Ugh!

I first noticed the sore throat last Thursday, by Saturday I was very uncomfortable but was still able to function. On Sunday, I took to my bed with a low grade fever and the worst of all coughs. By Sunday night I was convinced that I was dying. My DH wouldn't let me have any extra blankets or shut the air conditioner off.

I awoke at 3:30am on Monday morning coughing so hard that I nearly turned wrong-side-out. During the day on Monday with the help of DayQuil I managed to milk the goats and walk around a little bit outside. As the day progressed my fever shot up again and I was down and out with the help of NyQuil.

I woke up this morning at around 5:00am in terrible respiratory distress. I could hardly breathe. I can no longer cough because of the pain that it causes me. I have never had anything that comes close to whatever this is, I am thinking that it is the Swine Flu. My wonderful Husband got out of bed so that he could be by my side when I drew my last breath.

Since I didn't die right away, he ended up running to Wal-Mart to get some more DayQuil, Mucinex, Sprite, Chicken Soup and Popsicles. I haven't felt like eating but the popsicles have been a blessing.

I think that my Husband might have enjoyed making me drink a full 8 oz. glass of water this morning a little too much. He wouldn't give me a Mucinex tablet until all of the water was gone.

He stood there like a stonewall with the glass in his hand, pushing the straw toward my lips. I hate drinking water and I think that iced tea or Sprite would have worked but he said that he was just following the directions.

As this day draws to a close, my fever is starting to climb again, nothing seems to stop it in the evenings and through the night. My Mother-In-Law called to check on me today and she told me that she goes to Church with a lady and her husband who have had the same symptoms. They say it took them both a good three weeks to fully recover and that was while being under a Doctor's care.

The man even busted his eardrum while coughing, I can believe that because my ears and eyes have both felt like they couldn't take anymore pressure. I really hate to pop an eyeball out while coughing. My ears and eye sockets are very sore but my chest and back muscles and my ribcage are just flat refusing to help me anymore.

Well, I will close for now, to get ready for the nightly battle with my DH over how many blankets I should have or the temperature setting on the air conditioner, he is really being a bully.

A New Year

We made it through December! My DH loves to sing that song all through December, then on January 1st announce that we have made it. I tell him that December isn't the hardest month for us. He gets really down in February, because by then he is tired of feeding hay and our hay supply is getting low. It is either really cold or really muddy in February and he gets very anxious for Spring.

The old year went out on a bad note for me. I was sick all day yesterday. I ran a fever and was so weak that I couldn't even set up to read a book. My dear, dear, wonderful Husband had to hold a glass of sprite with a straw for me because my arms were so weak that I couldn't even hold the glass. I don't have any idea what the problem was but I couldn't eat anything until late afternoon and then I could only eat chicken soup.

I chilled and kept covered up all day until about 11:30 last night when all of the sudden my fever broke and I started sweating. As soon as my fever broke, I felt so much better but even after sleeping all day yesterday, I still slept well last night.

Things are looking better for 2009, we got 8 eggs each of the last two days. It got down to 17 degrees last night, so I don't know how egg production will be today.

Backing Up

No, a major earthquake didn't bury me in rubble. I am still here but not doing so well. First off my computer quit on Sunday, I was online and looking at a site that I visit very often, when the screen went black and then the blue screen of death showed up. I powered down, then waited a few minutes before trying to restart.

She did reboot and I was thankful but I knew this was a sign that I should backup my system. I have a Maxtor hard drive for that purpose but I am very lax in taking the time to do it. So, on Sunday evening I started the back-up and here it is 24 hours later and we are still backing up. The whole process will probably take around 36 hours. So, here I am typing this blog on my antique laptop with Windows 98.

I started this blog on Monday the 21st and am finishing it on Tuesday because I had been just a little sick for the last 3 weeks but nothing too serious but it got serious on Monday evening. I had had a slight sore throat and had been very tired for quite awhile but on Sunday evening I developed a nasty headache and the glands in my neck became swollen and painful. On Monday morning, my whole body ached, my joints and muscles hurt. I asked my good friend and RN about it and she said it sounded like Mono, I thought that I was too old for that but I did have the symptoms.

I eventually got a high fever and was not able to hold anything on my stomach. I couldn't take anything for the fever or the pain because I couldn't keep it down. I am better right now but my DH says that I am definitely jaundiced. The fever and headache are gone and I can eat again but I still have the soreness, fatigue, sore throat and swollen, sore glands. I just hope that the fever doesn't return tonight.

Now back to my computer problems, remember that doing a backup of your computer is very important, when I got that blue screen on Sunday, I was terrified. I have so many pictures and videos of the Grandkids on there and they would have just been lost if that hard drive had not come back to life.

My desktop is a Dell and it is getting some age on it by computer standards but it has been a great computer that has not given my any problems whatsoever. It has also given me a sense of false security because I think that it will always be there and that is just not possible. The moral of this story is to back-up you system, even if it does take 36 painful hours when you can't use your computer! When this backup is complete, I will probably take the hard drive that has the backup on it to my neighbor's house for safe keeping.

Can't Catch A Break

Miracle was just doing wonderful and then she went been down on us again. She woke up this morning and took three bottles in a heartbeat. She took her last bottles at 9:00 AM then when I went out to check on her at 10:30 AM she was lying flat out on her side panting like a dog and chilling. She was too weak to lift her head.

I took her temperature it was nearly 104º. So I went to work on her, I had my DH prop her up onto her stomach instead of the flat out on her side position with a bale of straw and put a blanket her. She wouldn't take a bottle or hold up her head, so I used the drench gun on her. I gave her a mixture of strong black coffee, molasses and some whiskey that I got from my neighbor.

Then I did two things that I was not sure was the right decision but I was desperate, I had my husband give her a shot of LA-200, a long lasting antibiotic that I use on my goats, even though she is on some type of medicine for the bladder infection that the Vet gave us. I also gave her some children's liquid ibuprofen. I don't think you are suppose to give it to animals but that is what I had on hand.

I very slowly gave her pedialyte drenches several times, letting her rest about 30 minutes between each drench. Then I drenched her again with the equal parts of the warm coffee, molasses and whiskey mixture.

I let her rest and waited to see what would happen and I finally started seeing her breathing start to slow down and she started lifting her head. Before long she was on her feet. She was slowing improving throughout the day but then had a little relapse this evening but not nearly as severe.

She is taking her bottles again and my DH said that he will help me feed her tonight, so that I can get some rest.