February 21, 2017

White Dog gently pulled me away from the desk. Stormer walked against the back of my legs as she led me to our chair in the living room and jumped into my arms.

My cough with its nasty snapping sound brought the entire Army to my feet. It had come out of nowhere in the middle of the night. All looked from me to the phone as I sounded another rolling wave of coughing. "Momma, CALL and make an appointment to see the Physician's Assistant, PLEASE. This is not a cold cough and I don't want you to develop a full blown case of bronchitis." The WDA agreed, "You sound scary and we want you healthy."

I was not running a fever, nor was I ache-y beyond the exertion from coughing. But frankly the cough and the heavy weight on my chest had me a little concerned as well so I reached around WD and picked p the phone. "Make it very first thing," WD instructed.

I managed to book an appointment for 7:30 and hang up before exploding into another coughing fit.

"Good," White Dog said. "Now you need to try and rest." The Army, without instruction from WD, took up positions of protection and care giving circling me. When I complained there was no way to curl up without coughing, Opal and Trixie dragged over extra pillows and the blanket from Stormer's bed to tuck around me and prop me up.

Suddenly, the idea of a nap sounded pretty darn good.

Update Wednesday: I do have bronchitis and was sent home with a cough suppressant. The PA had blood work drawn to make sure that was the only issue. He is treating the illness as viral so I am spared, thus far, additional medications but I have been cautioned to come back in if ANYTHING changes. So now I have 11 pairs of eyes staring intently at me watching for change.