brain. It took me 2 months to get out of the hosptial, and a lot longer to recover. I can speak but not sing now, my vocal chords no longer vibrate at higher pitches and I need speech therapy. I suddenly have all this pain which the doctor is calling fibromyalgia but I think is because I still have not recovered from the ICU myopathy. And it turns out I had the flu and a strep infection which turned into toxic shock right under all my doctors noses. None of the docs and nurses thought I would live. Only because I knew something was wrong and kept going back am I still alive right now. So take care and listen to your body. If something doesn’t feel right, go to your doc.

      • Amanda Hagarty

        December 2, 2015 at 8:28 PM // Reply

        Me too. The funny thing about almost dying is you don’t really notice it at the time, not as much as all the people around you notice. I had a couple hundred people pulling for me via Facebook and helping my husband out, who suddenly had to work his job, sit unceasingly by my bedside and manage our store in the mall (normally my job). All the people in my local writing community got together, did grocery shopping for us, cleaned my house, bought cat food, took down Xmas decorations, and ate lunch with my husband in the hospital every day. Not only am I so thankful to still be here, but also for my wonderful community.

        My ENT says my singing voice may come back if I do some therapy and get some lung power back. I sure do miss it this time of year. I love to sing.

      • Amanda Hagarty

        December 4, 2015 at 12:31 AM // Reply

        Thanks. It was weird…I mean you always hear how a certain number of people get complications from the flu…but I always thought those were basically people other than myself. It’s strange to suddenly be a statistic you never counted yourself in.

        The up side is the hallucinations gave me some really bizarre material to work with. I got a short story out of it so far. I kind of feel like Jonathen Strange…dipping into the well madness a little for my craft. LOL

  • tjrfy5

    December 2, 2015 at 5:46 PM // Reply

    Goodbye Chuck, I always wanted to cut your beard off and keep it as a charm and this is my chance, please keep it for me before you die ok

    joking please come back

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