last sick day
in which the author feels a little off, and her sweetie is diagnosed with a childhood disease.
Friday morning I just woke up feeling lousy, like the low-grade cold that C’s been fighting for 2 weeks had finally hit me. Or maybe it was just exhaustion from being up Wed/Thurs night listening to him cough.
So I took my very last sick day at this job and slept, drank orange juice, watched dumb movies, etc.
Turns out, though, that C probably doesn’t have a regular old cold, because after 3 days of coughing almost constantly (except after taking cough suppressant) and 2 weeks of being kinda meh, he went to the doctor, and she diagnosed whooping cough (pertussis).
Whooping cough?! How freaking weird is that? Usually much milder in adults than in children, thankfully, but he’s on a two-week course of antibiotics.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my “meh” feeling isn’t the opening shot of whooping cough for myself.
Not as weird as you think. My cow orker’s teenage son had it last summer. It lingered for two months or so. Apparently, it’s running around in the Seattle homeless community (or maybe it’s TB, it’s one of the two).
Hope you had all your DPT shots growing up, because it’s nasty contagious.
Yeah, I’ve been reading up on it. Both of us had all the usual vaccinations, as far as either of us can remember. Unfortunately, it looks like the immunity wears off over time, and they don’t do boosters for adults.
So I’ve emailed the doctor to see if there’s anything I should be doing/not doing.