September 30, 2007

• Another Pneumonia Report

  Three days ago, I convinced myself that I was getting over it.  For two days of sunshine and clear skies, I was breathing more easily and able to move around without going faint from lack of oxygen.  Around eleven last night it started raining.  After a rough night with several suffocating awakenings, I am again having to concentrate on working my diaphragm to get enough air.  I’m moving around no more than I must.

  Even so, today’s crisis is not as severe as the one on those last rainy days.  I am getting over it.  My recovery might have been faster if I had not initially mistaken the pneumonia for a flareup of M.E.   I had been warned about that, too.  Years ago, when I first got online and joined some fibromyalgia forums, there was always much discussion of the protean nature of the disorder, its many different symptoms, and the tendency after a while to simply assume that any new or increased misery was simply the same old damned disease.

  This began with about four days of flu-like symptoms, which then went away.  A couple of days after the virus passed, the first pneumonia symptoms slipped under my radar.  I needed a week or so of labored breath, and the inspiration from a series of dreams, before I realized it wasn’t M.E. and went into full healing mode with the herb teas and methylxanthine rich foods.  Fever dreams persist.  In my life, there are always trade-offs and payoffs:  no rose without a silver lining, no cloud without a thorn.    I’d prefer having the interesting dreams without all the respiratory distress and restricted activity, but they do offer some compensation.

  

  • 2:44 pm
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