A fever of 110 degrees just hit me like a speeding semi-truck, and my body wasn't ready for it. In 2010 my sudden and severe bacterial pneumonia attack, made me incredibly grateful for modern medicine. Little did I know that I would be face-to-face with death. I was putting away groceries when suddenly I started shaking like a leaf, and I couldn't stop. My mom checked my temperature; I had a high fever. I went straight to bed, and not even my electric blanket, heater, or our wood stove could warm me up. When I woke up the next day, my kidneys had started to shut down; therefore, I had an uncomfortable pain in my lower back. It felt like my lower back was really sore, like after a large workout, but I hadn't worked out before. .
By this point, my fever had settled so I wasn't shaking as much, but it was still high. Because of the back pain, my mom took me to Skyline Hospital in White Salmon, but the doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. After they checked where the pain was, they took X-rays and drew my blood for lab work. They thought it could be viral pneumonia, and were preparing to send me home with antibiotics. Thankfully, my mom kept a detailed journal of what happened to me, and her journal has helped me recreate the details of that day. In her journal, she wrote: "So, we knew on Weds night that he was getting sick but he hasn't been scary sick for a long time, so I wasn't that concerned." On Thursday, I had a temperature of 101-102 degrees. My mom was fighting pneumonia, but was not as sick as I was becoming. I was lethargic, I didn't want to eat anything, and my lower back was really hurting. .
On Friday morning, my temperature spiked to 104, and I was having nasal flares, retractions, and excruciating back pain. My mom called the doctors' office at 8am, and they were booked, but told her to bring me in anyway. .
We saw the doctor, and I had x-rays and blood drawn for the lab.
