Hi!
As you can see from this post’s title, I’ve been sick with pneumonia for nearly a week now. It’s the craziest thing. I haven’t had a cold or anything recently, and I generally have a very strong immune system. It all started last Friday at work when I could not sit comfortably at all! My upper right back was super sore and I just didn’t feel right. I even went online to see if any local spas had late massage appointments available. They didn’t, so I just went home and had a pity party for one. Saturday morning, the pain had shifted from my back to the right side of my chest. Every time I inhaled, I felt like I was going to bust my right lung. Not a good thing. I decided it would probably be best to go to the urgent care place to see if I was going to live or not. As I was getting ready to leave, I nearly passed out in the shower. I started getting dizzy and seeing black dots, so I hauled ass out of there before I had the chance to bite it in the hard bath tub. Something was already obviously wrong with my lung, I didn’t need a head injury on top of that! Long story short, the urgent care doc sent me to the hospital for chest x-rays but didn’t seem to think I had anything more than muscular soreness. He told me to take it easy and come back on Sunday if I didn’t feel any better. Don’t we all love that response from doctors?
I had plans to go visit my friend Melissa out in the country on Saturday with my other friend Kelly. Since we left much later than planned, we just stayed in and played Monopoly instead going anywhere. We are such old farts. Melissa and Kelly drank cocktails made with vodka…
and I stuck to red wine because I wasn’t really feeling the hard liquor. My glass was labeled “gimp” because of my sickness. My lung was still hurting and my breathing was becoming more and more labored. Good times!
As usual, the greatest source of entertainment at Melissa’s house was her two little girls. Here’s Tatum singing in her voice changing helmet. Hilarious!
When I woke up on Sunday morning, I could barely move without extreme pain in my chest. 
I attempted walking to the bathroom when I first got up, and I had to take a break and sit on the couch for a few minutes. How pathetic is that? Since I was obviously not any better, I went back to the urgent care place and paid yet another $20 copay to be told I seemed okay, but to go to the ER if my pain got worse or my breathing became more labored. Thanks doc!
Since I was feeling like crap, I baked myself an awesome cheese and spinach lasagna.
Late Sunday night, I told my mom that I wanted to go to the ER. ”Wanted” may not be the best word because who wants to go to the ER? I knew something was wrong with me and I wanted to find out exactly what it was before I was supposed to work on Monday morning. Thankfully, I was seen pretty quickly in the ER. Probably didn’t hurt that I put “chest pain, shortness of breath, and dizziness” as my symptoms. 
After an EKG, 6 vials of blood, and a CT scan, it was determined that I didn’t have a blood clot (yay!), but I did have pneumonia. They sent me home with prescriptions for antibiotics and percocet, along with a huge nasty bruise on my right arm. I followed up with my regular doctor on Wednesday and she told me I was out of work until at least Monday. So, I’ve been spending the past week sleeping, playing Mafia Wars on Facebook, and eating. Most of my time has been spent sleeping. I don’t take prescription pain pills often, but when I do, I love the way they make me drift in and out of sleep all day! I can totally see how people get addicted.
So, what have I been eating? Lots and lots of oatmeal. I always make oatmeal on the stove with water, cinnamon, vanilla, and banana.
I’ve had a bowl with tons of fresh berries and raw almond butter.
And a less exciting bowl with fewer berries and natural peanut butter. Sadly, I have no more berries or raw almond butter.
I finally tried eating my oatmeal out of the empty almond butter jar. I’m not sure which blogger did this first, otherwise I’d give them credit!
I think this idea is awesome, but mine would have been better if I left more almond butter in the jar. 
As you can see, I’ve been drinking a lot of orange juice lately too. I rarely drink OJ, but love it when I’m sick!
Since I’ve had nothing but time on my hands, I channeled my inner Erin and made some fake ice cream. In the blender went a frozen banana, frozen young coconut meat, a few frozen strawberries, lots of frozen blueberries, cinnamon, and agave.
And topped with a sprinkling of bee pollen. Yum! I loved this.
I’ve also been eating a lot of fresh pineapple. For once, I stopped being lazy and spending $5 on the pre-cut stuff, and bought two to cut up myself.
After my doctor appointment on Wednesday, I went to Global Food for another one of my sick food staples – chicken pho.
I’m not a big fan of spicy, but actually used a decent amount of hot sauce this time around. I was thinking the spiciness might help the healing process.
Now that you’ve seen my favorite meals over the past few days, I’ll show you what I’ve had so far today.
My mom brought home donut holes from her office last night, so I had two of them along with some coffee first thing this morning.
Then I had yet another bowl of banana oatmeal! We are pretty low on groceries right now, so I just had a big spoonful of almond butter in my oats. This is the Whole Foods brand of roasted almond butter, and I while it’s good, I prefer raw almond butter so much more! I miss the gritty, natural taste of the raw stuff. Along with my oatmeal, I had a big glass of OJ and my antibiotic.
I’m about to go shower and maybe head out to rent a few movies and buy some groceries. Poor Rocky is even low on food!
I hope this post made some kind of sense! My last percocet may not have worn off yet. The biggest thing I want you all to remember is LISTEN TO YOUR BODY! Two different doctors told me I was fine, even after listening to my lungs and reading my chest xray,which they even said wasn’t very good because I couldn’t take a deep enough breath. I knew something was wrong and kept going back until someone could tell me what it was. Had I listened to the first doctor, my pneumonia would have gone untreated for who knows how long, and I could have ended up very sick. Sometimes you may know more than the doctors. They can only see so much through the tests they run, but YOU know when something isn’t right in your own body. These are the times I am SO grateful to have health insurance.
See ya’ll later!
I love this little gadget so far. It’s incredibly motivating to see the difference between calories consumed and calories burned. All those little walks around the block at work, and trips up and down the stairs, really do add up!
