Since COVID in February, part of the Long ‘Vid has been just ridiculous ongoing allergy symptoms – so I have kept a sort of permacough as I’ve written about several times.

A few weeks ago, I also wrote about an urgent care outing for bronchitis for this same permacough that had just gotten out of hand – and I did improve after that visit (at least from an infection standpoint).

However, the allergy symptoms and cough stayed as usual – until Saturday, when my breathing was different, my chest was even more tight, and I was not able to get my symptoms to resolve with my inhaler.

Concerned, I went to urgent care and explained everything to the very kind doctor who assessed me and diagnosed sinusitis immediately (my chronic state of being), ran a COVID test (negative, thank the Lord), and then ran a chest X-Ray – but I honestly think he was expecting it to be okay, for me to have bronchitis and to give me shots and send me on.

A few moments after the chest X-Ray though, he appeared, quite shocked, to tell me I have right lower lobe pneumonia – and to really amp up the shots and antibiotics and what have you.

Turns out, as has happened even when I was septic in the past, because I am chronically ill – and really sick ALL the time – I often don’t look as ill as I am, even when things have been very serious. (This is made worse by the fact that my daily steroids often keep me from running a high fever with infections like a normal human.) The nice doctor got to see that up close and personal Saturday – and I got to feel my heart sink because I knew something was really wrong when I went in – but – oh my word – pneumonia is scary as hell.

Needless to say, since then, we have been in the land of lots of meds and naps and coughs and the ever present fatigue and chest tightness that this lady with chronic anxiety is just loving.

True pnuemonias – which I have managed to avoid until now (different from the miserable but easier to clear “walking pneumonia”) – have a notoriously long recovery time, which is not great news as I am still dealing with COVID’s after effects – and suspect that is what made me vulnerable to this in the first place.

For now, I am taking antibiotics for the next ten days and am waiting on a couple of my regular doctor’s offices to open today – as, of course, this had to happen over the long Memorial Day holiday – so none of my regular MD’s have been available. I will check with them for any further instructions and go from there.

In the meantime, I’m on to grab my inhaler and snoodle up for a nap.

I’m praying and trusting – especially as this chest tightness is so anxiety inducing – and knowing that God’s got this. ❤

Be well, everybody. Take care of yourselves and each other.

Grace and Blessings.