Dammit, I went through this same progression 3 months ago. Common Cold -> Bronchitis. But I was denial. I've had a cough for years because my lungs seem to think that the mold here is some deathly virus and produce a huge amount of mucus on a regular basis.
Anyway. I gave up on Thursday and schlepped to the doctor (STILL no symptoms besides a little bit stuffed up, yellow snot, and The Cough) and got a prescription cough suppressant, because The Cough morphs to the little-c death-cough which will not go away. (and what really pisses me off? None of those OTC cough suppressant drugs actually work at all. There's been scientific studies and everything. So why are they still selling them?)
She gave me benzonatate which I've never had before and unfortunately doesn't seem to work very well for me. I stayed up late, coughing. Woke up 4:30 am, coughing. Spent most of the day asleep from exhaustion, waking up for the occasional coughing bout. I freaked out K the Love Monkey a little bit; after several hours of coughing last I started weeping. He said I was just stressed out and I just needed to calm down and take some deep breaths. I told him I WAS NOT STRESSED OUT THAT DIDN'T HELP (not true about the stressing, but truly, taking deep breaths does not. help. at. all. At this point my throat is so shredded that I'm just coughing to itch the irritated bits which get more irritated and itchy and round and round and round.)
In the morning I called back the doc and asked for the codeine prescription instead (she'd actually said, "call me back if you prefer the codeine"). They called back about 2, said they'd phoned it in to the pharmacy (which I EXPLICITLY TOLD THEM WHICH ONE). I go to the pharmacy tonight, and they say there's some problem, it looks like it's been filled somewhere else. I don't know where else it would be and say so, and they try calling up the insurance and doing some kind of special override or something but it doesn't work because it's codeine and OMG ADDICTIVE DRUGGGZ. Yeah, nowhere does anyone seem to be writing down whether I have actually PICKED UP THE DAMN PRESCRIPTION. WHICH I HAVEN'T, because I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE IT'S BEING FILLED. (To be fair, the girl there was really very nice about it but she was powerless.)
And now it's Friday night and there's no hope of getting it before Monday unless I can find it myself. Possibly they called it to a place I fill downtown (different grocery store), but then why would this pharmacy even know what the prescription was for? It exists somewhere in their system, they must know about it. My suspicion is that I'll have to call up every damn pharmacy in this chain in the city looking for the one place that filled it. Fortunately the evil-death-cough seems to be giving me a break for this afternoon and evening. I am really looking forward to being able to sleep tonight.
Meanwhile they are predicting nasty weather for tomorrow so it looks like we'll probably not be going anywhere (4 inches of snow, not a problem, but the possible 1/2 inch of ice? Big problem). Hopefully I can still make it to Crafty Wonderlands Super Colossal Holiday Sale on Sunday (can take the train).
I bought 2 poinsettias tonight, at the dumb grocery store while I was "waiting" for my prescription. Was I just trying to make myself feel better? Well, sure, probably. But they're pretty and I don't care.
Winter sky at sunset, as I wait for the bus home from the doctor. It hasn't broken freezing all week long. Cold, clear, and very dry. The stars have been unbelievable.
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