I won’t lie: I’m weird. Not just me and my fantastic personality, no it goes even further than that. I have had some weird illnesses.
I’ve had fifth’s disease, courtesy of my kids. Shingles from stress. PUPPS (pruritic urticarial papules and plaques of pregnancy) when pregnant. Basically it’s your body being allergic to you being pregnant and you get a seriously nasty and unbelievably itchy rash that covers your belly. It’s also triggered by being a smaller woman and having your skin stretch at a quick rate (multiples can cause this, too). Statistically, 1/150 first time mothers will have some degree of this. Most times it’s just a little rash and goes way after a week or so. When mine was so bad I couldn’t hardly wear a shirt and lasted for the final seven weeks of my first pregnancy my oh-so-compassionate OB (sense the sarcasm???) told me, “Don’t worry. While it’s fairly common to have a small case of this for first-time moms, only about 1/10,000 women have it during their second pregnancy AND only 1/1,000,000 have this for both their first and second pregnancies.”
Well, guess what, I AM TRULY ONE IN A MILLION!
Yep, I got this little treat during my second pregnancy. Only it wasn’t for seven weeks, it was more than seven months! Almost my entire pregnancy. In fact, it was the biggest clue that I was pregnant.
So while I should never be surprised when I’m handed an odd diagnosis, when yesterday I’d finally dragged my aching, coughing, wheezing, near-death self into the doctor’s office I found myself at a loss for words when he said, “Ms. Gordon, I do declare you have walking pneumonia.”
“What?” I asked, silently adding the hell is that?
Turns out it’s another weird disease that’s kind of like pneumonia but isn’t quite as severe as your lungs aren’t full of fluid. Instead, the fluid seems to move around depending on your body’s position and you don’t seem to be getting better on your own. Truly, I don’t know exactly what he said, I was a little pre-occupied being immature and imagining a pair of fluid-oozing lungs walking up and down Main Street.
All I do know is, I have hacked up half a lung and my back is killing me. Oh and there are compassionate pharmacy techs at Wal-Mart! 🙂
Edited to add–I am only on day 2 of my antibiotic but already I feel like a new woman!!!
QUESTION: Have you ever received an unusual diagnosis?
Rose Unscripted 
Glad you’re feeling better!
I haven’t had any weird illnesses or diseases, but my husband has had several. Everything that happens to him is weird.
Thank you. Some people are just *that* lucky!
Holy cow, Rose. You go through more stuff than anyone else I know. I’m very glad you’re feeling better! (But I’m sorry you go through this stuff at all.)
I can’t think of anything I’ve ever had that was weird. My husband, however, has this large round belly ever since his appendix burst. A lot of people think he has a serious illness, but he’s fine. He had a balloon inside him for a couple of days that expanded his skin, so that’s why it never went back to normal. That’s the weirdest thing I can think of from personal experience.
LOL and thank you!
That’s really strange about your husband’s appendix and the end result. Hmmm, I wonder if my appendix burst and that’s the cause of MY large, round belly. LOL (Nope, just too many sweets. 😛 )
When I was 14 years old I joined track at school. After 6 months I kept complaining on pain in my legs so off to the doctors we go and to a full of drama teenager I about died when the doctor diagnosed me with Osgood-Schlatter s disease. WTH is what I thought and luckily to my relief he then followed with the fact that all that meant was knee pain due to growing. 😜 hope you get better soon.
That’s funny…in a way. I did shake my head at how “sophisticated” the doctor had to sound. LOL
I am so glad you are getting treatment for your Walking Pneumonia. When my sister got her diagnosis of the same condition, she was also told she had had it for about ten years and it had damaged her lungs. Prior diagnosis – smokes too much. Quit smoking. I do wonder about doctors sometimes. So, take those antibiotics and feel better!
WOW! I wonder about doctors, too. It’s funny how one opinion can vary from another.