Of Girlfriends and Snoring

I was out-of-commission for a week. I had always wanted an extended weekend that I couldn’t wait for the next typhoon to hit or the next national holiday to be announced. I must’ve prayed so hard, I finally got my wish…but with dire consequences.

It all started after the Policy Analysis Training in August. After a week of blissfully cool weather up in Antipolo, I came back to a humid and polluted city air. My asthma naturally acted up and I endured it together with my allergic rhinitis for several mornings. I presumed the sniffles and coughing would all go away soon enough. By the second week, there was already phlegm in my lungs and Jeni complained my snoring at night was worse than before. I apologized for her sleepless nights and explained my clogged nose didn’t help my deviated septum any (a condition I inherited from my father). When I started feeling feverish, we both wondered if it was sinusitis already. But I should have known the cold sweats I was having in the afternoons and at night was not normal.

And then the timing of the fevers became strange. I would get them late in the afternoons until evening. The next morning, I’d still have a slightly raised temperature and would feel too sluggish. Midday, I would feel better for a couple of hours until around 4 or 5PM when I would get feverish all over again. All this time, Jeni would be waking me up in the middle of the night because my snoring was also becoming too weird for her. When before, she would be bothered by the gaps in my breathing, long periods when I seem to have stopped breathing, now it was the gasping sounds that I made. She began to panic when she noticed that I sounded like I was “drowning” one night. The very next day, she hustled me off to St. Lukes.

I was diagnosed with upper respiratory infection which was already on the brink of broncho-pneumonia. It was my fault for not paying attention to my cough even when I started feeling phlegm in my lungs. I honestly thought it was just my asthma. Malay ko ba…

I owe it all to my partner, Jeni, for noticing the slight changes in my physiological habits. I may be a horrible roommate because of my snoring, but she has learned to recognize what was ‘normal’ sleep-breathing for me. I wouldn’t know half the time since I was obviously unconscious, right? The night I seemed to be “drowning” Jeni was downstairs, having just arrived from her nightshift. I must’ve scared the hell out of her since she willingly took a leave from work the next day to accompany me to the hospital. Correction, it was by her insistence that I finally thought of consulting a doctor.

Now, the fevers are gone but I am still on antibiotics. I have an alka seltzer-type of mucolytic to dissolve the phlegm and also a decongestant-paracetamol to ensure the sniffles are controlled. And of course, there’s Jeni who must now constantly monitor my snoring for any changes in my health condition. Here’s to heroic girlfriends!