(no subject)

[rivka]

Short of breath again, and a killer headache that may or may not be related to the asthma and its treatment. I can't imagine why they didn't give me an albuterol inhaler to take home yesterday, given that the treatment helped my breathing so much in the ER. I'm going to stay home tomorrow and go to my primary care doctor. Clearly I am not instantly better. I was kind of hoping I would be.

I'm worrying about whether I'm really justified in taking tomorrow off, which is sheer hypochondriaphobia. (Fear of being a hypochondriac, or being seen as one. It's a big problem of mine. Yesterday in the ER, I kept wondering if I was making too big a deal out of my symptoms - even after the acute coughing and wheezing attack I had when I got there, after the stress of walking across the parking lot. And even, some, when I was coughing: Did I need to cough that particular time, or could I stop if I really wanted to? Sometimes I drive myself crazy.)

Anyway: even if I feel okay sitting still and not talking, that's not an accurate description of my workday activity. And the fact is that I don't feel okay sitting still and not talking - I feel short of breath. I need to rest and stay inside and go to the doctor tomorrow, and there's no way Lydia won't understand that.

I got an e-mail of advice from my niece (age 10) and nephew (age 8), who have asthma. My niece writes:

About asthma: if you cough a little, take your inhaler every 4 hours whether you really think you need it or not. Don't skip a treatment unless you're sure you are okay. If you're outside or at work, carry your inhaler. Find out if you really have asthma from your doctor, sometimes you are just sick. Robitussin can work better than an inhaler if you are mostly sick and just have a little asthma. Sometimes my mom gives us both. [Nephew]'s asthma is wheezing. I have cough variant asthma which is just when you cough and cough and can't catch your breath. Both kinds of asthma can be very bad. I cough so often my chest aches. That cough does not go away with a drink or anything.

And my nephew writes:

Sometimes my asthma won't go away and I take steroid medicine called Pediapred. I am taking it right now. Asthma can really make your chest and stomach hurt from coughing. When you take Pediapred it makes you have a bad temper or act wild. Using the air conditioner even if it's not that hot out helps because it cleans the air you sleep in. And that is what you should know about asthma.

So that's very helpful.

Comments

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Another thing you should know about asthma: my primary care doctor once told me that unchecked asthma was potentially more deadly than pnuemonia. So diagnosing it early and controlling it is of utmost importance.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

How sweet of them to write to you! And they both write very well - above-average for their ages, I'd say.

Re:

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I was really touched by the e-mail too. (I think the younger one probably dictated to his sister or his mother, actually.)

[scherazade.livejournal.com]

Take care lady.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

listen to your well written neice and nephew and *take care* of yourself. you can't help other people if you're not helping yourself. ok?

feel better! *hug*

"n"
is for "banishing coughs"

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I'll be hoping that your doctor gives you some real relief. If you feel up to posting after you get back from the doctor visit, I'll be watching for an update. (Of course if you don't feel up to posting I'd rather you just went to bed.)

[ex-helygen254.livejournal.com]

I understand how you feel about calling in sick. Lydia will understand (my boss, on the other hand... *shrug*). I hope you at least got a good night's rest and that your doctor helps today.

Your family continues to leave me in awe.

[dedoc.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute.

They fast-tracked you into the treatment spaces because you were wheezing but good, gave you albuterol, and did NOT send you home with albuterol inhalers?

Or a short course of steroids?

Grrrrrrrr.

professionally peeved, de Doc

Re:

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought that was weird too. Don't worry, my primary care doc took care of it today.

[dedoc.livejournal.com]

OK, *good*.

That being said, I am still annoyed. That's MY branch of the Art, and I am not particularly impressed with their followthough...

feh.

still, your doc is on top of things. GOOD.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

"Hypochondriaphobia" makes utter sense to me. betnoir often mentions dedoc noting that patients who repeatedly apologize to the doctor and wonder if they're making too much of their symptoms are the ones who really are sick...or something like that. (If dedoc is perusing this again later, I hope I got that nearly right.)

As someone who's rather more familiar than she'd like to be with persistent shortness of breath, I hope that things resolve for you soon.

[geminigirl]

Take the day off. Really. If you're anything like me, the walk from your car to the office will be bothersome and make breathing difficult which makes things scarier, which makes it harder to breathe and so on.

I find that post-nebulizer treatments I have terrible headaches.

I find that the shower irritates me, but a cup of tea sometimes helps. Also avoiding orange juice and dairy are helpful. And taking it easy. Keep the windows shut, let the a/c or fan run if you can. And feel better. If you want to chat, I'll be here.

(and if you need company/support, I'm off Tuesday, so let me know.)

[curmudgn]

Your niece and nephew gave you much of the same advice I'd give.  Only difference between them and me is that I've been asthmatic for 42 years, and know more about the history of available treatments.  Frankly, they're lucky as all hell to have today's treatments available.  Sure, prednisone makes ya hyper, but it works.  I can't say the same for all I had available at their age--Ephedrol with codeine added to take the speed-edge off the ephedrine (this stuff's now on the Red List of narcotics and precursors), and a couple of bludgeonly antihistamines, Atarax and Phenergan.

I particularly want to agree with your niece's advice of "use your inhaler on schedule even if you think you may not need to."  By the time you find out you really did need to use it, you're well into rescue-medication territory.  If your health plan covers it, you might also quiz yer doctor about getting onto Advair (a very effective inhaled steroid powder).  It's still under patent, though, and costs like it.