How do you guage how sick you/he/she is/are?
By ladybugmagic
@ladybugmagic (3978)
United States
November 11, 2010 11:17pm CST
My boyfriend will only check himself into the hospital after his oral antibiotic fails, and when is phlegm is forest green and smells really bad. Sometimes he will wait for his oxygen to go below 86 (he calls that 911 time), or until he can't walk.
What are your signs?
Do you crackle? He crackles at night when he sleeps and breathes. I use the word "sleeps" loosely, because he sleeps about 2 hours, and then cough time.
1 person likes this
5 responses
@Aussies2007 (5336)
• Australia
12 Nov 10
There are people running to the doctor as soon as they sneeze.
And they are people like your boyfriend who wait until 911 time.
I am like your boyfriend, and I think a lot of men are like that. Which is one of the reasons why men don't live as long as women. Men like to think of themselve as immortal. And the notion of going to a doctor means that they are mortal after all, and they don't like dealing with that idea.
1 person likes this
@ladybugmagic (3978)
• United States
12 Nov 10
That is a really interesting outlook. I had never considered it that way. And my bf could be doing that now. He ignores being sick every step of the way, sometimes leaving preventative measures as his cure, instead of doing his regular breathing treatments. I think the treatments remind him too much of his condition sometimes, and its a hard burden to carry.
I am, admittedly, a little on the side of germophobia, in that I carry hand sanitizer with me. But, I only go to the doctor when I have an apparent physical ailment.
@marsha32 (6631)
• United States
12 Nov 10
I've been known to wait until I wake up one morning barely being able to breathe and with a super high temp.
Aren't men annoying with their coughs?? Not to sound mean, but I stay up until midnight when my boyfriend gets up for work. And when his day off is the next day I do have no choice but to listen to the cough constantly. I really don't know how he gets any decent sleep.
Marsha
@ladybugmagic (3978)
• United States
12 Nov 10
My boyfriend sometimes goes on 24-48 hours with poor or no sleep. He is at the point right now of coughing about 3/4 of a cup of goo, but only when he nebulizes. In ordinary conditions, he will spit it into a tissue, and I think he goes through a box a week, at most. He has the vest, but we are also doing some physiotherapy where I hit his back. We both feel a little weird, but, we will get over the awkward part.
How, in the world, are you able to sleep? And how can you wait so long? I am lucky, I am fairly healthy. The last time I had a fever, I didn't even know it. I went to urgent care, and they asked me why I was running a temp. I told them I hadn't realized I was.
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
16 Nov 10
Hi Ladybug,
Yikes...if I had the symptoms that your boyfriend has, I think I'd be running to the hospital. I don't get sick much and it has been years since I visited a doctor for anything other than a papsmear. It sounds as if he has some very serious symptoms and should probably have gone in a while ago. I've never had forest green phlegm even when I had pnmonia serious enough to be hospitilized. I think you should push him to go see a doctor. it really sounds serious.
@JenInTN (27514)
• United States
14 Nov 10
I usually won't go to the doctor unless I feel like I am going to die. I just got over a horrible bout with an upper respitory infection. I waited all weekend with the fever and the cough before finally going. I would have gotten better quicker had I went early but I always wait and think I'll get better on my own.
@JenInTN (27514)
• United States
17 Nov 10
I was diagnosed with bronchitis, sinusitius and uper respitory....I guess that would be bronchial. They said a little bit longer and it would have been pneumonia...I think it was already..it took me a while to get better. I think it started from whatever virus I caught and then just progresses. I got my daughter in the office the day her symptoms started and she was over it in a couple of days. My b/f didn't go to the doctor and he was sick for a couple of weeks after I was better. He was the first one to get sick too.
@ladybugmagic (3978)
• United States
22 Nov 10
Did you go on antibiotics? Did they do a culture on you? Or, did they just hear rattling in your chest?
@ladybugmagic (3978)
• United States
17 Nov 10
What kind of infection was it, if you don't mind me asking? Bronchial?
@RawBill1 (8531)
• Gold Coast, Australia
16 Nov 10
Gee, your boyfriend does not sound too healthy. What sort of diet does he have? Is he a smoker? 
Personally I never get sick, never take medication and never have to visit the doctor. The only time I have been to see anyone medical in the last ten years would be to have excess wax build up syringed from my ears and a nurse at the local medical centre usually takes care of that.
I usually wait until my ears are completely blocked even though I may feel the blockage starting a few weeks earlier. This is due to my dislike of doctors! I am hopeless like this! 
Personally I never get sick, never take medication and never have to visit the doctor. The only time I have been to see anyone medical in the last ten years would be to have excess wax build up syringed from my ears and a nurse at the local medical centre usually takes care of that.
I usually wait until my ears are completely blocked even though I may feel the blockage starting a few weeks earlier. This is due to my dislike of doctors! I am hopeless like this! @ladybugmagic (3978)
• United States
17 Nov 10
Definitely not a smoker.
He was born with the curse "cystic fibrosis". He gets lung infections frequently, some he can kick, or delay, and some where he needs IV antibiotics or antifungals.
He is now trying to do an alkaline diet, because he has been researching that a high acid diet helps to harvest infections.
He has a high calorie requirement because he doesn't have the digestive enzymes we do, and he has to take enzymes with each meal.
He is also diabetic, so its a tough fit to figure out his diet.
And he got the newest component of CF - osteoporosis.
