Oh Joy is me

I've got adult whooping cough, (yes that picture is the bacterium causing my cough) which I had as a young child, I do have vague memories of being taken into a steam thickened bathroom by my mother to ease my breathing and the panic you feel when you can't breath properly. But when you have it as an adult it's different, it started about 3 weeks ago with a dry cough, I thought it was just that a cold/cough, then I had about 10 days where I felt fine, then one day I woke up from sleeping not being able to breath and what I can only describe as a claw around my chest and throat.... it was awful, I've spent the best part of two weeks sleeping on the sofa because of my constant hacking and sucking in of air and the inevitable retching and almost throwing up (too much information I know) at the end of my coughing fits, all of which doesn't lend itself to happy marital relations, especially at 2am, 3am, 4am, 5am, 6am then give up and get up with the dawn chorus....again.....it's like ground hog day every night, except worse.

Needless to say I am shattered for the rest of the day, feel completely washed out, and on top of which I think I have broken one of my floating ribs, with my over enthusiastic coughing, (common apparently in adult whooping cough) because I can feel it bump over where once it didn't when I breath, and I get the odd stabbing pain, all too reminiscent of when I broke three ribs on the way to a disastrous cave rave a few years back, well I say cave rave, it was more a bunch of people high on a hill in a natural limestone cave who drank large amounts of beer, whilst I rolled about on the floor in agony.

Anyway I've been to the doctors and they have diagnosed whooping cough or "the 100 day cough" as it's known in China, and they have loaded me up with Co-Codamol and antibiotics peculiar to the bug which causes whooping cough, lets hope it's not a long haul.....