30 Days of Truth: Day 16
Originally published at Skyspun.org. You can comment here or there.
Day 16 > Something or someone you definitely could live without.
I’m going to go whiny for a bit and talk about my asthma. Because it has become overly apparent to me recently how much I seriously could live without this damn disease.
I was diagnosed with asthma when I was two-years old. There were a lot of close calls when I was little, and many ER visits and overnight stays in the hospital. But as I grew older, it got a little better. I learned to deal with it and know my limitations.
But the downside to “learning to deal” with a deadly disease is the fact that you tend to under-react when things happen. This is what happened last Tuesday.
I had been having a bit of a flare up and had been taking my rescue inhaler a little more than I should have… But I just chalked it up to the cold I was still getting over and the changing of the weather. Tuesday I went to work and realized that I couldn’t do a damn thing without wheezing and feeling short of breath. I left work, went home and went to bed.
I should have gone to the ER that night. But I didn’t. I waited until Wednesday morning when my mother pretty much told me she was taking me to the ER because I could barely speak. From 8am until 4pm I was stuck in the ER while they tried to get air in my lungs.
Annnnd I ended up staying there for four days, hooked up to monitors and stuck with needles pumping meds into my oxygen-deprived body. It was not fun. I had not been hospitalized in about 10 years. I was scolded by every nurse, doctor, specialist and family member for my lack of urgency when I was having trouble breathing.
And so, it was a wake-up call that I need to pay more attention to my symptoms. Thankfully I am getting better, and I’m home now…
But god damnit I hate asthma.