9/19/03 Peter Mommy Daddy and Two Cars at Manhasset; I am Diagnosed with Bronchitis+Asthma:

Today I woke up feeling worse than the day before. Instead of getting better from the sickness that made me bedridden at the beginning of this week, I was getting worse. I lost my voice on Circle Line over the course of the week, and it wasn't coming back. I didn't have a sore throat, nor did I feel sick or ache-ie at all, but I did perceive some serious respiratory distress that I had never experienced before. For the past few days, I've been "coughing up a lung" every morning, a few hours after waking, and it was getting worse instead of better. This alarmed me enough to call my mother, who was alarmed enough to make another doctor's appointment for me immediately.

What does that all have to do with the above photo? Nothing. Except for the fact that I had to get to Long Island via train, and that meant waiting around in Penn Station for a little, and seeing this odd pile of waiting room seats in front of Tracks. Hmmm. New or old? Incoming or outgoing?

When I got to the Manhasset train station, I was surprised to find not only Daddy, who was to bring me to Dr. Z this time, but also Mommy, in a separate car, waiting for Peter, who was also walking over to them. Hmmm? In other words, for lack of good communication, and in part because of last minute planning, I had ended up in different cars on the same train as my brother, being picked up by different parents from the same family, with different vehicles at the same station. Wacky.

But it did afford us this unplanned photo-op. Awwww. The big news of the moment was that Daddy had a barber shave off most of his hair. So here's me in 30 years, almost bald.

Here's my father schmoozing with the ladies (wacky or otherwise) behind the front desk.

When he and I were left alone in an examination room, it wasn't long before we began playing with the toys. I weigh 155 pounds, give or take a cell phone, camera, keys, wallet, sneakers, etc.

Dr. Z(ubrinick) was not pleased with what she heard when she used her stethoscope on me. She immediately heard what I was complaining about... what she described as, "the entire New York philharmonic" in there. I appreciated the New York reference, but was alarmed by how alarmed Dr. Z was. She sat me down and spoke to me very seriously, threatening to immediately put me in the hospital should I fail to follow her explicit instructions. She told me that I have bronchitis, mixed with asthma, and possible walking pneumonia. Perhaps I returned to Circle Line and Biking too quickly after my sore throat a few days ago. Dr. Z demanded that I get out of all of my work commitments (Circle Line) for at least one week, and until she should examine me again. I was to not ride my bike or get any form of cardiovascular exercise. I was to stay at home and REST. I was also ordered to immediately get a chest X-ray to see if I do indeed have walking Pneumonia as well. In her office, Dr. Z showed me a few models and diagrams of lungs and bronchia. She showed me that bronchitis is an inflammation of the airways in the lungs, and that this was aggravated by my asthma, which was being aggravated by the phlegm and mucus of my previous sickness. Because of my asthma, which I'm frankly not used to having or thinking about at all, as up until this point, it was as innocuous as my color blindness, I have to take this condition very seriously, and if I don't get better, I will be thrown into the hospital. If her intention was to scare me into submission, she succeeded. I immediately called the other tour guides and told them of my situation. Only one of the three that I was supposed to work for in the next few days gave me a hard time (and I won't soon forget it).

Meanwhile, I was given a plethora of drugs. DRUGS. This strange looking contraption is actually an inhaler. Half of it rotates open, and you press a button while breathing in. It's got steroids in it, which is a serious way of reducing inflammation. I was also put on a very strong 6-day cocktail of steroid pills. I had to take 6 of these things on the first day! And I was given nose spray, and commanded to stay on my Singulair, which keeps allergies and asthma at bay. The idea is to get the inflammation down, and stop the irritants, like mucus, which is causing the irritation and inflammation in the first place.

I was looking forward to about 4 solid Circle Line days this upcoming week. It was worth about $2000 to me all together. All lost. I would instead have to sit at home, even though I didn't even feel sick. I was not a happy camper, but I was taking this seriously as I do believe in health before anything else. (My mother and I refer to this important value as a "Jim Henson," who died of Pneumonia because he was too busy working to go to the hospital until it was too late. For him, now, all is lost. [He's dead.]).

My X-ray this afternoon was negative, meaning that I didn't have the more serious "Waking Pneumonia." Whew. But I still have to rest all week.