The Devil's Grip

Last Monday and Tuesday little Mol had a virus. I took her to the Dr. and he confirmed. It was just a fever (high) and sore throat. It only took a couple of days for her to get over, then she was her good little selfiekins again. So Friday night, we're eating at Jason's Deli and all of a sudden, I had a fever. I had the virus. Matthew woke up with it the next morning. Still, no biggie, just a high fever and we slept alot. Although I did have this strange pain in my rib area (which was uncomfortable, but I ignored because it got better when I took Advil). Saturday, we slept, and then went to the Jonas Brother's Concert (which is a WHOLE other post that I will get to tomorrow). I did have to leave the concert early because I didn't feel well, but we stayed for most of it. Sunday (Father's day), mike let Matthew and I sleep in--what a father! And we woke up feeling lots better. We went to breakfast with David and Jessica. I still had the pain, but still ignored it. I thought we were pretty much over the virus and everything was a-ok.
Until Monday. Monday morning, I woke up, felt better, and tried to clean our messy house. But that pain was getting worse and worse. I still tried to ignore it, but I was hurting. By Monday at lunch, it was bad. BAD, y'all. Everytime I moved or took a breath, I was hurting. I knew I had to go the doctor. I did learn that you get into the doctor really quickly when you have pain with breathing, or any pain in the general chest area. I had Pleurisy (pleuritis, pleuridenia), which was caused by the virus and it had moved into the lining on my lungs. He gave me a steriod inhaler and anti-inflammatory and I couldn't wait to get the medicine in my body. I was hurting, hurting, hurting SO BAD. I can't even describe it. When I went to pick up my prescription, the pharmacy guy said it would be 15 more minutes and I started crying. Except it hurt too bad, so I couldn't even cry! I got my medicine, got in bed, and prepared for relief.
Until about an hour later. My parents were watching the kids and mom brought Matthew in to take a bath. They were going up the stairs and Matthew laid down and couldn't breathe. It was a terrible sound, my sweet boy trying to get a breath. My mom, who is a nurse, said "OK. Call 9-1-1." So I did. Logically, I thought he probably had what I had, but illogically, this was my child not able to get a breath. So here they came, the fire truck and ambulance and I was thrilled to see them! He was able to calm down and start breathing evenly and they did lots of tests and said he had stabilized. Happy me! But we took him to Acute Kids anyway and had lots of tests done, etc. They said it was OverActive Airway Disorder? Apparently common in kids, but I was unsure because it sounded exactly like what I had just been diagnosed with. They did give him an inhaler and I've been sleeping uptstairs with him for the past 3 nights so I could hear him breathe. We've only had to use the inhaler once. Yippee!
So, we had a follow up with our pediatrician today to have him all checked out. He's fine. Whoo hoo! AND--Dr. S. said he didn't think it was Overactive Blah Blah, but probably Pleuradenia, and in the words of the very wise and wonderful Dr. S. "They also call it THE DEVIL'S GRIP because the pain is so bad." Well, that makes total sense to ME! Holy cow, people, it was bad. And I am sooooo thankful the Grip is gone.