Until a few days ago, I had never heard of intercostal muscles. And now I am very familiar with them. I've been fighting off this really annoying cold for weeks now. Nothing too terribly serious... a head cold one day, a sinus cold the next, a stomach bug, then back to a head cold. But consistent with this weeks-long illness has been a nagging, hacking cough.
On Friday when I coughed, my ribs hurt. Not too terribly. In fact, when I was at work coughing, I would hold on to my ribs, and then sort of laugh through my cough... "tee hee hee, wow, that hurts." By the afternoon, I wasn't giggling anymore and by the evening I had myself at outpatients. By that time, coughing was extremely painful and I couldn't take a deep breath. In order to cough, I had to double myself over and brace my rib cage. I got triaged by a nurse who ordered chest x-rays and asked me to rate the pain out of 10. When I was coughing, it was a 7. When I wasn't, it was around a 3. Three hours later, when I finally got in to see the doctor, it was a 9 when coughing and a 6 the rest of the time. I couldn't move without cringing! I couldn't lift my right arm, I couldn't blow my nose or sniffle, I couldn't sit still, and I sure as hell didn't want to cough!
The chest x-rays were clear. No pneumonia, no bronchitis. But I was diagnosed with a chronic cough, which caused "severe intercostal muscle sprain." Basically, the muscles that surrounded my rib cage were either strained, sprained, or torn, from the prolonged coughing. She prescribed me narcotic pain medication which I was to take two of, every four hours. She also told me that the only way I was going to heal the muscles was to rest. She said to take the next 3-4 days and just stay in bed or find a comfortable position on the couch and stay there. Perfect! Without a husband to watch the germ magnets who gave me the original cold in the first place, I couldn't (a) take the painkillers every 4 hours as needed, or (b) stay in bed. She also warned me that the cough would probably linger for another 6-9 weeks, and if I didn't get healed up and rest, my ribs were only going to feel worse. I headed home, and although she said to me "Here's your prescription, you'll be able to have some relief tonight" I don't think she realized it was 9:30 and the pharmacy was closed.
Friday night was not a good night. I tossed and turned (very slowly, cause it hurt!) all night. When morning finally came, my little angels actually slept in (till 7:15 and 7:30) so I got to stay in bed a little longer than normal. Then it was business as usual. The girls had to be fed and dressed, and then I had to get to the pharmacy and the grocery store. Throughout the day, the pain got worse and worse. If I was in public when I had to cough, I had to crouch down in the middle of the aisle and hold my ribs as still as possible or else I would be in agony. I had one nice gentleman hear me screech in pain while I was reaching for something on a top shelf, and ask me if I needed some help. Thanks guy, Gracie has crackers to eat because of you! :)
That afternoon Gracie had swim lessons. Her final class, so I couldn't miss it. Off we went, and I got into the pool. For some reason, I was thinking, "Aww, pool. Therapeutic." Nope! What I should have been thinking was "Awww, pool. Crushing pressure on my ribcage." It's a good thing it was "play day" and I could stay out of the chest-deep water.
Somehow, I made it through the afternoon, supper, and the girls' bedtime. I'm not going to lie. Around 4:00, I was in so much pain, I had a good idea what drug addicts feel like. I was literally counting down the minutes until the girls went to bed and I could take my pills. I would stare at the bottle, then the clock, then the bottle, then the clock. The girls were both in bed by 7:00 and at 7:01 I took two of the pills, as directed. I decided to settle in for the evening, so I set up the TV to watch a Gilmore Girls marathon, and got into my comfiest pajamas. I waited, and waited, and waited for the pain to start easing. 7:30, nothing. 8:30, nothing. 9:00, nothing! Apparently the pain was too far gone to be helped by two measly little pain pills. So I cried. I had waited all day for "sweet relief" of this pain, and it wasn't going to happen. I stopped crying pretty quickly, cause that hurt like a bugger! At 10:00, I couldn't wait any longer and took two more. By about midnight I started to get sleepy, and around 1:00 a.m., the pain was gone enough to get some sleep. I had the worst sleep I have ever had in my life, and I've gone through two pregnancies and two newborn stages. Every time I moved, or breathed for that matter, I had a searing, stabbing, burning pain through my side.
I woke up this morning and decided to take a friend's advice. I was going to stay on top of the pain today, gosh darn it. Although a drugged parent is no good to anybody, neither is a parent who cannot function due to pain. So I took one pill every 4-6 hours and managed to get through the day much better. I still hurt like hell when I had to cough, sneeze, blow my nose, pick up a child, or reach for something. But it was definitely more tolerable. We had supper at friends' place tonight and they waited on us hand and foot, God love em!
I've already called work and told them I wont be in tomorrow, or possibly the next day. I fully intend to take the doctor's original advice tomorrow. I'll be dropping the girls off at daycare first thing in the morning, setting up camp in front of the TV downstairs, and doing nothing but resting all day long. I'm hoping that'll be the break my body needs to heal up a little so I can get back to my normal life.
Of course Murphy's Law says that I, who never gets sick, was doomed to be ill the entire time Danny was away and wasn't able to help out. He's home in three weeks, so I fully expect to be back to top-notch in 2 weeks and 6 days! :)
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