Bronchitis sucks...

[K Frame]

Just fyi, in case you didn't know.

[Sergeant Bob]

Yes, I know it all too well. So does double pneumonia (which my bronchitus progressed into), septic shock (brought on by the pneumonia), liver and kidneys failing (brought on by the sepsis), scarred lungs and two weeks in the hospital (with one week on a respirator).

All could have been prevented if I'd seen a doctor when I just had a "bad cold".
Bob (who no longer self medicates) told you that.

[K Frame]

Geez, what a "sicker than thou" attitude...

Not a happy camper. At least what I'm bringing up is clear. When it looks like a tie-died T-shirt, that's nature's way of saying go to the doctor.

Bummer. There isn't a little barfing guy icon that I can use to signify "coughing up a lung."

[jefnvk]

Glad I got Codene left after my last case

[K Frame]

I'd frigging kill for come codeine right now...

[Azrael256]

It's amazing what a quick visit to the doctor will do when you're just starting to get sick.  Fall semester of '03, I decided that I didn't need to see the doctor when I got sick.  He was my Greek professor, and my roommate's dad (Dionysusigma's dad), so it would have taken absolutely no effort to just get it fixed, but I was going to tough it out.  Two weeks later, Dionysusigma was driving me to his dad's office.

Nasty little upper respiratory bug was keeping me from breathing (and the cigarettes weren't helping), I had about a 102 fever, and I mentioned to the doc that my ears hurt.  He stuck the endoscope in there and said "Whoa!  That's because they're infected...  REALLY infected.  My God!  can you even hear out of this ear?"  Turns out that I was even deaf-er than usual in that ear.

So, a couple shots of some horribly caustic antibiotic (my arm hurt for about three days), a week of some fairly powerful oral antibiotic, and an albuterol inhaler, and I could get up and move around for long enough to go to class.  I am now under orders to visit the doc if I so much as think that I've got a breathing problem.  Evidently haing pneumonia once increases your probability of contracting it again.  Doc told me that another couple of days, and I would've been in the hospital for awhile.

And one five-minute consultation with him or any other doctor, which would have cost about $5 on our insurance, would have ended the problem on the third day.  Taking the "tough guy" attitude to being sick is just about the most idiotic thing you can possibly do.

[Standing Wolf]

Bronchitis has compelled me to cut my smoking by half to two thirds. It's no fun at all, I tell you.

[roo_ster]

I once had a sinus infection turn into a throat bug turn into bronchitis then jump into all-out pneumoina.

Not because I was a twit & didn't seek medical attention, but because the twits we had as medics thought all I had was a persistent cold & gave me a horse pill with pseudoephedrine & guifinasen(sp?) instead of the antibiotics I needed.

When it finally got so bad that I could hear the sound of popcorn being crushed when I exhaled, twit #2 took a stethoscope to my chest & said, "Holy sh*t!" & got me to the BN surgeon for some antibiotics.  I was also told to do PT at my own pace.

I fully participated in PT, but finally fell out during a body armor run.  For about 5 minutes I was thought to be an oxygen thief, until they learned I had pneumonia.  My NCO asked me, "Why the eff did you keep doing PT with us & keep it to yourself?"  I responded, "Until today, your pace never exceeded mine, sergeant."  He had a look of disgust on his face & ordered me to tell him if I ever get pneumonia again or am told by the medics to perform PT at my own pace...and orderd all the rest of the section to do the same.

It is amazing the stupid things we'll do to ourselves in the name of high motivation.

[brimic]

I had bronchitis 2 years ago, not a fun experience.

I had gone to a doctor because my wife urged me to in order to diagnose why I snore (I had told her I needed to lose 20lbs but everything is a medical emergency to her).
The doctor immediately told me I had GERD and prescribed me two drugs that were heavily advertised and new on the market, one was a nasal steroid inhaler.
I used the medication for about a week and came down with a deep persistant cough that got progressively worse until I was bedridden 3 weeks later, barely able to breathe between painful gutwrneching coughing fits.
I saw a different doctor who diagnosed me with bronchitis. He prescribed me a very powerful antibiotic that was 4 pills to be taken over 4 days.
I stopped taking the medication from the ear,nose, and throat quack (doctor #1) and took the antibiotics. I felt better almost immediately.
The antibiotics apparantly cleaned out every bit of bacteria from my body, as it was about another week and a half before I took a solid bm again (Too much information, I know).

From this whole experience, I learned something I already knew- don't go to the doctor unless you are life threateningly ill to start with.

[Azrael256]

The antibiotics apparantly cleaned out every bit of bacteria from my body

Funny story there, actually.  My brother was telling me that the army issued some hideously powerful antibiotic before and during the invasion of Iraq.  Prophylaxis against anthrax, or montezuma's revenge, or whatever.  Anyway, about two weeks into it, somebody managed to get their hands on a few containers of fresh milk.

I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that the next ten minutes were an unnecessarily detailed description of what milk looks like when it runs the length of the GI tract without being digested.

[jefnvk]

I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that the next ten minutes were an unnecessarily detailed description of what milk looks like when it runs the length of the GI tract without being digested.

It turns to chocolate milk?

[bountyhunter]

Bronchitis has compelled me to cut my smoking by half to two thirds. It's no fun at all, I tell you.

I was going to write a reply, but I am not sure what I could add to that.  Suffice it to say, that tell-tale "hack" a smoker gets is just nature's way of saying:

Bye, now!

[KD5NRH]

Just fyi, in case you didn't know.

Oh gee, a zombie thread I can revive :D

Was almost over the bronchitis when I got a faceful of water at the water park that set off a coughing fit that pulled a muscle in my left armpit.  Bronchitis is even worse when every cough feels like you're being stabbed.

[brimic]

Was almost over the bronchitis when I got a faceful of water at the water park that set off a coughing fit that pulled a muscle in my left armpit.  Bronchitis is even worse when every cough feels like you're being stabbed

Lolz, I know what your talking about. I tore some connective tissue between my ribs once and got bronchitis before it healed up. 

[Perd Hapley]

Had that last Christmas. Not fun was it.