Right now I'm recovering to what my doctor diagnosed as bilateral pneumonia, but I'm still not feeling that great, and I'm getting more & more worried as I'm finding more info correlating my sickness to the recently highly publicized and dangerous severe acute respiratory syndrome. I don't have insurance, and I've already been to 2 hospitals in which I've managed to rake up about $10,000-20,000 in hospital bills. I know I'm feeling much better than I was originally, but I'm concerned that if I have SARS, it was probably not treated 100% properly and may somehow affect my health & recovery. I don't know what to do! Please read my story & tell me what you think:
Over spring break this past week I got deathly ill and ended up going to 2 different hospitals, staying in one of them for 2-3 days straight.
It all started out with a sore throat, and then I started to get a fever with bad cold chills (both symptoms of SARS), which rendered me quite weak especially since I was having problems downing food (another symptom). For 2 days I went on like this w/o getting proper care and just got sicker and sicker and weaker and weaker. The first day I did actually go to a hospital, but they were hasty with me & misdiagnosed my sickness. They spent like 5-10 minutes TOTAL on me by taking my vitals, temp, shining a light down my throat, and then promptly labeled my condition 'high fever w/ strept throat." They prescribed me strept throat medication (antibiotics) which I took for about a day and a half and simply got worse. Around the 2nd day or so my mucus production was insanely high, and I was constantly coughing up some nasty thick (w/ a tiny blood mixed in) mucus. That night I developed a constant cough & my breathing became extremely restricted to the point where I was not getting enough oxygen. I also had an insanely high fever, so that wasn't helping any. I was weak, very pale, sweating and hyperventilating & had my friends rush me to the emergency room. It hurt to even talk & I could not stop coughing & wheezing, so I had trouble speaking to the nurses & doctors.
They ended up giving me IV & pumped me with fluids (I was very dehydrated), antibiotics, & steroids. They also gave me breathing assistance through a machine, and gave me breathing treatments in the form of some bronchial dialator. After blood-testing and x-rays, they came back with the diagnosis of probable bilateral pneumonia. They told me I had to stay overnight as they treat me and give me more antibiotics. One thing that kind of struck me was that the doctor mentioned that my white blood cell count was particularly low (from the blood tests), and I think he might have mentioned my platelets as well, but I'm not sure.
Now after visiting this site about SARS, reading this is what really scared me:
This as well, from the following site:
Now I had x-rays & blood-tests taken, and:
1) X-rays came up with signs of pneumonia
2) Doctor said it looked like bilateral pneumonia
3) Doctor told me specifically that my white blood cell count was low
Additionally, as I said I had trouble breathing & was given oxygen through my nose on a respirator, I definitely had flu-like illness, cold-chills, headaches, & fevers...
I have not, however, gone outside the country nor am I aware of being in close contact with anyone who has. I live in NJ (where 1 of 11 cases of SARS was documented in the article) and was visiting Florida. What do you guys think? Should I be stressing out over this like I am, or am I over-reacting?
Over spring break this past week I got deathly ill and ended up going to 2 different hospitals, staying in one of them for 2-3 days straight.
It all started out with a sore throat, and then I started to get a fever with bad cold chills (both symptoms of SARS), which rendered me quite weak especially since I was having problems downing food (another symptom). For 2 days I went on like this w/o getting proper care and just got sicker and sicker and weaker and weaker. The first day I did actually go to a hospital, but they were hasty with me & misdiagnosed my sickness. They spent like 5-10 minutes TOTAL on me by taking my vitals, temp, shining a light down my throat, and then promptly labeled my condition 'high fever w/ strept throat." They prescribed me strept throat medication (antibiotics) which I took for about a day and a half and simply got worse. Around the 2nd day or so my mucus production was insanely high, and I was constantly coughing up some nasty thick (w/ a tiny blood mixed in) mucus. That night I developed a constant cough & my breathing became extremely restricted to the point where I was not getting enough oxygen. I also had an insanely high fever, so that wasn't helping any. I was weak, very pale, sweating and hyperventilating & had my friends rush me to the emergency room. It hurt to even talk & I could not stop coughing & wheezing, so I had trouble speaking to the nurses & doctors.
They ended up giving me IV & pumped me with fluids (I was very dehydrated), antibiotics, & steroids. They also gave me breathing assistance through a machine, and gave me breathing treatments in the form of some bronchial dialator. After blood-testing and x-rays, they came back with the diagnosis of probable bilateral pneumonia. They told me I had to stay overnight as they treat me and give me more antibiotics. One thing that kind of struck me was that the doctor mentioned that my white blood cell count was particularly low (from the blood tests), and I think he might have mentioned my platelets as well, but I'm not sure.
Now after visiting this site about SARS, reading this is what really scared me:
This as well, from the following site:
Now I had x-rays & blood-tests taken, and:
1) X-rays came up with signs of pneumonia
2) Doctor said it looked like bilateral pneumonia
3) Doctor told me specifically that my white blood cell count was low
Additionally, as I said I had trouble breathing & was given oxygen through my nose on a respirator, I definitely had flu-like illness, cold-chills, headaches, & fevers...
I have not, however, gone outside the country nor am I aware of being in close contact with anyone who has. I live in NJ (where 1 of 11 cases of SARS was documented in the article) and was visiting Florida. What do you guys think? Should I be stressing out over this like I am, or am I over-reacting?
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