whooping cough

If you are around here long enough you'll hear me talk about  having had whooping cough.   I caught it from a patient almot 2 years ago.  I had the shots as a kid but was allergic so was given them in half-doses that weren't effective.  I had a drippy nose for days that I blamed on allergies.  On 11/5/10 the  nose was worse and I was coughing a bit.  I thought I was fine and kept working.  By mid-afternoon I had stopped in the middle of a windy road with no pull-offs to vomit mucus from my coughing.  I saw a dr. that day and started an antibiotic to prevent spreading it to others.  I was so sick that when I called someone to help me with something that afternoon after I went home early I could barely talk on the phone.  I saw my own Dr. 2 days later.  He didn't even have me remove my mask.  He had been warned I'd be in with this so at least he didn't have to be too afraid listening to me cough from outside my exam room/all over the building.  He loaded me up with cough meds, said no work for a full week (which was 2 because i had vacation and couldn't have gone back anyway).  He told me no contact with my niece for a very long time as this could kill her.  I didn't go many places because I was so sick but I wore masks everywhere that week.  Mostly I slept becasue I was so sick and the cough syrup was made of vicodin.  After 2 months of coughing turned into wheezing I was diagnosed with asthma and chemical sensitivies meaning I can't handle perfumes, strongly scented candles, cigarette smoke, even a lot of laudnry detergents without asthma.  My lungs never recovered.  My quilt block says that my life will never be the same.  I truly believe this was the beginning of the end of my working.

The rest I'm copying here from my facebook.

When you cough with pertussis it feels like you have glue in your throat and it won't move. Coughing is the only way to get air and so you cough until you stop the car to vomit mucus, you faint, you are gasping for air you can't get. This happens over and over and over. As a healthy adult when I caught it I would have my oxygen levels dip to the low 80s over and over if I t ried to sleep which increases the feeling you can't breathe. The antibiotic you are given protects others but won't help you. Any baby who comes near you, even during the 2 weeks you just have a runny nose, can catch it and die, pretty much choking to death. If you have had a full vaccination series you still need a booster. What you think is bronchitis can spread to your baby/grandchild/cute baby in the church nursery/library/grocery store and that child can die, especially if they're too young to have had enough vaccines. Because I'm a rare adult who has had the full-blown disease (shot allergy, my mom likes to point out she tried) I can only say that I know why babies die from it, and that it must be terrifying to be tiny and have no idea why you can't stop coughing to breathe. (The reason is that the cilia lining the throat that normally move mucus die and then the disease creates thick glue that is stuck). This link takes seconds to click on some color choices and then another $1 goes to research. Please try it out. For the babies.

Submit a Pertussis Protection quilt square and sanofi pasteur will donate $1 to the March of Dimes

www.racetoblanketamerica.com

Help get the word out about pertussis (whooping cough). See the digital quilt to submit a square. Once you submit your square, sanofi pasteur will donate 

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