I can't complain really, it's been a long time. My doctor tapered me off my controller med (formerly Advair) because I was symptom free for so long, except for very occasional exercise related issues in bad weather.
After my last bad attack--in late June 2008--I started running. This past winter I was even able to run outdoors in the cold, down to about twenty degrees or so. Cold, even forty degrees or so, used to be a major asthma trigger for me. But I injured my shoulder and have been having a lot of pain, and so my exercise has been way, way down.
And then I caught a cold. My whole family had it. I got it last. It turned into a sinus infections. Thanks to MountainReader's list of early warning signs--a list I always keep in the back of my head--it occurred to me use my peak flow meter for the first time in months.
I was at 60%. I started doing nebulizer treatments, with albuterol, and carrying my albuterol inhaler. The inhaler didn't seem to do much of anything. The neb helped--for an hour or so, maybe. I figured I'd get through it, that it was mostly just sinus stuff.
I woke up this morning unable to get out more than a syllable without catching breathe. Peak flow right around 50%. I was really reluctant to go to the ER, and I wasn't wheezing at all. I rarely do. Somehow my chest gets tight and my breathing decreases, but silently. It's not the whole "silent chest" thing either--I move air, but not enough, it's just normal breathe sounRAB, but less air. I also cough a LOT. Sometimes I cough so much that that makes it even harder to catch my breathe. Some docs have failed to pick up on anything wrong, and suggest it's an anxiety thing.
I probably should have gone to the ER, but instead of being gasping and scary, this attack was weird. I just was breathing shallow and fast and felt like if the world would just SLOW DOWN, it would be ok. Just so long as I didn't have to walk or talk. Or stand, sit or lay down. But I was so focused on sitting in my corner breathing on a nebulizer that going to the ER seemed like so much work, requiring energy I couldn't spare. Yeah, so I could have called 911. It just didn't occur to me. And it ultimately wasn't needed. It was a long slow deterioration just deteriorating a little more.
I waited until ten am and went to the urgent care clinic. Got a xopenex breathing treatment and injected steroiRAB, which helped a LOT, very quickly, but was a little disorienting because I was already OD-d on albuterol.
The doctor on duty was pretty great. Didn't suggest, for one thing, that I wasn't breathing right because I just didn't feel like it, as has happened in the past :-/ and did take the time to make sure I was ok and wrote me scrips and very carefully explained them
It's important to nip this in the bud, because I am due to have shoulder surgery in two weeks, and I am having so much pain from that injury that postponing it would be very, very hard. She understood that, and recognized that while I have moderately severe symptoms, they are relatively intractable. She gave me a course of pred, a week of flo-vent, and some xoponex for my nebulizer.
I feel terrible. The day and night after a huge load of steroiRAB is always terrible. Right now, my arms and legs are doing the pins-and-needles thing. General body pain, probably as much from days of effort to breathe as from the large doses of steroiRAB. I'm breathing slowly and evenly about 50% of the time, which is a huge iprovement. Still getting rapid and shallow every now and again, but it'll get better.
I'm a little nervous that she gave me 5 days of pred @60mgs/day, no taper. I know that's how they are doing it these days, but it still makes me nervous. I may do twenty or forty on the last day, just to be cautious.
I have been sitting around an awful lot, feeling sick and miserable lately. Tonight I walked 2/3 of the 1.5 mile loop I run pretty regularly. Just several blocks measured off in my neigrabroadorhood. I want to get my lungs working again, gently.
I walked one mile in 1 hour and 12 minutes. I had a friend on the phone most of the time. Not talking much, mostly listening to her talk, and listening to her remind me to slow down when my breathing got ragged. Stopped to rest several times.
May 1, I ran a 5k (3.1 miles) in 29 minutes, 40 seconRAB. I'm about as proud of what I did today, getting out and walking a mile. Even if it did take over an hour. It's hard to deal with injuries and illness, moreso the past year or so as I've begun thinking of myself as an athlete, and a huge part of my life revolves around running, weight training, biking, and yoga. But I got my workout today. And it worked.
The steroid are still making me feel crappy, my chest and back still hurt from the effort of breathing these past few days, I still have the remnants of the sinus infection, but I feel better than I did before walking.
Tomorrow will be better.
I may have to re-evaluate the plan of albuterol alone. I don't know though. Just don't know. One moderately severe attack in two years may not warrant daily controller meRAB. I'll have to talk to my GP, and probably get re-referred to the pulmonologist, who I stopped seeing after I got off Advair.
In any case, I welcome your thoughts. Mostly, I just wanted to get it all out. It is odd how much the people who love and care about me don't want to hear what I have to say about what was and is a terrifying, disorienting, and, in a small way, a life-changing experience.
