Tough Guy

Well, at least #1 Son thought he was a tough guy.

It seems he started to get sick over a week ago.  He toughed it out, believing it would go away, or get better.  Then he called late Wednesday, after the doctor's offices are closed, and asked me to make an appointment with my doctor for him the next day.

Thursday, i started to call the office about 5 minutes before they would open, to catch them first thing.  We got a 2:30pm appointment.

Then later that morning, when i was up at the church working on the new committee they haven't even named, and that is just me and one other person, and we are supposed to go over the whole church and point out everything that needs cleaning and repair (and it's a big, old, rambling place with multiple buildings and it has a lot in the "needs cleaning and repair" department), he sent me a text that he could hardly breathe.

Dropping everything, i went to pick him up and bring him straight to the doctor's office.  This doctor happens to have his office in the hospital, and so he could send #1 Son for x-rays from there if he wanted, as we feared pneumonia.

Seldom have i seen my boy look so ragged as he did that morning.  His cough was incessant, and he could hardly catch his breath between bouts.  He managed to tell me that he had strained a muscle two days before from coughing so hard and was having trouble lifting his arm because of it.  Yet he still waited over a day after that to ask to see a doctor, thinking it would get better on its own.

He had also been swigging down OTC cough syrup like water, and that #2 Son had brought him the large package of cough drops we used to have in our medicine cabinet.  He had gone through most of it in only three days.

In the past few days, he had only eaten a couple of pieced of toast, a few bites of some fruit, and had a few sips of milk, because he had no appetite at all.

When we got to the doctor's office almost two hours early, they heard him coughing and made me fill out paperwork while putting him in a room.   About 15 minutes later, he called me as i sat in the waiting area to ask where we get prescriptions filled.  About 45 minutes after that, he emerged with an inhaler in his hands to say that his steroid, antibiotic, and cough medicine with codeine prescriptions had been emailed to the pharmacy already.

The doctor noted, "It doesn't matter if he has pneumonia or not, I'd put him on the same stuff anyway, so why bother exposing him to an x-ray?"

Agreed.

We drove toward the house and stopped at the pharmacy to drop off his insurance card and to tell them to send a text when it was ready.  Then i brought him to the house and we waited the requisite hour-and-a-half for them to get the stuff ready.

Once he had the medicine, he wasted no time taking any of it, especially the cough syrup with codeine.  (He had already had a dose from the inhaler when we left the doctor's office.)  He asked to be taken back to his "bachelor pad," a very nice little house where he shares the rent with 3 other people.  While i had my misgivings, he was anxious to get in his own bed.

Friday he got #2 Son to pick him up and bring him over to visit, and he was noticeably better.  The cough had calmed a lot, and was no longer a constant, body wrenching hack that made me hurt to hear it.  His appetite is picking up, and so of course he grabbed a few odds and ends before he left.

He is feeling much better now, and i think he has learned not to put it off when he gets sick, because it might not "go away on its own."


Today is:

Be Kind to Humankind Week: Speak Kind Words Saturday

Day of Solidarity and Freedom -- Poland (Anniversary of the 1980 August Agreement)

Eat Outside Day -- as long as you won't pass out from the heat

Eleusinia Games -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate; 3 days of games with grain as prizes)

Festal Day -- Order of the Eastern Star

Invent A New Sandwich Day -- spread around the internet like good mayo; go ahead, have fun with this

Limba Noastra -- Moldova (Day of Our Language)

Independence Day -- Kyrgyzstan(1991); Malaysia (Hari Kebangsaan/Freedom Day, 1957); Trinidad & Tobago(1962)

International Bacon Day -- good day for a double decker BLT with grilled onions and Swiss cheese

International Day of Blogs and Bloggers -- originally sponsored by www.blogday.org, but that website seems to no longer exist; that's no reason not to celebrate blogging!

Japanese Festival -- St. Louis, MO (celebrating the history, culture, and people of Japan at the Missouri Botanical Garden; through Monday)

Love Litigating Lawyers Day -- yes, G-d tells us to love everybody, even litigation attorneys but He never said doing it would be easy; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

National Trail Mix Day

St. Raymond Nonnatus' Day -- (Patron of babies, childbirth, children, expectant mothers, falsely accused people, infants, midwives, newborn babies, obstetricians, and pregnant women; Baltoa, Dominican Republic; against fever)


Birthdays Today:

Jeff Hardy, 1977
Richard Gere, 1949
Itzhak Perlman, 1945
Marva Collins, 1936
Frank Robinson, 1935
James Coburn, 1928
Buddy Hackett, 1924
Alan Jay Lerner, 1918
Arthur Godfrey, 1903
Maria Montessori, 1870


Today in History:

Traditional date upon which Ayonwentah (Haiwatha) and Deganawidah (The Great Peacemaker) assist the Iroquois tribes in establishing the Confederation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy, or League of Five Nations), 1142
Lewis and Clark begin their expedition, 1803
A nuts and bolts machine is patented by Micah Rugg, 1842
The first professional football game is played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, 1895
Edison patents the Kinetograph, 1897
Mrs. Adolph Landenburg, a horse rider, debuts the split skirt, 1902
Debut of Foghorn Leghorn, 1946
Solidarity Labor Union forms in Poland, 1980
Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris, 1997
Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream is recovered in a raid by Norwegian police, 2006