the Price of Doctors

I had been suffering from a head cold for about two weeks, when it suddenly became something else. I was coughing up brown mucus and my chest just hurt so badly. It was really hard to breath and I was afraid I was catching pneumonia or something. My wife told me we had to go to the doctor, as that morning I also had a fever for the first time with this cold. She called our family doctor and they were able to get me in that afternoon. The doctor checked my weight, blood pressure, pulse, looked in my ears, listened to my chest, and looked up my nose and down my throat. She said she could hear my chest rattling really badly and that my sinuses were swollen and so was my throat. She had me force some coughs and diagnosed me with bronchitis. She gave me a prescription for antibiotics, expectorant, and cough suppressant with codeine. She also wrote me off of work for three days.

As usual, I was very happy with my doctor. She was able to get me in the day I needed her and she did a thorough examination. After a week on the antibiotics and the three days of rest from work and on the expectorant and cough medication, I felt a lot better. I kept my cough for a few weeks, but the chest pain and horrible mucus was gone for the most part after a week.

If you ever experience these symptoms, definitely go to the doctor. My doctor told me that the brown mucus could be infection and that if I had waited it could have led to pneumonia quite easily.