The tale of a cruel, cruel summer

Some of y’all might be wondering why I’m wearing a mask again. “Hey, isn’t the pandemic over?” some might ask. “Are you a liberal?” others might ask.

Well, it’s a long story. Back in late June, I started feeling bad and realized I’d picked up a bug. No big deal — I just assumed I’d camp out on the couch and take it easy for a few days.

Then I was awakened three days later with stabbing pains in my lungs — never a good sign. Fearing I might have a blood clot, I headed to the emergency room, where they diagnosed me with pneumonia. They gave me some antibiotics and I seemed to get better as June ended.

The end, right?

Wrong.

About a week or so after the Fourth of July, I started feeling bad again and soon, the stabbing lung pains were back. They gave me more antibiotics and I got better — but this time, I didn’t ever really feel well. I had been told that it can take a while to recover from pneumonia — especially two bouts of it in one summer — so I just thought it was that.

Wrong again.

As the final weekend of August rolled in, I began coughing up some nasty crud. After a couple of days of it, I went back to the ER and the doctor gave me more antibiotics, but he also told me if I wasn’t better in a couple of days, to get it looked at.

Two days later, I wasn’t better, so I jumped in my car on Aug. 31 and drove to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where I found out my pneumonia had turned into a lung abscess — a very scary turn of events, but thankfully a treatable one.

Nearly a week at Barnes-Jewish seems to have done the trick to getting me better. I’m on the road to recovery and seem to be healing up pretty good, but me (and my lungs) are still not 100%. So, just to be on the safe side, the mask is back.

Either way, while things are going better, feel free to say a prayer or two for me. I’ll take them!

Mike Buhler is a staff writer for the Daily American Republic. Contact him at mbuhler@darnews.com.