In 1976, 3 months before the Legionnaires got the Legionnaires Disease, the Docs in the hospital thought that's what I had...but only several months after that. I had had the flu for several days, got better for a couple weeks, then got the flu (I thought) again, and that time, it really flattened me.
The Doc I went to for that just gave antibiotics and told me to stay in bed, with the usual liquids and rest. Two weeks later I still was sick, so found a respiratory specialist...
He immediately put me into the hospital, and they did all sorts of test...was on a respirator breathing thing, had a machine pound my back three times a day, and oxygen in-between, plus meds. They knew it was an interstitial pneumonia (fluid in-between all those little air sacs in the lungs) but no one knew then about Legionnaires until months later. It was a very nasty bug to get rid of ....
It was hard to stay down because the kids were small, but it was bad enough, I had to, and my father in law came across the country to help me....My MIL was a teacher so couldn't...but he did. What an angel he was...I felt guilty because I couldn't even fix him dinner, but he had such a wonderful way of making me rest and not feel guilty! |