After my last bad attack--in late June 2008--I started running. This past winter I was even able to run outdoors in the cold, down to about twenty degrees or so. Cold, even forty degrees or so, used to be a major asthma trigger for me. But I injured my shoulder and have been having a lot of pain, and so my exercise has been way, way down.
And then I caught a cold. My whole family had it. I got it last. It turned into a sinus infections. Thanks to MountainReader's list of early warning signs--a list I always keep in the back of my head--it occurred to me use my peak flow meter for the first time in months.
I was at 60%. I started doing nebulizer treatments, with albuterol, and carrying my albuterol inhaler. The inhaler didn't seem to do much of anything. The neb helped--for an hour or so, maybe. I figured I'd get through it, that it was mostly just sinus stuff.
I woke up this morning unable to get out more than a syllable without catching breathe. Peak flow right around 50%. I was really reluctant to go to the ER, and I wasn't wheezing at all. I rarely do. Somehow my chest gets tight and my breathing decreases, but silently. It's not the whole "silent chest" thing either--I move air, but not enough, it's just normal breathe sounRAB, but less air. I also cough a LOT. Sometimes I cough so much that that makes it even harder to catch my breathe. Some docs have failed to pick up on anything wrong, and suggest it's an anxiety thing.
I probably should have gone to the ER, but instead of being gasping and scary, this attack was weird. I just was breathing shallow and fast and felt like if the world would just SLOW DOWN, it would be ok. Just so long as I didn't have to walk or talk. Or stand, sit or lay down. But I was so focused on sitting in my corner breathing on a nebulizer that going to the ER seemed like so much work, requiring energy I couldn't spare. Yeah, so I could have called 911. It just didn't occur to me. And it ultimately wasn't needed. It was a long slow deterioration just deteriorating a little more.
I waited until ten am and went to the urgent care clinic. Got a xopenex breathing treatment and injected steroiRAB, which helped a LOT, very quickly, but was a little disorienting because I was already OD-d on albuterol.
The doctor on duty was pretty great. Didn't suggest, for one thing, that I wasn't breathing right because I just didn't feel like it, as has happened in the past :-/ and did take the time to make sure I was ok and wrote me scrips and very carefully explained them
It's important to nip this in the bud, because I am due to have shoulder surgery in two weeks, and I am having so much pain from that injury that postponing it would be very, very hard. She understood that, and recognized that while I have moderately severe symptoms, they are relatively intractable. She gave me a course of pred, a week of flo-vent, and some xoponex for my nebulizer.
I feel terrible. The day and night after a huge load of steroiRAB is always terrible. Right now, my arms and legs are doing the pins-and-needles thing. General body pain, probably as much from days of effort to breathe as from the large doses of steroiRAB. I'm breathing slowly and evenly about 50% of the time, which is a huge iprovement. Still getting rapid and shallow every now and again, but it'll get better.
I'm a little nervous that she gave me 5 days of pred @60mgs/day, no taper. I know that's how they are doing it these days, but it still makes me nervous. I may do twenty or forty on the last day, just to be cautious.
I have been sitting around an awful lot, feeling sick and miserable lately. Tonight I walked 2/3 of the 1.5 mile loop I run pretty regularly. Just several blocks measured off in my neigrabroadorhood. I want to get my lungs working again, gently.
I walked one mile in 1 hour and 12 minutes. I had a friend on the phone most of the time. Not talking much, mostly listening to her talk, and listening to her remind me to slow down when my breathing got ragged. Stopped to rest several times.
May 1, I ran a 5k (3.1 miles) in 29 minutes, 40 seconRAB. I'm about as proud of what I did today, getting out and walking a mile. Even if it did take over an hour. It's hard to deal with injuries and illness, moreso the past year or so as I've begun thinking of myself as an athlete, and a huge part of my life revolves around running, weight training, biking, and yoga. But I got my workout today. And it worked.
The steroid are still making me feel crappy, my chest and back still hurt from the effort of breathing these past few days, I still have the remnants of the sinus infection, but I feel better than I did before walking.
Tomorrow will be better.
I may have to re-evaluate the plan of albuterol alone. I don't know though. Just don't know. One moderately severe attack in two years may not warrant daily controller meRAB. I'll have to talk to my GP, and probably get re-referred to the pulmonologist, who I stopped seeing after I got off Advair.
In any case, I welcome your thoughts. Mostly, I just wanted to get it all out. It is odd how much the people who love and care about me don't want to hear what I have to say about what was and is a terrifying, disorienting, and, in a small way, a life-changing experience.