asthma
My dad and my brother were the ones who had asthma, not me, or so I believed until we moved to Texas. There were a few reasons Miles and I moved out of Texas, but my worsening asthma and allergies was the main cause, seeing as I wasn't too fond of weekly steroid shots to keep my rib cage from suffocating me. We moved to Michigan and for the most part my asthma has been better. Had a scare two years ago with an attack in the pharmacy I was going to pick up my meds in, but other than that nothing serious.
Since August I have had trouble with my breathing. Put off seeing the doc until my yearly physical in the beginning of October (health care workers are some of the WORST patients *smile*) Doc put me on a steroid inhaler, something I hadn't needed before other than briefly two years ago, and sent me on my way. I've never had the bad side effects from steroids before, but now I know what people mean when they say steroids make them jittery and unable to sleep. I had to cut down taking the inhaler to once a day and even that was a chore because the damned thing tastes so bad that it makes me heave every time I use it.
Enter very early this morning... Tried walking up three flights of steps at work and had to stop to catch my breath. When I finally got back to my unit I checked my oxygen level and found it to be <90%; not good. Sat for a few minutes and it perked back up to 98%. Got busy and forgot about it for the most part. Went home, grabbed Miles and headed out to vote. We're having a bit of a heat wave in Detroit right now with highs in the 60s after having been 40s for a couple weeks and my body isn't always fond of the yo-yo temps. Walking from the parking lot to the entrance to the building, which we had to hunt for, left me winded. Got home and begged my docs office for an appointment today and they kindly found a fifteen minute spot in the afternoon. I showed up almost two hours early because I was having trouble staying awake as I had been up for over 24hrs.
When the medical tech brought me from the docs waiting room to the exam room she checked my oxygen levels: 88%. Let me sit for a few and back up to 96%, but needless to say, dropping my oxygen levels with that minimal activity made me concerned and obviously the doc as well because he saw me an hour earlier than they planned. He listened to me and said my lungs weren't moving oxygen well and he immediately gave me a steroid shot and breathing treatment. I improved a bit which is the reason he didn't put me in the hospital. He said he would send me home on a steroid dose pack, a new steroid inhaler as I didn't like the last one, and an epi-pen.
The girl at the front desk who calls in scripts to pharmacies told me I probably wouldn't be able to get my scripts until this evening, so I waited until just a little bit ago to try and go pick up my meds, my very IMPORTANT meds. The pharmacy said they received no new scripts for me today. So here I sit typing and hoping that the steroid shot holds me until I can call my docs office in the morning and sort this out. Otherwise I wind up at my hospitals lovely ER and probably get admitted to the hospital. *sigh* Keep your fingers crossed.
Since August I have had trouble with my breathing. Put off seeing the doc until my yearly physical in the beginning of October (health care workers are some of the WORST patients *smile*) Doc put me on a steroid inhaler, something I hadn't needed before other than briefly two years ago, and sent me on my way. I've never had the bad side effects from steroids before, but now I know what people mean when they say steroids make them jittery and unable to sleep. I had to cut down taking the inhaler to once a day and even that was a chore because the damned thing tastes so bad that it makes me heave every time I use it.
Enter very early this morning... Tried walking up three flights of steps at work and had to stop to catch my breath. When I finally got back to my unit I checked my oxygen level and found it to be <90%; not good. Sat for a few minutes and it perked back up to 98%. Got busy and forgot about it for the most part. Went home, grabbed Miles and headed out to vote. We're having a bit of a heat wave in Detroit right now with highs in the 60s after having been 40s for a couple weeks and my body isn't always fond of the yo-yo temps. Walking from the parking lot to the entrance to the building, which we had to hunt for, left me winded. Got home and begged my docs office for an appointment today and they kindly found a fifteen minute spot in the afternoon. I showed up almost two hours early because I was having trouble staying awake as I had been up for over 24hrs.
When the medical tech brought me from the docs waiting room to the exam room she checked my oxygen levels: 88%. Let me sit for a few and back up to 96%, but needless to say, dropping my oxygen levels with that minimal activity made me concerned and obviously the doc as well because he saw me an hour earlier than they planned. He listened to me and said my lungs weren't moving oxygen well and he immediately gave me a steroid shot and breathing treatment. I improved a bit which is the reason he didn't put me in the hospital. He said he would send me home on a steroid dose pack, a new steroid inhaler as I didn't like the last one, and an epi-pen.
The girl at the front desk who calls in scripts to pharmacies told me I probably wouldn't be able to get my scripts until this evening, so I waited until just a little bit ago to try and go pick up my meds, my very IMPORTANT meds. The pharmacy said they received no new scripts for me today. So here I sit typing and hoping that the steroid shot holds me until I can call my docs office in the morning and sort this out. Otherwise I wind up at my hospitals lovely ER and probably get admitted to the hospital. *sigh* Keep your fingers crossed.