I'm so weak… I probably have at best 5 minutes of energy before I have to go back to bed… due to take more antibiotics soon. But I'll try to get through this anyway…
Nothing tastes like it is supposed to. Apple juice tastes like weak bitter acid. Ginger ale tastes like soda water. Most foods have either no taste or a chemical taste that is probably buried under the various normal tastes I am used to. There are exceptions though… salsa tastes like salsa, although the cornchips don't taste like cornchips anymore. A cut tomato tastes like a cut tomato, as long as you don't put any Caesar dressing on it, because sadly, Caesar dressing doesn't taste anything like Caesar dressing … more like salty oil.
I keep being excited at the prospect of a simple food up until I take my first bite and discover it isn't going to taste anything like what I'm used to. Sometimes the new tastes make me sick, and having puked twice already, I'm in no hurry to repeat the experience.
Fruit-bar style popsicles are slightly sweet, cold, and slimy. I've taken to eating a popsicle when my temperature shoots up.
One thing that still tastes the same is oranges. A nice peeled orange continues to taste like a nice peeled orange. I just ate the last one last night… kept it by my bedside and nursed myself along with a wedge or two from it and a few sips of apple juice each time I woke up.
Ugh getting tired. Bye for now.
Get this fellow more oranges!
I had a similar experience once after eating a bunch of wasabi peas, although I think the onset of a cold is probably a better explanation for what happened to me.
I was pretty scared when I thought I had lost the ability to taste things normally — soup tasted like bland water. I freaked out!
However, my taste did come back. Many things can happen to your body when you're fighting off infection, and drugs alter your ability to taste things, too. So I would expect that this will go away as your health improves and you come off your meds.
Poor Chuck!
That sounds like the antibiotic to me. I know that antibiotics have had that effect on me. Some simple boiled rice might stay down — maybe foods that you don't expect to have much taste anyway. You just need a little food to survive, and you don't have to enjoy it, as long as you can keep it down. Your taste will come back. You sound very, very sick, and it might be a slow recovery. But once you're better, you'll taste again and you'll have energy again.
It does sound like you should call your doctor, though. You sound worse. Maybe you need a steroid to help that antibiotic get working. I personally hate prednisone, but once when I was really sick with a sinus infection, I took it and it worked wonders.
Going to give the antibiotic another day to work. Although I am weak and exhausted, that's pretty much what pneumonia does to you. There are signs of progress. My temperature doesn't seem to be shooting up anymore, and I'm coughing up normal gunk instead of bloody gunk.
What I don't want is a repeat of last time, where I had 2 relapses and the pneumonia took 3 months to go away entirely. So if it's getting to be Monday and I'm not 100% better, I want my doctor to have a new antibiotic on deck –immediately–. I'll talk to my doctor about that tomorrow.
Oh, good, I'm glad there's progress. I've never had pneumonia, but 100% better by Monday seems awfully optimistic, considering you can't sit up for more than 5 minutes at a time today. I've had a cold (or a “clu”) for three weeks now, and I've improved each week (after the first, which sucked), but I don't expect to be 100% better for a while. I still can't walk outside without getting asthma and I'm sleeping about 9 hours a day. Last week I couldn't lecture without coughing spasms; this week I can. Improvement. Be kind to your body, take it slowly, and get better so you don't have to go into the hospital. I don't want to depress you, but I do want to frighten you — I just went to the funeral last week of my friend's mother, who died from an infection she got in the hospital. Take care of yourself!!! I don't think you should give a shit what your doctor says; if you're not better by Monday, you're not better and you need to rest. If you lose your lousy job, then you lose your lousy job, and good riddance. You'll find another.
There are many things I like about my job, but a lot of things I don't like too. One of which is the sicktime policy, we get a stunning 5 sickdays a year. Which basically means you get the flu and are down for the week? You can't get sick again, any other sicktime you need will come out of your vacation or you will have to go on short term disability and get paid a reduced wage.
But after my last experience with pneumonia I assure you I'm not screwing around. I'm going to be talking with my doctor tomorrow, and setting up a follow-up on Monday. I'll be letting my doc know that I want a second antibiotic script, for a different antibiotic, ready to fill as soon as I run out of this antibiotic. I am not going to sit around waiting for a few days once the drugs run out only to get sick again with a resistant bug. Like happened last time. Twice.
I sent a warning note to my HR contact at my employer today just to let her know that the likelihood of me strolling into the office on Monday and resuming my duties was fairly close to zero.
Oh good, I'm glad. It sounds like you have a plan to get healthy.
That sicktime policy completely sucks. I remember, at the university when I first started working, we didn't start with any sick or vacation time. It started to accrue in the first month. Every time I went to pick up my paycheck, the clerk would say, “did you work every day?” It was ridiculous and insulting. Just one more insult from the university. If you thought they treated students badly, they treated staff even worse. Next year we are going to have to pay $125 for the privilege of parking there! That's great if you're adjunct faculty — you get paid next to nothing and then you have to pay it back in order to park.
