The itching began after a long nap. I had finished the last round of antibiotics 3 days prior and I was taking benadryl to slow and dry up my fluids production. I started with the normal adult dosage of 50mg of benadryl and lowered it to a mere 25mg every 6 to 8 hours. Benadryl was doing the trick. My coughing was down to once or twice per day. Though benadryl made me drowsy and sleepy, it was worth it. With no coughing there were no syncopes and...

It was the early hours of Valentine's day, around 1am, when I woke up again for a coughing fit. This was the 4th fit this evening. I had to be thankful, we could have been spending the night at the ER room and though I may have been having fits, I was in my own home and our daughter was sleeping in her bed. Given our ER visit, my wife decided to stay home and make sure I was stable. To say that she's been supportive is an...

It had been raining most of the day and our daughter had gotten her shoes pretty wet. Soaking wet. My doctor had prescribed antibiotics for my cough. She had done x-rays and felt my lungs were clear, but gave me the antibiotics to fight anything that could turn into pneumonia. These would be my second round of antibiotics in as many weeks. The pharmacy called and said they were ready for pick-up. It was 6:30pm and we thought we'd kill two birds with one stone. Get my prescription...

It was a Monday evening when the diagnosis of pertussis was confirmed. The nurse called me and told me that I had come back positive for the bacteria. By now, my wife and I had done enough research that when we found out we were not surprised. But we should have been scared. I should have. The treatment for pertussis is through antibiotics. The earlier you take them, the more effective they are in reducing the symptoms. Unfortunately, I had taken them too late into the life cycle...

It was the weekend before the superbowl, a beautiful Sunday afternoon. We'd just had our cousin come over. We were having lunch and talking about an awesome project he was working on. By the 3pm, he was gone and we began to wind down. All three of us were sitting on the couch watching TV and just relaxing. Things could not have been better. That's when suddenly I had the urge to cough. I had had a cold for the past week and had been coughing up a...