The Sickness has Hit the Hooker Household

Poor Percie is sick! She woke up in the middle of the night sick at her stomach. Okay, so this may be TMI, but I have to share this because I just can't believe it. She is so good about never pottying in the house, even when she is sick. Not only does she ask to go outside to potty, but she asks to go outside when she has to throw up. I am not kidding!! I think it is awesome because it is one less thing that has to be cleaned up.

It is kind of like when your first child is so good, you worry about having another one because you wonder if you could get lucky twice.....well I don't know if we will ever get another dog one day because Percie has totally spoiled us!!

When I called the vet this morning, they said to bring her right in. They are pretty familiar with Percie because of her recent trips to the vet this year. This is all the medicine that Percie has to take. She also got 3 shots while we were at the vet's office. They tested her for everything under the sun, and of course all of the test results came back negative. So all of this medicine should cover whatever it is!! She is already tons better, and has slept most of the day.

I am also a little under the weather. It started Monday when i got home from work. I felt nauseous and weak, so I went to lay down. I slept all the way until Tuesday night. I thought I might just have a 24 hour bug, but when I took my temp Tuesday night I had a fever, so I decided I needed to go to the doctor Wednesday with all of the flu that has been going around.

They did a flu swab for the seasonal flu and the H1N1 flu, but both came back negative. The doctor told me that the flu swab is only 56% accurate. Great.....so I may have the flu and I may not. I had all of the symptoms for the H1N1 except the cough. (And really I just don't like to cough, so I don't breath deep enough that I have to cough.) I also have double ear infections and a sinus infection so the doctor started me on an antibiotic and a decongestant. I already take 3 allergy and asthma medicines a day, so these meds were on top of the meds I already take.

Remember me blogging about the precious 3 and 4 year-old girls I teach at church on Wednesday nights, well, I didn't want to take a chance at giving them the flu. SO I called one of their moms and asked if she could teach for me. She was more than happy to, because no one wants this flu!! She stopped by on Thursday and brought me this sweet card that she and the girls had made me!! Isn't that precious!?!

This is where one of the girls wrote my name! Isn't that sweet!?!

You can see where one of the little girls wrote her name, and I'm pretty sure Mrs. Anne wrote the rest!! It is hanging on my refrigerator. I really appreciate them making this for me, and I also really appreciate Mrs. Anne teaching for me at the last minute!!

Well, so last night I started feeling this crazy back pain. I was planning on going back to work today, because I don't think I had fever yesterday. I did not sleep well because of the crazy back pain. I say it is crazy because I have done nothing but lay in the bed for 4 days. I couldn't imagine how I had pulled a muscle or whatever. I told Joe about it this morning and he started poking on my back where I said it hurt. He told me he thought that was my lung.

I talked to mama, and she agreed. (And they were both kinda freaking out because I have asthma and they say asthma patients are more likely to get pneumonia after having H1N1.) So after I took Percie to the vet, I came home and started calling the doctor's office. It was either busy or rang 15 times and no one answered. We got a little rain last night (well maybe a lot of rain) so I thought their phone lines may be out or maybe they had to close because of flooding. Mama was on her way to teach her class and offered to stop by there and see what was going on. They were there (thank goodness!) and their phone lines were out. (Because I think she and Joe were about to haul me off to the emergency room, and that is the last place I wanted to go!) She called me and said that they definitely wanted to see me and to come at 1:20. They ran blood work and it did not come back good. (I'm so glad they have their own lab in the doctor's office.) So they did a chest x-ray. (I'm so glad they have their own x-ray machine and x-ray tech in the office.)

The doctor came in and showed me the x-ray. Sure enough...I have pneumonia!! He said we caught it pretty early. (I say we because I really didn't think I had it! If Joe and mama hadn't pushed me, I probably wouldn't have gone to the doctor today!) He gave me an antibiotic shot and a steroid shot and told me to keep taking all of my same medicines they prescribed me on Wednesday. He said I should start to feel better by tomorrow!! Yay!! I hope he is right. He also said that I should feel much better by Monday and even be able to go back to work!! Another yay (since I have been off since Tuesday)!! The only negative he told me is that I could have this back pain for up to a month. Yuck!! I'm not excited about that, but he said just because my back hurts doesn't mean it is not getting better so that is good.

So the moral of the story is...well besides listen to your mother and your husband...that I can totally understand how someone could have pneumonia and not know it until it gets bad. I'm sure they just think they just have some crazy back pain like I did!! I have had pneumonia before, and it did not feel like this! It's just crazy!!

I also hate it because I had so many fun Halloween things planned like carving pumpkins (which I am going to do even if it is after Halloween. I have already gotten the pumpkins and stuff to carve them with), Harvest Fest, trick-or-treating at my work, a costume contest at Joe's work that I was going to take Percie to, trick-or treating at Joe's work, lunch with Carie, Annslie, and Natalie, and Natalie's Halloween get together. It was going to be so much fun, not to mention there were going to be so many things to blog about. So sad!

Now I just pray that Joe and mama don't get it. They have been great nurses!!
Thanks mama and Joe!!

Rae