I ve been sick for weeks. It started with a bad sor throat and cold in my chest. I m 74 yrs old and work three days as a nurse in a residential care facilty..Everyone there has had pneumonia, brochitis or some lung problem..We have arouind 40 residents with one nurse and one cna in the evening..I m small - I weigh around 90# but, I m small boned and 5 1 ..I ve worked hard all my life but as I get older its harder to recover from illnesses..I had back surgery in 2009..(I fell on the ice) and kept working as I didn t think it was as bad as it turned out to be. The back surgery helped but, I still have to have epidurals abouit every three months to keep me going..I m on Avelox 400mg qd..And I m on predisone 40mg x2 wks then 10mg x2 wks. I have this week to go..I ve had a Ct scan of my head..(OK) I had fluid around my heart which I know isn t good..I had rheumatic fever yrs ago and I have a small murmur and a prolasp mitrial valve which was doing really good until I got sick this year. I talked to my Dr re: another Epidural and he was telling me about a lot of patients coming in with what they thought was back pain and it turned out to be Meningitis..Of couse now I m wodering if this is why I have been so sick and what should I do?????