January 2019
I worked Super Bowl LIII in January. I was in Atlanta for twenty eight days. With every passing day, I worked longer and longer hours, until eventually some staff members slept in the office the night before the game. My team was sitting under the air-conditioner and many of us got sick prior to the game. The sickness felt like bronchitis with stuffy sinuses, sore throat and trouble breathing. The supervisors brought a doctor into the office who provided medicine to anyone who was sick. I received Mucinex DM, Cough pearls, and a B12 shot. After the Super Bowl, I rested at home and was starting to feel a little better, but after a couple of weeks, I regressed and was having trouble breathing again.
February 16
I went to an express care in Tennessee because I was still feeling awful. I had trouble breathing, a cough, ear pain, swollen lymph nodes and was very tired. The doctor said it was not bronchitis yet, gave me a steroid pack and suggested Mucinex DM to help beat it. It did not help and I kept feeling terrible…. I knew I had a physical coming up, so I waited…
April 10 – Physical with my Primary Care Physician
My PCP thought my breathing issues were allergies and suggested Flonase in the morning, Q10 and a saltwater spray at night, an inhaler, and humidifier. I tried all these suggestions for over a month and did not get much relief. My blood work came back with an elevated white blood cell count, so I went back in for more blood work a couple weeks later.
April 23
The week of April 23rd was the NFL Draft in Nashville, which I was fortunate enough to work. Working this event was the first time I can recall that my difficulty breathing was affecting me on a job. I remember trying to walk back to my car, which was a few blocks away and uphill with my backpack, and thinking, I do not know if I can make it. I walked with my colleague, Dennis, and just chalked it up to being out of shape, but I knew inside that something was not right.
May 16 – ER
My shortness of breath got so bad that I was getting dizzy and lightheaded, so I sent myself to the emergency room. After a 4 hour wait, I was finally seen and explained the situation. They did a chest x-ray and I was diagnosed with Bronchitis again. I received a steroid shot, steroid pack, antibiotic, Flonase, and pearls. After a week, I started to feel better but soon regressed again. My blood work came back and the white cell count was even higher, so I went back to the doctor to get more blood work done.
June 10 – Saint Thomas Express Care – Third Set of blood work / Nurse Practitioner appointment
The blood work came back and it was back to normal. The steroids were thought to have increased my white blood cell count. I was still feeling awful, not able to catch my breath, tired, always yawning, and lightheaded at times. Since my Primary Care Physician and the other Express Care doctors I had seen were not sure what was going on, they suggested I see a Pulmonologist.
Pulmonology: an area of medicine that focuses on the health of the respiratory system.
Throughout my life, I have always been active. I was a dancer for a professional football team, played flute for 12+ years, sang in a regional dance band and always had great lung capacity. But recently, I had not had enough breath power to sing normally, had trouble walking a mile, or walking up a street with hills. I tried riding a stationary bike a few times from February – June and I could not make it more than five minutes without practically hyperventilating.
June 16
The weekend of June 16th on our way back from Kentucky, Jim (boyfriend, partner, best friend) and I stopped at Mammoth Cave and went on a walk. The walk was less than a mile and on an extremely easy trail. On our way back, my breathing became so difficult Jim started physically helping me because I was not sure I was going to make it back. We got in the car and I was seeing spots and my arms and legs were tingling. I thought food would help, so we stopped to eat. We checked my blood sugar, it was 103 and perfectly fine. We went to eat and even after 45 minutes my arms felt so heavy and were still tingly. It was terribly scary. After a few hours it got a little better, but it continued to be difficult to get a deep breath. On the way home, we stopped and picked up a pulse oximeter to check my oxygen level, but it showed to be normal as well.
June 26 – Midstate Pulmonary Appointment
At this appointment, I completed a Pulmonary Function Test and the results were relatively normal. My doctor said that she thought there was a 50% chance that it was asthma and a 50% chance that it was something else. She started me on a steroid inhaler and that did not help.
During this time, I was doing my best to work the July 4th Event in Nashville. I was having trouble walking to the office from my car, so I tried to use a golf cart when possible. When I exerted any energy, I got noticeably short of breath and lightheaded. When I tried to breath in deeply, it was painful in my chest, right below my sternum. It was exhausting, frustrating and frightening.
June 30 – Saint Thomas Express Clinic
Feeling more drained while trying to work, I went to the local express clinic. I was diagnosed with a double ear / sinus infection and was given seven days of antibiotics. I finished the antibiotics and my ear pain and sinus pain got better, but I still could not breath and continued to cough and have congestion. It seemed like some underlying condition was weakening my immune system and causing me to continuously be sick, I just needed someone to figure out the cause!
July 3
This is the first day in my life that I can remember that I have ever missed an event show day that I was to be working. I was so weak and tired that I physically could not make it happen. People in the entertainment industry understand that the show must go on, no matter what. This is a mantra that I have always lived by, but on this day, I could not physically do it. I am so incredibly thankful to my employers for understanding and giving me the day to rest.
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