I have...pneumonia! What??!!

Hey friends.  I apoligize for the lack of post the last month. 

The past 3 weeks have been very tough for me physically.  I have been in and out of the doctor's office trying to figure out what is going on. 

It started on Monday, June 11.  I had a sore throat all day and little energy.  I started having chills and fever Monday night.  It continued and worsened Tuesday.  I went to the dotor on Wednesday and was misdiagnoised with the flu.  The flu test came back negative but I had every symptom so she labled it the flu, gave me Tamiflu and an antibiotic and sent me on my way.  The next few days were awful.  It was a constant battle and cycle of major chills, fever, crazy sweats when the fever broke.  And on and on it went.  I kept telling Daniel that I feel like I'm dying.  I know that sounds dramatic, but I have never felt worse in my entire life.  Thinking that the flu was a misdiagnosis, I went back to the doctor the following Monday.  I saw a nurse practicioner and she ran a battery of blood test.  She decided to do a chest XRay because I told her my chest became tight walking to the patient room.  This was the first time my chest had felt tight and it scared me to death.  The XRay results showed that I had a pretty bad pneumonia in my left lung.  I was breathing pretty good at this point so I was able to avoid the hospital.  She put me on a crazy strong antibiotic and cough syrup.  I started the antibiotic right away and was hopeful this would do the trick.  Unfortunately, I didn't sleep for the next 48 hours.  I went back to the doctor and told her that I just couldn't sleep on this medicine and asked for a different one.  I unfortunately had worse side effects with the second antibiotic.  My mom called the doctor 30 minutes after I took it and he advised to stop taking it, duh, try to throw it up and take benedryl. I did and slowly felt better.  Praise the Lord I slept that night! I'm sure the benedryl had something to do with it.  At this point, as you can imagine, I'm beyond frustrated and just tired of it all.  I went back to the doctor and saw a different doctor.  He repeated the chest XRay and was not happy with what he saw.  He said the pneumonia wasn't worse, which was great but he said it was a bad pnumonia and we needed to find a medicine that I could take ASAP.  Eventhough my blood work looked fairly normal this entire time, he was worried it could quickly turn into a secondary bacterial infection.  He perscribed a ZPack, which I had taken before with no side effects.  I, however was super worried that I would have side effects with this drug, just like the other two I had taken. 

I had been praying the whole time that God would heal me and had a small army of prayer warriors who were also praying.  But, I was still worried and not giving it totally to God. I was holding onto fear and letting that control me.  Saturday morning, I was beyond anxious about starting another drug and decided to look up verses regarding fear.  God led me straight to this verse and I have been claiming it ever since.  "Say to those with fearful hearts,  Be strong, do not fear, your God will come, he will come with vegeance, with devine retribution he will come to save you." Isaiah 35:4.  As soon as I read the words that I felt God had writted just for me at that exact time, I began sobbing.  I was so completely overwhelmed by God's grace and goodness.  He was telling me, Allie, don't worry, I'm in control! I had the best day and was completely at peace from that moment on.  I haven't had any side effects from the new meds and have been sleeping great!  I do however have some sort of injury on my right ribcage. I'm not sure if I pulled a muscle coughing or cracked a rib.  It is hurting so badly and that is my number on complaint right now.  I'm feeling better overall, but still have a long way to go.  I went back to the doctor this past Monday and he wanted to repeat the XRay to see how everything was looking.  He told me he wasn't expecting much improvement and wanted o make sure it wasn't worse.  After the XRay, he came bounding in the room with a huge smile on his face and told me to come out in the hall bc he wanted to show me something.  I followed him to an area where two XRays hung.  He said, look at this and tell me what you see.  Ok, I thought, I'm not a doctor and all I see are ribs! As I looked closer I could see a visiable differece in the two XRays haging in front of me.  The most recent one showed a vast improvement in my lung! He was completely shocked and told me it made his day.  He was comletely amazed that I had improved so much in 3 short days.  I, however, knew that God had worked a miracle in me and immediately became so overwhelemed by his love and promises!! I praised and thanked Him all day long.  God is so good and he is so faithful to stand by our side in good times and in bad.  He has continued to hold me through this trial and while I'm anxious to heal completely and get back to normal, I'm trusting in Him and his perfect timing!

My family has been absoultly amazing.  Daniel took several days off work and has catered to my every need.  My mom, who has bee sick with a very similar illness just without the pnumonia, has been gracioulsy helping with the kids.  I couldn't even imagine the past several weeks without my amazing support system.  I am so thankful for all they have sacrificed for me. 

Please continue to pray for me as I'm still fighting this battle. 

God bless,
Allie