Sick at the Band Festival

Yesterday morning I woke up coughing so hard my chest was burning. This was not a good way to start the day of the ACSI Band Festival! That sensation of burning in my chest stayed with me through the day and got worse to the point that it was hard to breathe.

Eden took about twenty kids to the festival in Bethel Park. There were over a hundred kids from area Christian schools there to practice music and put on a concert that evening. This was my seventh year taking kids to this fun, exhausting, rewarding event.

I ran the trumpet sectional from 10-noon. They were very teachable, and I think we had a productive practice.

After lunch, the kids were all on the stage and practiced all the songs until about 4:30 when we broke for dinner. We always go to the food court at the South Hills Village Mall. This is the kids' favorite part of the day and my least favorite. I just get nervous about keeping track of other people's kids in a mall. This year I had plenty of chaperones, which made it more manageable.

I remember one year it was just one other music teacher and myself with 27 kids. We actually did lose one kid that year, but luckily he knew the rule that if you're lost, you stay in one place. We didn't even realize he was missing until we were ready to leave the mall! We saw him sitting in the food court by himself and realized he had been sitting there the whole time were were walking around the mall!

Anyway, I directed one of the pieces in the concert. The song before mine was a hymn that they asked the audience to stand and sing to. I stood up, mouthed a few words, felt dizzy, and sat right back down. I was praying so hard that I would be able to get up there and direct my piece without collapsing! And I was determined to enjoy directing a band that large, since I only get to do that once a year.

I actually left the concert as soon as I was done directing my piece. I drove straight to MedExpress where they did a chest x-ray and gave me an albuterol breathing treatment to help my lungs open up. The breathing treatment did relieve most of the burning and made it a little easier to breathe. I got a z-pack to ward off the bronchitis and an inhaler.

This morning I feel so much better. The burning and pain while breathing is gone. Dan, the boys, and I just came in from spending an afternoon outside. I built a small fire to burn the stickes that are all around the yard. I'm not sure the smoke did my condition any good, but it sure helped my mental condition. There's something relaxing about a camp fire.

So hopefully I'm over the worst of it.