We moved quickly out of the honeymoon phase to a time frame we can now call "mononucleosis." James got sick first for a week or two. We took him to the doctor who prescribed some antibiotics and he got better. Then I got sick. Thinking I must have caught what he had, I to went to the doctor (at an urgent care clinic) who also prescribed antibiotics. I didn't get better. We went to our then primary care doctor who gave more antibiotics. I didn't get better.
A sidenote here is that James was working for a telecommunications company when we first married. Not long after we returned from our honeymoon, the company went out of business. At this point, we decided that he would pursue getting his real estate license. In the interim between the two careers, he worked briefly for a friend in Drumright, OK. He would drive a car load of Burmese guys there and back everyday.
I was feeling so poorly now, that everyday I would come home from work (see next post) and sleep until James got home at about 7:00. We would eat dinner and I would go back to sleep until the morning.
We went back to our primary doctor. a third round of antibiotics.
I don't remember the chronological order of all this now, but I remember are some point during this time we also went to visit James parents and I was taking a nap in an upstairs bedroom. I remember waking up from the nap and planning to go downstairs. Then next thing I remember is waking up a few feet from the bed on the floor. I had passed out. We returned from NM to make another trip to doctor, who has run some tests but still can't figure out what was going on. Because of the coughing and respiratory issues, she recommended I go to a lung specialist. And I got a 4th round of antibiotics.
Cutting to the chase, when we went to the lung specialist he was going to suggest that I take a battery of tests to determine if I had developed asthma, but first suggested we do a mono culture just to rule that out first. And that was the day I learned the reason I had felt terrible and been sleeping 12ish hours a day was because I had mono. a virus. Which explains why the 4 rounds of antibiotics did nothing. (and explains why we no longer see the doctor at the urgent care clinic or that primary care doctor)
I was relieved to have a diagnosis, but the treatment was "drink more water and get plenty of rest." My job at the time (see next post) was not restful. And, James was in real estate school/starting a new real estate career so me staying home wasn't an option at that point. So I worked 8, 9, or 10+ hour days and slept as much as I could until finally, sometime in the spring I started feeling better.
The funniest story I remember from this phase of life was after the visit to the lung specialist we had a follow-up visit with our current primary care doctor who advised us that I would just need to try to get more rest. James and I stopped by the grocery story on our way home and James insisted we buy lots of prepared/packaged meals so that I wouldn't have to cook until I was feeling better. I had blood drawn that day so I was feeling even more weak than normal. When it was time to wait in the long check out line, I helped myself to a bench not far from where James was checking out. As the cashier scanned our frozen meals. canned goods, and snack foods, she said, "You MUST be a bachelor." I'm sure on another day the comment would have gone unnoticed. But one that particular day, it spurred a stream of tears and incomprehensible words spoken through sobs that tried to communicate something to the effect of, "I'm just so tired and I don't feel well and now strangers think my husband is a bachelor because I can't even cook decent meals for him." It's a good thing I'm updating this blog years later so that I can laugh about it now :)
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