I could not sleep all night again

I wish the title could have been My Fair Lady’s “I could have danced all night”, literally, dancing ballet all night!

But no. I could not sleep a wink again. It’s one of the IV-medications that is causing this and I don’t know which one, but I’m thankful I have said goodbye to the IV-port now. No more, please.

My body would just have to detox it out and hopefully, I can sleep again. What to do, it’s a bacterial pneumonia and I needed IV-antibiotics. My body could not fight it. I don’t want to prolong it anymore and spread the pathogen around, especially to those close to me or anyone for that matter. It’s even zoonotic and can spread to animals.

But I tried to sleep. I even had to pretend to sleep just so that Tabs, Riley and Juno could get to sleep. If I don’t sleep, they too won’t sleep. They are my loyal unpaid nurses.

Allow me to deviate a bit and share my dreadful encounter with mycoplasma pneumonia. Some facts: It’s rare, but nowadays, they are seeing more Covid-19 patients getting it.

I only had Covid-19 once last year and it wasn’t even considered a severe case. I got it from my husband who got it from our son, Jia-Wen. Jia-Wen had it really bad and he was hospitalised. With all his flying, it would have been difficult to avoid contracting it, as much precautions as you take. So much exposure to different people and different countries, flying at night, not getting enough sleep, it’s the occupationial hazard of being a pilot.

Husband and I did not need to be hospitalised. We just recovered at home. And after that, I wasn’t sick. I didn’t think of long Covid at all, because it was just like a bad flu for me. But husband bore the brunt of it. At 71, he no longer could boast of his “I’m a kampung boy, I don’t get sick” privilege. He was constantly unwell. Always coughing. For someone who did not believe in supplements all his life, he started taking some. Still, nothing helped. He felt significantly weaker than before.

I did not experience this so I thought nothing much about it until this mycoplasma pneumonia hit me real hard this time. I must have had a low point in my immunity and contracted it from somewhere. Covid-19 must have weakened me too, without me even realising it. I had mycoplasma pneumonia, which means my lungs were attacked by the bacteria.

That’s the price we pay for superpowers and their germ warfare, right? What new germ are you fellows going to create next to destroy the world? Would Thanos’ plan have been better? No wonder no aliens want to invade earth. The superpowers are already doing a great job at it!

‘Nuff said. There’s nothing we can do about human stupidity. Only the universe and human stupidity are infinite and we aren’t even sure about the former, but definitely sure about the latter!

I’m going to boost my immunity with food and supplements from now on. If I hope to live for at least another 20 years to see all my cats through, I have to.

On a more serious note now:

Since I could not sleep, I started finding out about the drugs that I had received in that IV-port.
Horrors of horrors, there is one that can cause Stevens-Johnson’s Syndrome. And I’ve already been dosed with it for 3 days straight.
Our doctors do not tell us all the contraindications (do they even know?) and at that time, I was way too sick to do research. Sure, the percentage is small, but it is still there.

I first learnt about Stevens-Johnson’s Syndrome (SJS) when many years ago, a doctor prescribed me a drug that could cause it. He did not tell me the contraindications, I found it out myself, so I gave it back to him and told him I wasn’t taking it. He was appalled that I would worry about “that small percentage”. Yes, your malpractice insurance would cover you, but it’s my life we are talking about here. At that time, a friend’s friend had just died from SJS because of a common gout medicine that she was taking. Yes, she died.

Small percentage, eh? It’s a life we are talking about here. At least let the patient know and let the patient decide.

Want to talk about a small percentage? I had an anaphylactic reaction on my first Hepatitis-B jab, which is even safe for babies.
Yups, me. At 30+, I had a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction from my first dose and until today, I’m not immune against Hepatitis B. The doctor panicked, but luckily managed to revive me with adrenaline and saved my life. He even had his heart specialist come to check me out later, before sending me home.
He had to report my case to the authorities and guess what, I was the only case in Malaysia. One and only one. Me.
So do I worry about “small percentages”? You tell me.
Stevens-Johnson’s Syndrome is no joke. It can be fatal. Now I have to wait for 2 weeks to see if I got it.
So I went to the clinic just now and just told them I want to exchange one of the medications for another one which I’ve taken before. I didn’t even tell them why. I’m tired of the doctor not knowing or telling me, “It’s just a very small percentage, don’t worry.”
Small percentages happen to certain people.

 

 


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