Friday, October 9, 2009

We Are Legion (ella)

Sorry for my long time between posts.  It's been a little difficult lately.  I'm not looking for pity, but I thought I'd tell you what has been going on.  If you remember back in August I was blogging about our family all being sick.  Well I haven't gotten any better since, in fact worse.  I've finally found out I have a form of pneumonia caused by a legionella infection.  Legionella affects about 18,000 people each year.  I guess I should consider myself lucky, considering this is the second time I've had it.  Last time was fall of 2007 while I was training for my last marathon.  That infection caused some loss of lung power, which is what lead to my physically worst marathon ever and the reason I skipped this years race.  I toyed with the upcoming one, but I can't train like this (at least not effectively; my stubborness in 2007 kept me going even though I probably shouldn't have).  I'm hoping to be better in time to at least train for this year's Phoenix 10K in November.

The good thing is this isn't contagious, so that's a relief.  On the bad side is only certain anti-biotics work on it and this one, Clarithromycin, has been hard on me.  It causes headache (which no matter how much aspirin or Tylenol I take has been with me since Monday), nausea, and in my case sleeplessness.  I keep feeling if I could get one good night's sleep I'd feel so much better.  I'm an otherwise healthy person so being sick like this really bothers me.  Hopefully I feel better by the weekend.

8 comments:

fightpilotswife said...

Yikes! I'm sorry to hear that you've been so sick! I will cease whining about my lingering cold immediately. :)

Hope you're feeling better soon! I love reading your blog and seeing pictures of the boys and your little doll!!

mommy3 said...

Can you take Advil instead of Tylenol? Just me being a mommy. I hate it when I need to sleep to heal and the meds cause insomnia. At least that give you night time to enjoy your night owl. Noooo, I really realize it doesn't work quite that way. New daddy and sick, yuck. Hope the meds work and you are on the mend soon (and sleepinnnnngggg).

s said...

oooh... healing thoughts coming your way... you gotta get better; there's a little girl who wants her daddy to be healthy again :-)

Tim and Louie said...

Bobby,

Sorry to hear that you came down with legionella, again.

Everything I've read about it points to water as the source.

Perhaps it's time to dry out the pond?

Recurring cases of Legionnaire's disease have also been linked to Legionella pneumophila lurking in hot water supplies.

We hope that you get better soon!

Louie and Tim

Lucy said...

Oh no! Hope you feel better soon!

RB said...

Oh, I'm so sorry! I hope you have a speedy recovery.

Unknown said...

Thanks everyone.

We had a A/C leak in August, and I spent a lot of time in the attic one day fixing it. I'm pretty sure that is where it came from. As for the pond, I haven't been doing much with it now (you could tell by looking at it!) and will be taking it out this winter. Now, who needs some koi???

Tim and Louie said...

Well, there is actually a rescue group for Koi in Phoenix!

Here's their link:

http://www.shortypen.com/koi/

- Louie