Petrelis Files

Pneumonia Again, Caught Early: An Antibiotic & Mike's Love

After biking to my dermatology appointment and shopping at the UN Plaza farmers' market yesterday afternoon, I came home and took a nap because I was feeling quite fatigued. When I woke up, my head was feverish and no matter how much water I drank, my throat was parched.

Something was wrong and when I told Mike it was best to go to the emergency room at the Davies hospital campus, he volunteered to accompany me but said that wasn't necessary. He's been to the ER with me plenty of other occasions and I didn't expect to be gone very long.

Well, despite having really terrific numbers from my last few blood draws and no problems with shortness of breath, the ER doctor determined I had a small patch of pneumonia on the lower left lung. We looked at the X-rays together and I saw that patch and the better looking right lung. Glad we caught this infection early!

The nurse soon had me hooked up to a saline drip with a chaser of an antibiotic flowing into my vein, and we all waited for results of the ER blood draws. At one point, I had the IV needle inserted into my left hand and on the right the nurse was taking my blood pressure and measuring my blood oxygen.

I was given antibiotic and steroid pills to take, given prescriptions to fill today and instructions to come back to the ER if my condition worsened. Many thanks to the ER staff for taking such good care of me on what was a very busy night for them.

When I got home, Mike was happy to learn we had answers to what was troubling me and that I already had a therapeutic massage schedule for today and an appointment tomorrow at the pulmonary clinic. So good to have Mike's love and companionship!

Still here, still queer and still got a lotta living to do!