I Didn't Die Last Night

Well, I've been hit with my first bug of the season and I can hardly believe I've survived. I guess it started on Saturday since that was about the only time I could have been exposed. My caregiver came up as usual but it was clear he had been ill but promised me he was over the worst of it and not contagious. HUH! That's a laugh.

Oddly enough, on Saturday night, I had a terrible time keeping my feet warm though for the most part I felt fine, just a bit tired. But all things considered, that's not much of surprise. On Sunday I had little appetite. I basically ate rice and had some before bed some cheese and crackers and a banana.

I slept maybe an hour or so and then seemed to toss and turn finding it hard to be comfortable and always drifting between hot and cold. But considering the weather was changing from cloudy and rainy to clear and dry, I figured this wasn't really unusually. I seem to be quite uncomfortable physically whenever the weather changes dramatically (thus why this past summer was so hard on me).

As evening approached on Monday things started to change. I felt tightness in my chest: nothing major, just a discomfort. However, being a middle aged male in poor health and caring extra weight, it's pretty much been drilled into me what this stuff means. As the pain started to radiate out from right under my breastbone towards my right arm, I really began to wonder. But I figured with the stress of the last couple of weeks, it was probably nothing to worry about. The doctor has rushed me off to the hospital with chest pains before and nothing has been found so when it happened again a year or so ago, I figured it wasn't worth the expense.

I figured since I slept so poorly Sunday night, I just needed to get to sleep early even though I napped a bit during the day. So I was in bed about 9:30, but had trouble getting comfortable. The chest pains grew dramatically and there was just no way to get comfortable, but a couple hours later I drifted off for about an hour.

When I woke next I was in horrible pain. It felt like Superman and my heart and trachea in his hands and was squeezing for all it's worth. Would anyone be surprised if I said I grew quite anxious and so tried to concentrating on taking slow, deep breaths. But this was difficult and painful. My hands and arms had been outside the covers and were stone cold. My feet were as well even though they were under a blanket. I curled up in a ball, trying to get warm, but the pain was too much.

I got up to go to the bathroom, the pain was now quite severe in my upper back and my head ached. While the house seemed no colder than usual, I started to shiver horribly. Back under the covers it took at least 15 minutes to warm myself up enough to stop the shivering. By now I was convinced I had a fever but the thermometer read 99.7F. I adjusted the bed and readjusted my position.

By now my neck was arched backwards and my mouth gaped open as I lay gasping for breath. I knew I should call the doctor -- you know to get permission from my managed care gatekeeper so that I could call for an ambulance. But last time I had to sit on hold so long that I just knew there was no way I could do that with the phone this time around. I figured it was time to screw the doctors and make peace with what I figured was coming.

Honestly, closing your eyes and waiting to die isn't half as difficult as one might think -- but it requires both no fear of death and a readiness to leave what surrounds you. I had both. I decided though that I didn't want to be found naked so I got up and put on a pair of shorts. I told the dog I loved him and closed my eyes.

Clearly, the worst thing about death is the pain, suffering and waiting. Why couldn't it come swiftly? I thought about doing something to either ease my anxiety or decrease the pain, but what? And worst of all, I didn't want to mess things up and make it look like a suicide when it wasn't that. So I just lay there until finally my eyes closed again and darkness overcame me.

I saw no shafts of white light nor heard any voices. Actually, I doubt I dreamed at all. I didn't sleep longer than 90 minutes before I was up again. I decided that the fever was much worse now. I got up, and decided to use another method to take my temperature and sure enough, this time it was 102F. Not as bad as I might have expected given the chest pain. I did notice that the pain was least severe when I was standing, but I was a bit dizzy.

I went back to bed, but it was quite futile. Every position just seemed to crush my chest. Some made it quite impossible to breath. After an hour of this misery I finally got up and went out to the recliner figuring it was the best way to sit upright comfortably. I slept for another hour.

Waking just before sun up, I still felt as though I were fighting for every breath. I started to wonder who I should call -- the doctor, my caregiver, no one? By this time, I knew without a doubt that I wasn't having some sort of massive heart attack coupled with severe blockage of the pipes. I was pretty confident that I was fighting with a vicious virus and had to hope that what is left of my immune system could handle it.

I sipped some apple juice and tried to get comfortable. I just couldn't seem to get back to sleep so I got up and took the dog out for a leak. Walking was horrendous and I couldn't get him to go slow enough. We made it back inside and I settled back in but couldn't manage to find sleep.

I managed to down my meds at the usual time and then waited a bit to cancel the electrician from coming in a few hours. I then tried my caregiver at his office, but they said he'd called in ill again today, so I left a message for his wife figuring I didn't want to be the one to wake him if were sleeping. She left me a message which I got a numbers of hour later saying that he basically had a chest cold, headache and was coughing a bit. So it was clear we were affected quite differently if it is his bug I shared.

Shortly after leaving her a message, I fell asleep in the chair and finally stayed asleep for about 3 hours. Oh, if only the neighbors could have been quiet and not woken me for once! But I felt a bit better -- the fever felt less incendiary and the grip on my chest had lessened. I found I could even move around in the chair comfortably. But it was too damn bright to try and sleep in it again, so now I figured it was off to bed.

Sure enough, 5 hours of sleep and the worst had passed. I even ate a bit of chicken soup when I took my meds this evening. I watched a movie and got the dog out again for some more complete relief. I think it's time to feed him and head to bed for the night. I just hope I sleep well. I still have some minor body aches and feel unnaturally warm, my neck is rather stiff and deep breaths are still painful, but otherwise it's hard to believe that a short 12 hours ago I thought for sure I was dying.

I'll need to sleep well for the next couple of days and let my body finish getting rid of whatever has attacked me. If my caregiver was well, I might even rush off to the doctor in the next day or so to see if she's got any good test for this heart of mine. I can't help but wonder if it hasn't been damaged somehow during this attack. Additionally the key veins and arteries in and out as well as the place where the trachea splits towards each long seem to have been impacted though oddly enough I haven't coughed once nor do I feel like my lungs have fluid in them.

I wish I could report that I feel a new zest for life and feel lucky that I made it but alas, it's more like disappointment since I know that I've missed a chance to abandon this life I don't enjoy living. There hardly seems to be a reason to rush off to the doctor since she won't be able to give me a flu shot until I've been over this for some time and she can't write a prescription that will make my apartment quieter or safer. Well, maybe I will share a bit more about that tomorrow -- I think I need to go to sleep quite soon. I'm very tired.