Road Trip...Day 37 - Day 39

Day 37...Oct 21

After the grandkids left for school we sat around drinking coffee and enjoying a chat. Justin went out for a pre workday jog. He came back home all excited about the house next door. 

The house next door is empty and in the process of being renovated before going back onto the rental market. Since it was early and there was nobody at the construction site, this was a great opportunity to go and peek through all of the windows, just to see what was going on in the inside. Nice 18" tile was being laid everywhere, walls being painted and landscape work was also underway. It was fun, especially with Kerry and Steph still in their Jammie's. Ten minutes after we returned home the construction crew arrived next door to start another workday.

The last event for today was to go and watch Daisy play her first soccer game of the season. Even though her team lost the game, they won my heart and admiration. As the game was winding down Daisy's boyfriend came over and introduced himself. His name is Leon, a nice guy. I said, "My name is Richard but you can call. Me Grampy!" He didn't know what to think about that...

Day 38...Oct 22

Today was a day for the records. Both Kerry and I were coming down with something and her symptoms seemed to be a day or two behind mine. Probably just a bad cold...and after 5 days of coughing and feeling blah, it was time for us to do something about it.

My cold was getting worse and by 2:00am I was up, coughing like crazy and I had a pain in my chest. I sat in the living room, trying to diagnose what I was experiencing. When one feels a pain in their chest it usually means heart attack or some other heart issue. I had no fever, no sweating, no radiating pain down my arm, nothing that would indicate a cardio event. Pneumonia was the logical choice. So I went back to sleep, sitting up to minimize the discomfort. I slept well, considering. 

When I woke up most of the discomfort was gone but it still hurt when I inhaled deeply. Still, we both needed to get in and be seen by a medical professional.  Kerry was coughing deep with sinus discomfort and I was hurting. 

First thing I needed to do was call my primary care physician in Medford. Her office opened at 8:00am which equaled 10:00am Florida time. The waiting game began...I called them early and left a message. An hour later, still not hearing back from my docs office I called the insurance directly. They said I didn't need a pre approval...just give the doctor my insurance details and they will bill the insurance directly. Just as the call ended my docs office called and said the same thing. We were off to urgent care by 11:00am.  

The first urgent care we went to was actually called immediate care and they didn't take our insurance. We headed over to the town of Mary Ester and went to another urged care ... They didn't take our insurance. We called our insurance back and they confirmed that it is up to the individual  urgent care facility as to which insurance they accept or not accept. But our insurance rep did tell us that all ERs must accept our out of state insurance and so maybe the ER is the best place for us to go. It was now noon as we pulled into the Fort Walton Beach Medical Center.

We were signed in together, triaged together and met the doctor together. Because I mentioned the chest discomfort thing we were then separated. The next stop for me was the billing dept. to get our info, including insurance. Once she saw my out of state card she replied, "We don't take that insurance!" I shot her a nasty look and replied in a stern voice, "Oh Yes You Do! Pick up your phone and call your boss." She did make the call and yes she did accept my insurance. Now they were ready to treat me.

After telling the doctor that we have been living in a van since Sept 15th, he smiled as he told me that our odyssey explains everything to him. Apparently living or staying in different places geographically every night can increase the odds of contacting a nasty virus, just like we did. Now, they had to run some extra tests just to be sure my sickness was what they thought it was.

Not My XRay

Not My EKG

Not My Blood

They did X-rays,  12 point EKGs twice, blood test and a battery of other observations. They even checked for blood clots in my lungs...non were found. Kerry eventually met me in my room. The final diagnosis for Kerry was a severe viral cold that led to sinusitis and for me it was severe viral cold that let to an upper body infection. They found traces of the virus in my lungs on my X-rays.  That explains the pain. We were both prescribed Azithromycin antibiotic and for me they gave me a cough syrup with codeine to help with the pain and to help me sleep.  Off to the pharmacy we go...

By 6:30pm we arrived back home. After a light meal I headed to bed. I was exhausted. I had the best 12 hour sleep in my life. What a day.

Day 39...Oct 23

 I was up by 7:00am and dealing with a slow recovery. Justin took the day off of work and our plan was to go have a nice lunch at one of their favorite places. Due to Kerry and me being under the weather we all decided to come up with a Plan B...stay home, nap, eat and watch movies. It was a wonderful day. Sadly we didn't get to see the grandkids until later on in the evening, just as we were heading to bed. I'll take Daisy and Brandon, anyway I can, in any size dose. 

Daisy did take the time to do my nails, Halloween style...just like she did the year before. Looks like we've got a tradition going on here...I love it.

Can't wait for tomorrow and the feeling better part of the recovery.