Pleurisy - Day 8

In my last post I noted that I've been tentatively diagnosed with pleurisy, an infection of the outer lining of the lung. I was put on antibiotics and anti-inflammatory painkillers to help with this, and I was also given a one-week trial pack of acid blockers by one doctor who was convinced it was not a lung issue, but rather a stomach issue. I've been taking all of these drugs consistently, even though I'm fully convinced it's not a stomach issue (I mean, really, stabbing pain directly under my left breast and in my upper dorsal rib cage that is worsened by breathing but unaffected by food/water intake is a stomach issue?? But I digress . . .).

By the middle of last week I was starting to feel a bit better. I was well enough to get my daughter back from her father, who was taking care of her during the worst of my illness. I shoveled my walkway on Thursday, and in anticipation of eventually getting back on my bike I took it into Revolution Cycle for winter tire installation and a tune-up. I went back to work on Friday.

My shoveling handiwork, and it's already snowed again - winter has arrived!

Perhaps all this optimistic activity was a bad idea, because overnight on Friday I was awakened with severe pains again. I was unable to fall back asleep because the pain was quite intense, so I spent the rest of Saturday exhausted and fighting dull chest aches punctuated by a couple waves of moan-worthy pains. Uh oh. It's back. Shitballs - and I thought I was getting better!

My daughter in her snow suit, pink toddler-sized balaclava, two layers of mitts, and snow boots. She's super-impressed.

Despite having finished my course of antibiotics and starting to feel worse again, my parental guilt pushed me to suggest a short outing to the park with my daughter today. After all, yesterday had been a "pajama day" that nearly drove me crazy because all I wanted was to nap but all I got was a toddler demanding my constant attention and energy. I thought life might be better if I wrestled her into her snow suit and took her to the park to burn off some of that energy. Besides, it might be a good test to see how my lung would hold up in the cold air.

Yep, still painful. And wrestling her into her epic snow outfit was really not worth it. She didn't even want to get out of the stroller, I basically had to tip her out to force her to play a bit. So, I just did a lazy two-block round-trip walk to the park and pushed my daughter around on the swings, being out of the house for a grand total of 45 minutes, and this caused some sharp chest pains. This was nothing compared to a 30-40 minute bike commute each way to work. Sigh! I want to be well enough to hit the road again! Hell, I want to be well enough to have the energy to do something other than sit on my ass and watch TV.

The new studded tires, just waiting to be tried out.

Man, I can't wait to try out those kick-ass studded tires . . . but it looks like I'm going to have to wait a little whole longer yet.