Last Tuesday I started coughing, out of the blue. One hour I was fine, the next I was feeling like hell. The next day, I started feeling better — well enough to cancel the doctor’s appointment I had made for that evening. Over the weekend, however, it got worse…and by Monday morning, I was in such bad shape that I only managed to stay at work for a couple of hours, and I made another doctor’s appointment that I did go to.

I didn’t get to see my regular clinician, the amazing Madeleine. Instead, I was stuck seeing an old guy who diagnosed me with a sinus & respiratory infection and refused to give me a prescription for my cough; he just prescribed antibiotics and an antihistamine, and said I should be able to get relief for my cough from over-the-counter medication.

Thirty hours later, I am having coughing fits several times a day that last about an hour each — with each cough triggering an intensely painful stabbing sensation through my skull — leaving me exhausted, sweat-drenched, and with a voice so ragged & hoarse that I have no idea how I’m going to manage at work when I go back Thursday. Last night, I woke up Claire during a 4am coughing fit — you know it’s bad when you wake up your next-door neighbor!!!

Sure, I called the clinic back and let them know how badly off I was. The receptionist said she’d pass along my information to the advice nurse, who would be calling me. That was over 3 hours ago; I haven’t heard from the nurse yet. When I called about an hour ago, I was told by a different receptionist that the message had been given to the nurse, and I just had to be patient. I wonder how patient she’d be if she was entirely miserable from coughing for an hour straight, with a head in more pain than most migraines.

I don’t know how I’m going to muddle through work on Thursday. It’s not as if I can rest my voice! I don’t know what I’ll do if I don’t get a good prescription cough syrup before then. The only (pitifully small) bit of good news is that I have Friday and the weekend off, to try to recover.