Pleural Effusion — Savannah by Season

If you ever want to make your weekend feel extremely long, take a trip to the emergency room. Time doesn't really fly when you're sitting there. Okay, totally kidding. I do not recommend or wish illness upon anyone.

My boyfriend had been having fever, chills and a terrible cough all week. Finally, Friday night around midnight it was way too much for his body to handle anymore. His forehead felt like a stove burner and his shakes were extremely rattling.

We made the decision to head to the emergency room, where we were able to see a nurse within 20 minutes of arriving (which I hear is good, since sometimes people can be stuck waiting for hours). They got him IVed and hooked up to breathing treatments. While we were hanging out in our room, I did what any good photographer-girlfriend would do: documented our evening, of course :)

After some blood work and xrays (and a few hours of time) they diagnosed him with Pleural effusion, which is fancy terminology for "fluid in the lungs." Not enough that they needed to drain right then, but plenty for some extreme prescription antibiotics. After a bag of medicine was completely drained into his veins, we were released and headed back to his apartment.

I've been sleeping on the couch the past few days so that he can have round-the-clock care (and really so that I'm here, forcing him to take his temperature and all his medication on time). I don't think he likes Nurse Savannah very much, but he is definitely feeling a whole lot better :)

Since then, we've seen good numbers on the thermometer. This first one in the 97's made my day.

Thanks to a few of these guys (no, he's not taking all of these) the fever is down and the cough is sounding better each day.

To prevent his roommate Steven (and myself) from catching any germs that might be contagious, I've been washing any cloth that might have been touched by him within the last week and I'm spraying everything (absolutely everything) with lots and lots of Lysol.

As long as he's getting better, I'm totally fine being the mean nurse-lady/clean-freak :)