I eat well, exercise and take good care of myself. I generally don't get sick and if I do it's usually fairly mild and short lived. However, there will no doubt be times in your life that despite your best efforts to eat well and stay healthy you will need the aid of modern medicine. For me this was one of those times. After getting what to me felt like the worst cold I had ever had I thought that things wouldn't get worse and that I was on the mend only to discover that just when I thought I was getting better I began to slowly get worse as the days went by. I tried everything to kick the cold- even garlic in my socks to draw out the illness. I developed a cough that would leave me gasping for air and any time I left the comforting warmth of the loungeroom I would struggle to breathe. I couldn't breathe when I lay down which meant that I didn't sleep for three nights. In the early hours of the third night without sleep I had resolved to go to the doctor when they opened. Each breath I took was laboured and I had to concentrate intensely on getting air into my lungs. I had a coughing fit and it felt like my lungs completely closed over, I couldn't breathe. Dave woke suddenly and jumped out of bed knowing that he had to call the ambulance (Mio slept peacefully through it of course). The ambulance arrived and I had slightly more control over my breathing again but I knew now that I couldn't do this on my own anymore and I needed the hospital. After a couple of hours in emergency and being loaded up with more drugs my body had ever seen I was told that I'd need to stay in for a few days. At first the hospital said that I couldn't have Mio with me and of course I was hysterical. The ward then said I could have her with me from 8am-10pm but I would need to express milk or send her off with formula over night. The staff said they could organise a breast pump and I felt a little more at ease. Hours went by with no breast pump and I decided that I was not going to let Mio leave my side, having her beside me was important for both of us. I was weak and exhausted but with an almost constant supply of drugs to help me breathe I knew I was where I needed to be.
India went off to my brothers house and Dave brought me food (because for starters, hospital food is bad, but more importantly they could get my diet right (vegetarian, no gluten, no soy) which meant that I would have starved without Dave). Late that night it was agreed upon that Mio could stay if Dave stayed, this was great news except that Dave had to sleep in a chair that night.
The next morning I insisted Dave go an get a couple of hours sleep and then return with some food. The nurses were rather annoyed with him but as far as I was concerned, I managed to take care of Mio (who, in reality, does little more than sleep) when I couldn't breathe at home so taking care of her while resting in the hospital bed was no big deal. We finally got my meals sorted which meant that Dave didn't need to leave (one meal in two days that I could actually eat is pretty appalling, you'd think a hospital would have food allergies at the top of their catering). The nurses also sorted out a bed for Dave meaning we could all rest.
My chest infection responded really well to all the medication so I was switched to oral meds and sent home on the third day. I am now making every effort to eat well and take extra probiotics so that the antibiotics and other drugs I'm on for the next couple of days don't mess up my own and Mio's digestive systems. I came across a great blog post on recovering from antibiotics http://www.lonehomeranger.com/2013/01/rebuilding-your-childs-gut-immune.html
Modern medicine has it's place and I'm glad it was there for me when I clearly needed it. It was a shock to me that I got that sick and the timing was pretty bad so it's nice to be on the mend again. I'm looking forward to getting back into the blissful daze of baby land and enjoying my beautiful family.
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