Friday, January 9, 2015

Bronchitis is...

After I babysat my friend's three boys for a week, I caught the bug that they had.  I started with a sore throat and muscle ache all over my body.  Since I had the flu shot, I thought drinking honey with lemon, taking some Vitamin C, and getting some sleep would be enough.  However, two days had gone by, my symptoms became worse.  My sore throat got worse, my nose was runny, my body ache lingered on, and I started coughing.  It’s the week of Christmas and my doctor was on vacation.  Again, I believed my flu shot and my immune system would help me conquer the battle; therefore, I didn’t bother to schedule an appointment with the on-call doctor.  I took some over the counter medicine to alleviate my symptoms.  I took it for three days per medication instruction, my nose stopped running, my sore throat felt a little bit better, and I stopped coughing.  I discontinued the medication thinking I should get better on my own because I had the flu shot.  Three days before the end of winter break, I started to feel warm all over the body.  Nevertheless, my hands and feet were cold like ice.  The next day, I lost my voice, I had a headache, I started wheezing at night, I couldn’t sleep, my nose and ears were stuffed up, I had tightness at my chest, and I coughed up yellow phlegm (mucous).  What do you think I have?  Let’s watch the video!    


As you can tell by now, I was diagnosed with acute bronchitis at the doctor's office.  I was prescribed with some antibiotics and a cough syrup for ten days.  In order to fully recover, I must finish all the medications as prescribed.  Please call your doctor's office, if you are experiencing any of the symptoms described above.  Next week, I will talk about the patterns and causes of acute and chronic bronchitis.  Stay tuned!      

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