Grrr.
The other obvious downside to your company's moronic policy is that people will naturally come into work sick.
Good luck with your health. I hope you continue to see improvement.
Hey…
My new company has an unlimited sicktime policy
Hopefully you get better soon so you and I can talk more about my company
Jay
Sounds good Hoolie. Once I've got my pins back, let's chat.
I had pneumonia in both lungs and a fever of 104.7 about 8 years ago, and my doctor gave me Zithromax, which wiped it out completely in under a week. Ask about it.
Tom
There's something about my physiology which keeps Zithromax from working for me. The last time I had pneumonia they tried zithromax, which led to my first massive relapse. Later in life they tried zithromax in response to a sinus infection and it did nothing at all… I just got sicker and sicker until they took me off it and switched me to Bactrim.
Nowadays when the doctor's suggest zithromax, I immediately refuse… it doesn't work for me and I am not going to spend 5 days getting more sick to prove it.
But thanks for the suggestion. Zithromax is highly touted by a lot of people and I know many who swear by it. It is somewhat revolutionary — only 1 pill a day for 5 days… almost unheard of. I wish it worked for me.
Sorry to hear that Bub
When I was going through my thrice yearly tonsil explosion (age 18-34), I was on virtually every antibiotic known to medical science. It got to the point where I'd end up in the ER, the doctor would say something like this:
Doc: “That's a nasty looking set of tonsils you've got there, does this happen often?”
Me: “2-3 times yearly, will you please take them out?” (all while choking on my own throat as I talked due to the severe swelling”
Doc: “Can't, you're not having enough attacks, you need to have at least 6 attacks in one year before they're ready to come out”
Me: “Gimme a scalpel, I'll do it myself”
Doc: “Ha ha. We'll put you on amoxycillin”
Me: “Nope, tried it, may as well give me candy”
Doc: “Oh, ok, we'll use Bactrim”
Me: “Nope, doesn't work either”
Doc : “Oh, ok, Ceftin?”
Me: “That worked once, then stopped”
Doc: “Um, er, eh, I'll be right back”
5 minutes later
Doc: “Here's Zithromax, it'll work, bye.”
Went through that for YEARS before a specialist took one look in my mouth and went “Yeesh, let's cut those suckers out”.
Ain't life grand??
Tom
Chuck,
Are you SURE that short term disability is a reduced amount? I know here if you go to short term disability you get a reduced wage from the comapny but the insurance company makes up the difference. You should look into it. We also have funky rules about when you have to let HR know so you should definately contact them no matter what. Even with a reduced wage you should stay home until you're better. Pneumonia is nothing to fuck around with.
B.O.B.
Chuck if you are serious about a career change and would like better benefits I know that a big pharmaceutical company (Bayer maybe?) is builiding a giant plant at Devens. They are always looking for IS people. the pay might be a little less (or not, I really don't know) and you probably won't be doing any programming but you'd trade that for more regular hours and benefits that rock. Hell if you'd be interested in driving to Andover I'm sure you could find somethign here.
B.O.B.
Tom, that is EXACTLY what happened to me (pretty much the same age range, too). I had an HMO and my doctor wouldn't refer me to a specialist. It got so I just didn't even bother asking for antibiotics any more. Then I got a chance to switch to a PPO, went to a specialist, and he said “oh yeah, those need to come out,” and that was the end of it.
Good thing too, because I had to switch back to an HMO a short time later and have been with one ever since. Fortunately my new dr. hands out referrals like they're candy.
Hey Chuck,
I only get 5 days here too. But, I'm lucky in the sense that my boss doesn't really care if I go over a few days. It all evens out in the end. Remind your boss of all the OT you've generously given!
Stay in BED!!!
Love,
Donna
Zithromax doesn't work for me either — that was the antibiotic I was on that led to me being on another antibiotic and prednisone, which I hate. Just because one antibiotic works for one infection doesn't mean it will work for another. Whatever bugs are making you sick just aren't ones that are susceptible to zithromax.
I think the trick is to get a referral to a surgeon.
I've found that doctors believe they are prescription machines, and surgeons believe they can cut out your problem. So if you want surgery, get a referral to a surgeon.
(I complained to my gastroenterologist that I have a lot of nausea, and he said, “Do you have reflux? because there are drugs you can take for reflux.” Me: “No, I don't have any reflux, I have NAUSEA.” When I saw him next, “How's that prilosec working?” Me: “Yeah, I never took that; I don't have REFLUX!”
With another problem I was having, I was referred to a surgeon, and he said he could fix it with surgery. He visited me after the surgery and said, “Yeah, that wasn't your problem.” Ouch.)
When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Argh.