The past few weeks has been up and down for my servers. Somehow, it was also up and down for me. I was sick since May 30. Started with some simple soar throat, which I did not mind at first since everything seemed tolerable and just did my best to get rid of any germs with antiseptic. But colds and cough started settling in as well and by Sunday, June 1, 2008 I was already not feeling well. June 1 was also the start of the Busby SEO Challenge which I have barely worked on yet. The following week, I was not able to go to work. for the next 3 days.

Take Acetaminophen Says The Doctor

After self-medicating myself with Sudafed for Severe Colds and Robitussin for Cough, things were not getting that better. I refrained from taking Tylenol Extra Strength which I usually take because Sudafed already contained several milligrams of Acetaminophen and I don’t want an over dose taking Extra Strength Tylenol. So here I go to the doctor, I head to Urgent Care section of a regional hospital for a community. After going through the usual vital signs from blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate and everything, the doctor gives me a swab test on my tonsils that can gag you a bit. He does this 10-minute test for Streptococcal pharyngitis. The doctor dips the swab in a solvent and just by looking at the kit, it is clearly some type of Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) type of material but is not use to separate compounds but simply has some indicator on the thin layer that reacts to the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes. The indicator turns blue when the bacteria was not found, but turns pink if the bacteria is present. Having the negative result, the doctor just says I’m negative, and just says I take Acetaminophen or Ibuprofen and that’s it. He gives no anti-biotics since my findings were negative. Ok, fine with me, but whatever he tole me to take is useless. I already told him I was taking Sudafed for Severe Colds and that was giving me 600+ milligrams of Acetaminophen already every 4 hours.

Going back to work, but was still sick.

So I guess I really just need rest. The same day even if I started to feel better, it was still not good, and dedicated my Wednesday, June 4, 2008 to rest, rest and rest, lots of liquids and continued medication so I can go back to work on Thursday since I got several pending jobs to do. At work, Thursday is the meeting marathon day where there are several weekly meetings that go right after the other. Less than half of the day is left for work itself and I was still not done with my pending work. Good thing though, it was partially fixed by David whom I ask some help while I was out. With barely any good amount of work done on Thursday, I came in on Friday to get it all done. This time, I was feeling kind of even worse than Wednesday. But I told myself, it is the last day of the week, I’ll just get everything done, just before the weekend where I will rest whole day. Headache got worse and worse. Stuffed nose got worse and worse every minute. Coughing was triggered more often and itchiness in the throat just wouldn’t go away. I was really really not feeling well and it was power-going-down for me. Half way through the work day, I called it quits, and ask Phong if he can help me out and he comes to the rescue. Me left with a keyword map still needed to work on, I save it and bring it home for weekend work.

Go back to the doctor.

Once I arrived at home, my daughter who got the symptoms before I did started to not feel that well also. We both went to the hospital’s urgent care again and I just hoped I didn’t face the same doctor since acetaminophen alone cannot do the trick. Lucky enough, I did get another doctor. Now aside from the swab test, he also asked several questions, felt around my neck, and knew right away what to do.

He did gave me more medicine, which were:

• Prednisone – Which is a steroid, 1 20mg tablet by mouth everyday. Since it is a steroid, maybe it was mainly for strength to take out sluggishness. Probably for stronger lungs too. I don’t know. The tablet taste really bitter.
• Promethazine-Codeine Syrup – Robutussin was replaced with this. 1 to 2ml every 6 hours. This taste twice as bad and did not have the soothing/cooling effect of Guaifenesin on the throat. But somehow, it worked like magic. Cough was under control and it was loosening up phlegm. It was almost as easy as exhaling out phlegm.
• Albuterol – Inhaler that I inhaled 1 to 2 puffs every 4 to 6 hours if needed for shortness of breath. I am not a fan of inhalers, but has tried them a few times in my life since my childhood days were my Asthmatic days. Albuterol in combination with the Promethazine-Codeine syrup just seemed to work well together. Nice clear lungs and no coughing.
• Fluticasone Propionate – A nasal spray that I sprayed once a day in each nostril. This was something I would say I was not in-love doing, but at least it was just once a day.

With all these medicine, and 2 days rest, I was finally back up and was ready to work again on Monday. Now if the second doctor was the first doctor that took a look at me, I would have been feeling better earlier. I don’t know what was on the mind of the first doctor. He expected me to get well with only Tylenol.

Now that I am back, I need to catch up on the SEO contest Busby SEO Challenge, I have to catch up with work, and finish even more work at home with my own thing going on.