Stupid Doctors
I've been coughing a lot since mid-April. Have put it down to allergies and asthma reaction. Have been doing albuterol about every 4 hours since then - 7-8 weeks. I know you're not supposed to use albuterol long term, so I wrote my doctorabout 4 weeks ago @ Kaiser & asked for advice. He said double my asmanex. Did that, still coughing ugly yellow stuff. Now also taking anti-histimines & nasal spray. Finally this week I go in to see him cause I'm coughing so hard I'm gagging. He says time to drop the doubled asmanex. (What?? I say I'm feeling worse & you say lessen my dose?) No concern for the long term albuterol. I think he thinks I'm making a big deal out of nothing. Finally, after several more days of hacking & exhaustion, I call the allergy dept @ Kaiser & tell them the story. Friday they said come in. I do, and finally someone takes me seriously. He says it sounds like you have an infection, probably bronchitis, and have for a while. He puts me on anti-biotics and prednisone for 5 days. Halle-frakin-lujah. It's a weird thing to be really happy to be diagnosed, but I am. And today, I've only hacked a few times. I'm frustrated with my regular doctor. I don't think he takes me seriously. I know it's hard to make distinctions about infections when a person has asthma & allergies, but this has been going on for a long time. Oy. The up side to prednizone is that all my muscle aches have disappeared. The down side is that it makes me sleep deprived, so I'm a zombie today. But I feel like hope is in sight. This has been a rough year for upper respiratory health.