Renewing our season pass to the ER

When I lived in Utah County, I found myself at the Emergency Room so frequently that we joked I had a season pass to the ER. 

This morning I woke up coughing and wheezing with no voice.  This wasn't really a new thing.  It's just this morning was so bad that I couldn't shake it with my inhaler or stepping out into the crisp 29 degree November air. 

I had had enough.  I have had a sore throat since a few days before Halloween-- but the urgent care doctor on the Central West Coast insisted I was fine and sent me on my way.  I went back to him 2 1/2 weeks later with the sore throat still and now wheezing and coughing and losing my voice.  He said it was bronchitis and gave me a 7-day prescription for Amoxicillan and an inhaler.  Seven days later, I wasn't any better.  I was worse.

And now my children were getting sick too. 

So today, I went into the ER.  They tested me for Mono, Strep, and tickled my brain testing for Pertussis, and did a chest x-ray to look for Pneumonia. 

Mono and Strep were negative and the chest x-ray clear, but the Pertussis test takes a few days to come back.  They gave me steroids for my severely inflamed lungs and throat and a Z-pack for what could possibly be an atypical bacteria.  They discharged me from the ER (which is looking much nicer than it did 10 years ago when I last lived here) with Pharyngitis, Acute Laryngitis and cough, and possible Pertussis. 

So with Squdge getting stitches and me visiting this morning, that's 2 visits to the ER in less than a week.  Hopefully there's not a third.  ;)