Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Our first guest and super bugs

Eric getting a shot of Cordes Sur Ciel

On the 21st our good friend Eric came to visit.  He has never been to France before and he turned 40 on the 23rd.  The first 2 days were great.  We visited villages, ate great food and drank some good wine.  Then on the 23rd we went to a holiday party and it's been downhill from there.  Come to find out about 3 people at the party had been sick, but not too sick (in their minds) to miss a good party.  The next day 4 people were in bed sick.  The day after Bruce got sick.  But it wasn't too bad.  The day after that Eric got sick and it was bad.  Before his visit (actually 2 weeks before) he had bronchitis and this sickness went right to his chest.  After 3 days he went to the Dr. and got put on steroids, antibiotics, etc.  But he continued to get worse.  Bruce was only sick for a few days, nothing big.  But then I got sick and it hit me hard.  I was in bed for 3 days.  My head hurt, my body ached and I couldn't eat.  Eric was still bad and getting worse.

New Years Eve our neighbors had a great party.  Eric and I stayed home.  Bruce went to the party without me.  First time we spent New Years apart in 14 years.

I finally starting feeling better a few days ago.  Still have a nasty deep cough but other than that I'm ok.  Eric on the other hand isn't well.  We took him back to the Dr. yesterday and he has pneumonia.  Not fun when you are on vacation.  He now has more powerful steroids, a machine that he has to put this medicine in and put a mask over his face and breath in the stuff.  Today he actually feels tons better.  But he leaves on Monday.  We are heading out today, after being stuck here in the house for days.

The Dr. told us that the bugs here in France are different from the U.S. and that our bodies just don't have the antibodies to fight them, so we get it worse than people who live here.  I thought working with kids for 10 years had made me pretty resistant to stuff, but now I'm starting all over again.  Hopefully this will be the last sickness for us for a while.




Walking up to the top of Cordes



Eric taking a picture of us...and holding the 3 dogs

me and my big smurf hands

5 comments:

Diane said...

I had pneumonia in France in 2009 and was really ill, I managed to convince the Dr that the neighbours would look after me, but if he had of had his way I would have been in hospital!! I was told I could not fly until I had x-rays that proved there was no spot left on my lungs!! I presume Eric is flying??

There seems to be many bugs around this year, my husband was off work for 3 weeks and now in the 4th week and back at work he is still coughing. I had a 2 day cold!

Hope you all feel better soon. Diane

Anne in Oxfordshire said...

Sorry to hear this , your poor friend , I do hope he feels a lot better very soon .. and that you do to.

I am not sure about the bugs being different at all... but hey I am not a doctor.

These bugs are made worse by flying .. I know as my husband flies alot with work , all over the world .. He has had a bug since November... and it was worse over Christmas .. (after christmas) so we have been snowed in and him ill.

deedee said...

Get well soon! Now that you mention it, I remember getting real sick when I first moved to France.

Megan said...

oh no! What a horrible way to spend a vacation and the holidays.

Our Juicy Life said...

Diane - had to visit the Dr. yesterday, just wasn't getting better. Have bronchitis. Now on antiboitics and steriods and hopefully will be back en forme soon.

Anne - yikes. your poor husband! Our friend improved very fast with all the meds the dr. gave him. But 1 week of his trip wasn't the greatest. He's now back in the states and hopefully my sickness will be gone soon.

I truly think that the bugs are different here...and our bodies don't know what to do with them!