Bronchitis

Long ago, I used to get bronchitis every year.  I think I'm allergic to leaf mold, as the sinuses start in as the leaves fall, and I don't really stand a chance of recovery until hard frost.  Most years if I keep after the sinus symptoms and lay mouth downwards to keep post nasal drip out of my lungs, and take lots of hot showers and cubs of herbal tea as needed, I can ward it off with only a slight wheeze and no lost work time.

This year I ran into some issues.

1. The boiler is half dead, so no hot showers, and I was breathing cold air even when inside.
2. I ran out of cough syrup.
3. I ran out of herbal tea.
4. We started to freeze up, but then got another complete thaw resparking my symptoms just as I thought I was getting better and didn't need the syrup/tea.
5. We have more animals now, and some of them like to hide eggs in very strange places, so barn chores in the cold air takes longer.  

Sunday evening we managed to kick the boiler enough to get a hot shower out of it, but I'd waited too long and before I could clear all the accumulated junk that cough turned into airway constriction.  I resolved to call my doctor Monday morning and get something to open my airways.  At 3 AM I woke up completely unable to breathe for a few seconds, and got too scared to wait until morning, and there were no immediate care places open at that hour, so we went to the ER.  My breathing was so restricted and my throat so sore I could barely talk, very glad I had hubby there to do much of the talking for me.  We both know a wee bit of sign, so that got practiced.  

Between the ER and the follow-up with the doc I now have a short and long term inhaler and an antibiotic.  I got my tea and syrup supply restocked and space heaters in critical rooms of the house.  I'm improving, the sinus infection part seems to have cleared up, but still under the weather and exhausted.  I'm out of sick time for the year, to get through working partial days this week I had to borrow against my vacation I'm accumulating the rest of the year.  Looking forward to the weekend and getting as much rest as a farmer can.

I'm a big fan of healing naturally whenever I can, and preventing more than fixing, but there are times to pull in the modern medicine big guns.