Feverish Friday: Or, "Why Have There Been No Posts So Far This Week??"

Hello, friends.

This has been a very strange week. Last Saturday, I woke up with a bronchitis taste to my cough. Now, I cough all the time - one of the things that happens when you have seasonal allergies and asthma that never really go away - but this was a different kind of cough. I have bronchitis enough to know when it is starting up, but I often get into arguments with my healthcare providers about what is going on until they can hear it as well. Just being able to taste the bronchitis is never enough for them - they want more definite symptoms. So, I spent my Saturday in bed, trying to rest. I promised my mom and my sister that I would go to the doctor as soon as my symptoms became more prevalent.

That was Sunday morning. I notified my boss at my church job that there was no way that I could lead music since singing is something that requires breathing, and I was not able to do much of that without coughing. I then waited until my medical provider's Sunday hours started. I was fifth in line. Since I had a respiratory infection, I had to go back out to my car, get a COVID swab, and wait until that was all negative for COVID, Influenza A and B, and strep before I could re-enter the building.

I was negative for everything.

I left with prescriptions for antibiotics and a cough suppressant. So, I headed home to wait for my medications. By the time they came up, I was not going to leave my house again. I called off work for Monday.

In the past five days, my temperature has been over 102, I have alternated between coughing up stuff and horribly dry coughing spells, been back to the medical provider, been rediagnosed, got more medication, and I have more things going on. I have been told that if the current medication regimen does not work to clear this up, I will be referred to a pulmonary specialist to see what is actually happening in my lungs. At least, at this point, it doesn't sound like pneumonia.

I went to work on Tuesday - masked and intending on leaving as soon as graduation was over. I didn't last that long. I got the sound system and the music set up, and then my boss kicked me out. I cried on the way home, but my trip to work showed me that I still had noncontract hours that I could use up without being penalized for sick time (which means lack of pay right now), so I was feeling better about having to head home. I missed field day on Wednesday, and I missed the district breakfast on Thursday. I have been at home this entire week. Today is the first day of my first summer break, and I am not ready for my new intern to arrive. I will have to go to work at some point during this break just to put things back where they belong.

That task will wait until I can breathe without coughing again.

The medications that I am on now (on top of the medications I was already on) make me jittery, but they have been pretty good for the brain. I am thinking about more than how miserable I feel, so I am counting that as a positive situation for myself at this point. I can think.

I am not sure if the thoughts that I am thinking are actually anything important, but at least I am thinking about other things again. I have some plans to make some journals and some thoughts for workshops and other things to do for music therapists. So many ideas. I wrote most of them down after talking to my sister until late last night. My brain just kept going, and so I wrote and drew and dreamt until my light went off on its timer.

My lawn is not mowed. My trash can is still sitting by the curb. I have to go get another breathing treatment medication (the pharmacists are getting to know my face at this point). I am hoping to be able to sing enough on Sunday to finish off the choir year, but I may not be able to do that yet. I will still be at church on Sunday since I can stand long enough to direct, but I may need to get a pinch singer to help out.

I hope to be motivated enough to get some of the fever thoughts that I've been having lately into reality. I think there is value in these thoughts for music therapists - I just have to figure out how to get them to those music therapists...

I can feel the jitters starting, so off I go into fits of energy and then coughing enough to keep me in my chair and then another round of fits of energy... My desks are horribly cluttered and crowded, so I am thinking that they need some of this jittery energy. I hope to be able to concentrate enough to finish the tasks that I need to finish to get them cleared enough for more projects (maybe some of the things on my most current list). For now, though, it is time to close this, take some personal time, and figure out where to start with my cleaning process.

It is time to figure out new things for my website. I am tired of how it looks and what it does for me. So, I need to do something else with it all.