Anne Walker
Beloved Grand Eagle
It has been a really long time since I have posted on here for support, but here I am feeling very challenged right now. It all started the Monday before Thanksgiving. My husband went to pick up his 14 year old son from Houston(three hours from us). I came home from work and took one look at my step-son and asked him "are you sick?' He started coughing and said yes. He had a fever of 101. I asked my husband why he went to pick up Jack when he was so sick and he said that his ex-wife didn't tell him and that he couldn't disappoint his son and not bring him home for Thanksgiving. I was really upset and ended up getting in an argument with my husband. He was very defensive and took my reaction to mean that I didn't want his son to be part of our family. I love my step son and we have a good relationship but I just couldn't understand how his ex-wife could send her son off so sick without even a phone call to discuss. When my children have the flu or a fever I always make sure that she knows. I also can't imagine ever sending my kids away when they are that sick. We took Jack to the clinic the next morning and it turned out that he had strep throat along with a cold and they put him on antibiotic. I felt irrationally mad for several days. I recognized that I was feeling really angry and so I journaled about it to explore more where it was coming from. The journaling didn't really seem to release the anger though. I could sense that there was a huge reservoir of anger that this whole Jack illness had triggered and I felt a little overwhelmed by it. Then I started to cough. It was a strange feeling cough and even now I would have a hard time describing it exactly. I had never had one like it before. My lungs were clear and it seemed to come from the bottom of my throat, like a tickle. By Saturday after Thanksgiving I had a fever and felt really terrible. I went to Urgent care and the doctor said the right side of my throat looked really bad even though I didn't have a sore throat. The strep test came back negative but the doctor recommended that I take antibiotics. I was hesitant to do so but he said it looked like it could be bacterial and if it was him, he would take the antibiotics. I felt so terrible that I decided to take them. I rarely get a fever and it had started days after the cough so I thought that perhaps it was bacterial. I felt a little better for about a day but then the antibiotics started to really upset my stomach. I pushed on and ended up taking them for 8 out of the 10 days prescribed. By the 8th day, the cough seemed to be coming up from my stomach. I have been coughing for weeks now but its not from my lungs. Once again, hard to describe. And then this morning, when I got out of bed I had some vertigo. This has thrown me into some panic. I went to see my doctor. He has known me for 20 years. He ordered some blood tests but he is not sure what is wrong with me. When he had me lie down on his table I got dizzy. He knows I have had positional vertigo before. He says if it persists he'll send me to the ENT doc next door again. He knows me really well and I can tell he thinks I am just being my normal neurotic self. I know this is a long post but I did forget something very important. I stopped drinking about 2 weeks ago when I started coughing. I have been wanting to stop for a while but whenever I try my anxiety levels rise. I'm not sure how it happened but I evolved into a daily drinker the last 3-4 years. I never drink a lot(1-3 glasses of wine or beer) but it has been steady. So I kind of think a lot of this is me dextoxing from alcohol. And then of course there is menopause. I am afraid to go to sleep tonight because of the vertigo. My therapist moved away a few months ago. I did make a few phone calls today because I do feel like I need to find someone.