I'll live.

Background: Been to class all semester with a fellow student who has been extremely ill with respiratory problems since September. This student has asthma, which complicates things, and has been on two or three courses of antibiotics with little improvement. This student has been coughing up blood -- negative TB test. At one point the student couldn't walk even slowly down a hallway. I thought we'd need an ambulance from just walking to the parking lot.

Last few weeks, several people I know came down with a severe respiratory virus-like cold with coughing. Some have mentioned feeling better for a day and then relapsing for as long as a month. None of them mentioned blood, but I'll ask when I see them next.

An otherwise healthy teenager reported to friends this week that she's coughing up blood while sick with this virus.

I got it last week. I have asmtha and a history of pneumonia every time I get a sore throat. My lung function is below normal on a good day, and I am losing the ability to cough deeply. This time the crud blocked my lungs with something too difficult to cough up. The pipes felt like they were stuffed with cotton. I went to bed a few nights ago thinking that one more little worsening and I wouldn't wake up.

In the middle of the night I woke up feeling like I was drowning in thin soup. A quick trip to die in the bathroom -- cleanable surfaces, you know -- and I was coughing up blood and lots of it.

We live a long way out. A trip to the ER involves getting all the kids up and dressed and making a cold trip into town. Then there's the cold room, the barely-there hospital gown over nudity, the long wait... I decided to die at home. Anoxia relieves anxiety.

The bleeding stopped by itself about an hour later. I was afraid to cough, so I let things "rattle" around in there undisturbed. After two or three more days I could breathe fairly well and cough a bit.

I crawled into a final exam today, and there was my fellow student wheezing away. I mentioned my recent distress, and the student said that the initial infection was caught from a relative -- a soldier on leave from Fort Sill, a soldier who was too sick to visit much, a soldier who was coughing up blood. The incubation period was less than a week before my fellow student got it.

My fellow student is convinced it's biowarfare. I think people have been dying from bugs for all time, but I offer this for your consideration.

-- Anonymous, December 11, 2002

Answers

Helen, How Scary!!! I sur hope you are doing better now.. I do think we are breathing in things we shouldn;t! sometimes I think I should start smoking just to keep the lungs coated!

will send a healing prayer your direction!

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

And the doctor says?

At any rate, go breath on your neighbor.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

My son was coughing up blood once. It was because he had coughed so much the lining of his throat was worn raw.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

OMG! Helen, please call me if there is anything I can do. Is anyone else in your family showing symptoms?

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

that IS scary, helen!

hope you're doing much better now

what did you try to treat yourself with? did you try out any "homeopathic" type things?

seems strange that the fellow student that you got this from was "stricken" after only a week's incubation.....while you've been around the student since september

has anyone else in your family shown symptoms?

there's some nasty stuff going on out there that norwalk virus is kicking butt all over the place

it's good to keep in mind how you touch things when outside your house..... ALWAYS be sure to clean your hands when you've been out around other people

again.. hope you're feeling better

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

helen,

YIKES!!!!

How are you doing now? What did the doctor say?

I've had this thing going on and it has a cough that I can't get rid of, but I've not started to cough up blood. Please don't let this be.

I hope that it isn't some bio or chem.

Oh yeah, they have erected bio/chem detection equipment here. Wish I could take a pic and post it, but I don't want to risk it.

apoc

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

I found a total of six confirmed bleeding lung victims so far. I never went to the doctor. It's those damned barely-there gowns. I'm too tired to be cold, ya know what I mean?

After being ok for a couple of days, the bleeding started again yesterday. Apparently bedrest is the only good treatment. I guess I need to stop burning brush for a while, maybe cut down on my time in the hay room. The mule won't have anything to do with me even when I have feed in the bucket ... maybe he's afraid he'll catch it. :)

The ones who did go to the doctor got antibiotics that didn't do anything for them. The age range on the bleeders is 14 to 43 years so far. Most of them are under 40. It's the age of the victims that makes me wonder. This bleeding was not from the throat, it was sloshing around in my lungs for certain.

Two of my kids got the initial fever but not the coughing. The rest are holding up ok. Many people have got what I have without bleeding, so maybe it's the asthmatics and the old wheezers who get the worst symptoms. A lady in the store today said her three year old had a bad case of pneumonia a week after she got it, but no bleeding.

I only mentioned it because it's weird, we're weird, and the times are weird.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

Ya know, you prompt an idea. I wonder why nobody has thought of making exam gowns out of polar fleece, you know, you take your own in there. Along with little boottees, teehee. Could spark a whole

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

. . . new industry.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002

Git, go for it. :)

Relapsed last night. High fever. Sat with loving family while they watched a movie, must have lost my mind ... I thought we lived in a different house and in town. I was talking to them awake, I remember talking to them and they say I talked, but I didn't 'see' my real surroundings for several hours as far as I can tell. They didn't notice, the astute little buggers.

Today no bleeding, little coughing, no fever. Just exhaustion.

The polar fleece thingy is such a good idea.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2002

Helen, been keeping you in my thoughts.. I sure wish you'd get through this.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2002

As Cher said in Moonstruck, "Get over it!"

Hope you're better soon!

A co-worker had a major cold and was out for a few days. she still appears weak and not her usual energetic self but she is back at work. I don't know the details of what she was experiencing but when or if I hear about it I'll share it. If it was something in the mail I would think more workers would be sick by now.

-- Anonymous, December 15, 2002

I'm very worried about you, Helen. And you've once again pointed out the need for traveling rural health care workers, like the doctors who made house calls in the past. In my system, you could make a phone call, and a van with medical equipment and a doctor would make a 2 am house call. The fee would be high enough to discourage calls about "hang nails," but low enough so that someone in your situation wouldn't hesitate to call.

No, I haven't the foggest idea how to pay for this in reality. Well, I do, but it would never happen.

-- Anonymous, December 15, 2002

Thank you for all the good wishes. I'm getting better very quickly now. I wish we did have a mobile clinic even for just the elderly and maybe at the rural schools. And I wish the gowns were polar fleece. :)

-- Anonymous, December 16, 2002