Do You Listen to Your Body?

Do you have sick superpowers too? My body is an overachiever. I can take the standard virus and turn it into pneumonia in a mere three days' time.

Let me explain. Recently, I have been working more than normal. I work as a Chef in a busy resort. We have been short-staffed and I have been working in several positions around the resort including chef, bartender, fry cook, and store keep.

The impact of keeping busy

In a world affected by COVID-19, I also teach culinary food safety to supplement my income. This has been going on for a few months now. A few family members made passing comments that I only had one day off a week. Personally, I was pretty excited to be making good money.

My body has been keeping up great so I thought nothing of it...

Enter the holiday season...

Thanksgiving, I had plenty to be thankful for. Family, Friends, a home, pets, good job. I felt a bit tired but it's a holiday. I just worked all week and then had 15 for Thanksgiving. When Black Friday morning came I noticed I was extremely tired. I noted it.

I drank a gallon of water at work for the next couple of days. I work where there is a water park and the temp is always 84 degrees. Sometimes, the humidity and busy days dehydrate me.

I took my biologic as planned. Everything seemed to be going great. The medication did not hurt like the others I've taken in the past. I felt very tired, but it didn't surprise me, fatigue is a side effect I usually experience. I had the next four days off work. No reason to worry. 

Immune suppression

I started a cough. It was deep in my chest but not very often. After increasing my fluids and taking a nap, I felt better but very run down. I saw family and they mentioned I looked ill. By the end of that week, I was coughing much more. I started wheezing. My body started getting chills.

I noticed I was out of breath doing common things. I called off work that day. I was up half the night coughing and wheezing on my left side. After being urged by family I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with bronchitis, potentially pneumonia.

A few hours passed and my doctor's report showed left lung pneumonia and streaking. I found myself on an antibiotic, inhaler, cough medication, pain relievers, fluids, and rest. Needless to say, I feel really awful. I am sticking to the care plan and following all the instructions.

Take those warning signs seriously.

My doc warned me to heed the signs. She told me to only do quiet things and gave me a note for a week off work. Now I am quietly working on my laptop. My immune system warning mechanism tried to tell me I was worn out, but I kept shrugging it off.

She told me that "You did not take those warning signs seriously. Now it's a dangerous thing for your compromised system! Melissa, You must listen to your body! Follow these instructions and hopefully, you will be better in three days, if not, come back and do not wait!"