Times and Adventures with Whooping Cough

Poor DH. He's not been feeling well for over a month now and after a particularly bad night, I told him to go see the doctor again.

He has whooping cough.

WTFH?

Apparently it is making the rounds in these parts. Basically it is a bacterial infection (at least it isn't viral) that lodges itself around the back of your throat and likes to disguise itself as allergies and colds. The kicker is the violent coughing spells where you can lose your breath, making a "whooping" sound when you try to suck in some air. Some of the worst coughing fits are at night, sometimes to the point where you make yourself sick.

And it is contagious. We had to call his ex to verify DSS's shots were current or else we couldn't see him until DH has recovered (his are).

Well, yay us.

DH is on meds, so he is taken care of. Apparently I'm on the neighborhood watch program now. Both my sisters have been over in the 24 hours before we knew what he had and he had it awhile, according to the doctor. Yes, they were thrilled with news.

I talked to my mom and she told me us kids shouldn't have to worry because we all had our shots growing up. Au contraire, ma mere. The shots only protect you for a certain length of time and yes, you can contract it as an adult even if you have had your shots as a kid.

Now this part was news to me and I'll have to do some research to verify this is true. Apparently there is something in the new tetanus shot that covers you for whooping cough. How the two are related, I have no idea, but DH was told if you've had a tetanus shot in the past two years, you should be ok. Sadly, I've not had the opportunity to step on a rusty nail lately, so I'm at risk.

The main complications from whooping cough are exhaustion, dehydration, pneumonia, and cracking a rib from coughing so hard. Joy.

Now on the to fun stuff. I don't know what med is making DH really loopy, but he was hilarious this morning. He wanted me to wake him up when I got up this morning so he could call work and let them know what he has and how long he may be out. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Sweetie? Time to wake up, Ok?

DH: Hmph? Rwpr mmfpht hmm graptum snftt.

Me: OooooKaaaay. Sorry, I didn't catch that. You said you wanted me to wake you up.

DH: Rawrfbtfpr.

Me: *snort* Hey, wake up. You need to call work.

DH: Wabba gab ... did they get the school ...

Me: What was that?

DH: Did they ... get that thing at the school ... (snore) straightened out?

Me: Um, I must have missed that on the news last night.

DH: There was this thing ... bus training ...we doing ...

Me: Please tell me you didn't sign us up to drive a school bus.

DH: Huh? What are you talking about?

Me: *sigh* Nevermind. Are you awake?

DH: TV.

Me: Huh?

DH: TV over here. You ... middle. Another TV.

Me: Was the TV on late last night?

DH: Rbbsmtnpt.

Me: Was I hogging the bed again last night?

DH: No ... TV here ... push the buttons ... other TV ... *snort*

Me: Two TVs, huh?

DH: Uh huh. Who's that guy?

Me: What guy?

DH: The one standing with his back to you.

Me: (thinking: um, hi. There sure as hell better not be some guy standing in our bedroom while I'm in my PJs.) Sorry. I don't see him.

DH: He's with his wife. Over there. They own the go-cart shop.

Me: Oooo kaaaay. (thinking: what the hell is in that stuff they gave him?)

DH: (cracking his eyes open) What?

Me: Hmm? I didn't say anything. Are you awake now?

DH: Oh, be quiet. Don't mess with me when I'm not awake. (pause) What were we talking about anyway?

Me: You were saying something about school buses, tv sets and go-carts.

DH: Oh, be quiet.

Sometimes you just gotta laugh.