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Give me the bad news first.
| Good and bad news. Bad news is, Vixy and I will likely have to cancel Norwescon. She got sick on Sunday at Consonance, picking up what appears to have been the same nasty cold that I'd had the fortune to have already run through several weeks prior. This particular rhinovirus is among the worst ones I've seen, ruining your voice at first, then giving you several days worth of sinus trouble, followed by, literally, weeks of dry coughing. I'm still feeling the effects of this thing in my chest and I've been over it for a month or two. We were hoping Vixy would get better by Norwescon, but this thing is just thrashing her, and now we're down to the point where even if she were miraculously better by Saturday (and from the looks of things, she won't be), we haven't been able to rehearse this week anyway and still wouldn't be able to do it. We've got two more weeks after this week to heal up in time for our our GOH slot at FilKONtario. That gig has been planned for two years, it's our very first Filk Con GOH slot, they're counting on us, and we've got expensive non-refundable plane tickets, so we're going to make that one, do or die. Good news is, the week after Consonance, with exactly enough voice for one take of one phrase before she broke down and couldn't sing any more, Vixy fixed up the last piece of vocal track on the last song for our album. Actually, we'd intended to re-record the entire vocal track that week, but then the illness hit, so for "Strange Messenger", you get Vixy's scratch track with only the opening phrase re-recorded. Of course, you all know Vixy, even her scratch tracks are awesome. :-) Other album news: Our mastering engineer has the final tracks and is working on it. We're almost done with the CD jacket design files. We know which duplication house we're going to use and we're making sure our ducks are in a row for getting copies in time. With a little luck, we're on schedule for a release of Thirteen at FKO! :-) The complete list of upcoming Vixy and Tony appearances is: FilKONtario, Weekend of April 4th, 2008, Toronto. We are the Guests of Honor! Wayward Coffee House, Saturday, April 19, 2008, 8-10pm, Seattle, WA. BayCon, Weekend of May 23, 2008, San Jose, CA. SpoCon, Weekend of August 1st, 2008, Spokane, WA. Consonance, Early March, 2009, San Jose, CA. We are the Guests of Honor! |
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Performance is priority 2 (or less depending on things)
You guys take care
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Please ask Vixy to go get checked out NOW? That horribly nasty virus has a tendency to turn into pneumonia/bronchitis very easily--I know several people where it's taken that route and they've all ended up on really potent antibiotics and steroids to get rid of it.
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The usual caveat being: Antibiotics don't kill viruses, so going to the doctor for a rhinovirus is a waste of the doctor's time, your time, and your money, as well as being yet another situation where you're prescribing antibiotics where they're not needed, thus increasing the risk of helping to breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
So how does one know the difference between a really bad cold, bacterial-induced bronchitis, and pneumonia? How can one tell when it's time to actually go to the doctor? Vixy simply has a dry cough that feels like bronchial irritation, but she's not coughing anything *up* even when taking expectorant drugs. I'd think for a bacterial infection, there'd be genuine phlegm that'd be all green and gross.
And anyway, who says "the cold can turn into a secondary bacterial infection"? Is that just something people say, or is it actually true? Viruses can't mutate into bacteria, so what is the exact mechanism for this kind of thing happening?
Does anyone reading this thread have any actual medical *cites* on any of this? I've always wondered about all of the above.
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My daughter
My slightly-trained lay impression of how it works is that the bacteria are all around us, all the time. The virus creates an environment which allows the bacteria to start growing a colony--bacteria like places that are warm and wet, for the most part, and lungs or sinuses filled with goo definitely qualify.
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I actually *am* coughing things up. Just not all of the time. Some of the time it's those horrible dry coughing fits that feel like muscle spasms inside my lungs, like my insides are panicking. But part of the reason that I keep saying "mornings are the worst" is that that's when there's the most... er, stuff.
I'm just not, y'know, showing you. :)
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God, I'm just full of appetizing little bon mots.
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Anyway, antibiotics DO help with pertussis... not so much to stop it, but to slow it down a little and stop the spread because it is HIGHLY contagious. And pertussis presents as a cold. The cough is distinct... feels like you got water down the wrong tube, spasmy, uncontrollable, and then you are FINE until the next bout. Aside from the crushing fatigue, that is.
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A bad-ass virus can set the scene for bacterial infection, but there's no direct connection. Most bad coughs that last for weeks are just viruses and will get better without antibiotics (even if it IS bacterial! Our immune systems are pretty good at this shit.), and in most otherwise healthy adults, pneumonia is not a likely outcome. Elderly people, tiny children, and people with chronic bad lung function (asthma, smokers,) none of which describe vixy, are the ones most at risk. A lot of people who get a bad viral infection, go to the doctor, get antibiotics, and then get better, would have gotten better anyway in the same time frame without antibiotics.
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Also, you are right, it is a virus, but that doesn't mean that it can't run the body down enough for an opportunistic bacterial infection to piggyback onto it. That is what the poster above was referring to, and it happens to a lot of people who get the virus, especially this virus. Vixy has had a pretty rough year, physically and emotionally. Air travel can make it worse. I happen to know that one first hand. I was incredibly lucky that it didn't go into pneumonia with me, because of my poor immune system and the three flights in a 28 hour period getting from here to Wellington. I had an antibiotic with me to take if I got worse, luckily I didn't need it, but my doctor thought there was a 50/50 chance I might, especially with the air travel and the immunosuppressants I take for the arthritis. I think I staved it off by singing, or trying to sing every chance I got, even when I had no voice. It mimics the breathing exercises they give you to do in the hospital when you have bronchitis or pneumonia. That and determination. I Was Not Getting Pneumonia On That Trip. Mostly I just got lucky, though.
The only way to be absolutely certain that a virus has weakened the immune system to the point where a secondary bacterial infection is occurring is for your doctor or nurse practitioner to do a sputum culture. But generally, if the symptoms get worse instead of better, if the lungs start filling up, if you have passed through the fever, chills, sweating part of the viral infection and then it starts up again, ala Stephen King's The Stand, if you have yellow or green sputum in increasing quantities and not just early in the morning, or if you experience difficulty breathing, it is a good idea to see your doctor to reassess your condition. Also, this thing has a best and worst-case symptom progression. Patrick was over it in just about a week. I struggled with pretty miserable symptoms, fever, chills, coughing which was mostly productive and often kept me from sleeping and protracted laryngitis for over a month. So don't assume that Vixy will present with the exact same course of symptoms and progression through the virus that you had. My best guess is that you are in better shape right now to fight this thing than her, just on stress levels alone.
That is all. I am sorry it ruined you trip, but I think you made the right choice. Rest, fluids, and time ought to do the rest. Poor Vixy, it isn't a fun ride at all. Give her plenty of TLC and a hug from Patrick and I.
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