SHAKE WELL BEFORE USING
We recently had a three week vacation and on the last day I started to feel sick, itchy ears, scratchy throat, definitely the start of a cold.  We spent all day travelling on three planes to get home, landing in Kelowna after 1.00 in the morning.  We had a motel booked and I fell into bed.
Next morning I was coughing and feeling rough, we drove home, picked up our three furry kids from their vacation at The Little Green Farm, bought groceries and did a couple of necessary chores.  I lit our wonderful log fire, made a light lunch then took to my recliner with a blanket.  This suited the cat who promptly took up her position mid lap and settled down for a nap.
Dave spent the afternoon unpacking, carrying laundry through to the laundry room, generously spreading underwear and socks over the laundry room floor and into the kitchen.  He then spread all the paper information that he picked up on our trip, onto the floor in front of his chair.  He loves to pick up information and will sometimes collect five to ten pounds of it.  He once tossed out all his new socks and underwear because his luggage was overweight and he desperately wanted his info.  As you can imagine, this was a sore point for quite a while.
By this time I was past caring what he did and just slept in front of the fire.  Next day I felt worse and went to the doctors who diagnosed bronchitis, gave me some antibiotic and a puffer spray.  The pharmacist gave me detailed instructions and also a written pamphlet, describing the medication I had been given.  Started with both meds and hoped for the best.  The puffer contained steroids so had to be taken and immediately rinse out the mouth and gargle.  The antibiotics had to be taken on an empty stomach and no milk products, however, if it should bother my stomach, I could take it with milk…huh?
I was drinking only hot lemon with honey, which is very soothing for a cough and cold, Dave was fixing meals and I kept out of the kitchen as we have very different ideas on keeping it tidy.  He was making meals and I left him to it.  He was due to take off for a trip to Scotland six days after we came back from our vacation, so he kept himself busy preparing for his trip.  He was going to be spending time with my cousin and his sister so frankly I wasn’t worried about what he took to wear.
On the day he left, I hauled myself out of bed and took him to Penticton airport then came back home for five weeks of solitary life.  The idea of peace and quiet was very appealing, the dogs and I have this agreement that lying around, doing nothing is quite OK as long as everyone gets some lap time.  I can manage one dog and the cat but not all three together.
I finished the antibiotics and was feeling no better and the constant coughing had caused my back and neck to go into spasms.  A visit to the physio and some muscle relaxants, helped a lot with this.  I made another appointment with my doctor she didn’t like the sound my lungs were making and gave me a new prescription for a different puffer and some Prednasone.  This medication came with it’s own set of rules and times to be taken.  She also sent me for an xray.  The doctor called me later in the day to say my lungs looked funky, some new medical term I suppose, anyway I now had pneumonia and she would fax a new prescription over to the pharmacist.
The new stuff came with it’s own set of instructions and an information sheet full of dire side effects.  I still had to carry on with the previous medication and both puffers.  Things got so complicated with when to take them that I had to make up a roster.  Between puffing and gargling, puffing without gargling, empty stomach, and full stomach, I have my whole day mapped out.  If I feel like a snack, I have to do the math before I eat my banana.
This is only a temporary situation and another week should see me free from all these pills and puffs.  How do people manage when they are on permanent medication?  I am happy to say the coughing is greatly reduced, I am less exhausted and am feeling bored, a sure sign that I am getting better.  The past couple of days saw me finding my knitting and do several hours a day.  The house stays tidy with just me in it and I just don’t look at the dust, another week and I will probably back to my normal busy, bossy self but, for a while longer the cat and I are very comfy on the recliner.