It has been an interesting past month or so for me.

I had fought what had felt like a cold for about two weeks that kept getting slowly worse. Everyone thought it was a cold and said there was no use going to the doctor, since that is what he would tell me too. Heck, it felt like a cold. Outside of the chills (but oddly no fever) the first few days, I just coughed often and occasionally strained my voice from talking too much (kind of hard not to do when your job includes phone support). The nights were the worst, I got very little sleep and coughed despite taking NyQuil.

Thanksgiving weekend, two weeks into this “cold” I went up to my parents house to visit them, hoping a little R&R with home cooked meals would do me some good. By Sunday my father got sick of hearing me cough and we thought maybe this was something more than a cold. A quick trip to the doctor’s office and I discovered I actually had walking pneumonia, which shocked us all. I had no fever, was not tired, and outside of the first couple of days, no chills, just this cough.

Of course things weren’t easy. The doctor went with a lower dose of antibiotics hoping that would clear up everything, but the way my luck was going, that wasn’t the case. I was doing better for about three days before my recovery stalled and started to backtrack.

Another trip the doctor, stronger antibiotics, and an inhaler prescribed, four days straight at home and I feel a lot better. Still have a cough and congestion, which will last another week or two according to the doctor, but the pneumonia is much reduced in my lung and is under control.

It is quite amazing what doesn’t get done when I am sick. My wife was awesome helping out the best she could, but everything from minor repairs to cleaning out the closet and shed to even some computer work that I had wanted to finish never happened. I did not even do my Christmas consumer duty, I didn’t start my Christmas shopping until three days ago.

Lesson learned about how the cough I had wasn’t normal and I should have gone to the doctor much sooner. If I had, I probably would have saved a lot of time, money, and frustration on my part. My awesome employer was understanding, my awesome wife was just plain awesome, and I am finally getting better.