Well, let’s see what we have here:
Azithromycin
TAKE AS DIRECTED
Each tablet contains azithromycin monohydrate equivalent to 250mg azithromycin.
A full course of antibiotic therapy in Just 5 Doses.
Azithromycin tablets keep on working* days 6 to 10*Data on file, Pfizer Inc. New York, NY
Lovely. Just lovely. Yesterday David was telling me he had a doctor’s appointment for today and then stopped and said “You know, you should see the doctor. What you have might be whooping cough, there was something on National Public Radio about it recently.”
Sure enough, there was, and based on what I found out, it’s a pretty good match for the stuff I’ve been dealing with the last 4 days – this started in earnest on Saturday, but it was definitely coming on late last week.
So, I managed to get to the doctor’s today, too, but my battery was dead, so I took a cab, met David there, we had our respective chats with the doc, and came home. I asked him about whooping cough and he agreed that it probably could be. Here’s what I had found:
The causative organism is usually the bacterium Bordatella pertussis, but sometimes the related organism Bordatella parapertussis. In the unvaccinated person, the disease lasts 6 to 10 weeks. Classically, the disease has three stages: catarrhal, paroxysmal, and convalescent. After an incubation period of 3-12 days, the patient develops cold symptoms – a clear runny nose, sneezing, perhaps some fever. This is the catarrhal phase. As these symptoms wane, the child begins to develop a dry, hacking cough, which builds in intensity over time. As the cough progresses in severity, the least stimulation or startle can trigger a long paroxysm of hacking cough which ends in a sharp drawing in of the breath – the “whoop.” Post-cough vomiting is classic and very suggestive of the diagnosis. Between paroxysms of coughing, the children appear well. This is the paroxysmal phase. Gradually these symptoms abate in the convalescent phase.
Infants have the highest hospitalization and complication rates. Fifty percent or more of infants who contract pertussis are hospitalised. Twenty-five percent develop pneumonia; four percent develop seizures, one percent suffer permanent brain damage and another one percent die. Pertussis infection in the very small infant might also be implicated in some apparent SIDS cases.
Symptoms af adult pertussis generally do not include the “whoop,” but can include the paroxysms of severe cough, postcough vomiting, urinary incontinence (!), pneumonia, and otitis media. Broken ribs are very common in full-blown adult pertussis. Imagine coughing hard enough to break your ribs.
Oh, yes, paroxysms I got, and cold symptoms, and very irritatingly, the (!) just a bit. Grrr.
Last night I slept on the couch because it seemed like the OTC Dayquil/Nyquil wasn’t working as well for me, then realized later that I was so much stuffier because I’d forgotten to take my daily allergy medication the night before, so no wonder I was sneezing and sniffling and pretty much a wet mess all day. Finally, sometime in the night the Nyquil kicked in but good (note to self: DO NOT exceed package directions, sure it worked more better but man my nose and sinuses stung!).
Today, not so much with the coughing, probably because the little buggers knew I was going to the doctor. Then when I went to leave, said dead battery delayed me for a bit – stupidly, I had turned on the dome light when I got home last week to check something and forgot to turn it off – already thinking about dinner or something on the way in the door.
However, battery’s been recharged now, so that’s all right. I’ve taken my Day 1 dose, which with this azithromycin stuff is 2 pills and soon all the little bastards will be dead, deader, deadest. And I have some hopes of a reasonably good night’s sleep tonight, but we’ll see.
I’m pretty tired of being sick already – I’m not a very patient patient. I don’t think I’ll be going in to work tomororw – Thursday seems like a good bet, though.
