Word of the Day: Acquiescence

Etymology:

The Saddest Lungs

Rather than going to church today I'm stuck at home breathless and a bit crippled.  Now, its my own fault.  I'm pretty sure I overdid it yesterday and should have stopped when I was (very minorly) injured in (hopefully my first and only) a freak shopping cart accident and gave myself a black eye with my car door.  But no, I decided to clean this morning...and the house is spotless, but now I'm at home breathless.  At least I feel better than I have for the past 10 days or so.  Progress!

My lungs....

The Election

So, I've been so ready for this election to be over that I've been looking ahead to the Inauguration.   Will the weather be cold?  Will there be a concert a few days before?  You know, the important questions.

Oh, Hello

I've been sick for the past 6-7 weeks with a nasty virus that turned into a sinus infection etc. etc.  Oh, I'm doing better, but the blog has suffered unfortunately.  Hope all who read this are doing well.

Deja Vu

I just got back from the Doctor's today. I'm on another round of antibiotics for the next three weeks. Both the Doctor and I think it's probably the same infection I had back in October or at least the one in December. This time, it's Amoxicillin, which I've never been able to handle. I explained to the Doctor that I feel like I've been punched in the stomach every time I took it. He told me how to take it "correctly." Wish my stomach luck!

2 Years ago today.....

2 years ago today, I was released from the hospital after staying there for 5 days because of asthma complications after a bout with the flu. Although I now know Virginia Hospital Center well, I'm happy to say I haven't stayed the night since. I've learned a lot since then about a lot of different things. One being, don't wear hiking boots to the Doctor's office. You just never know what may happen next.

Good News, Bad News

Good News: I slept 7 hours last night of uninterrupted sleep. That hasn't happened for at least a week.

Bad News: I woke up congested as both my humidifiers were out of commission.

Good News: I made the bus on a semi-chilly, rainy day.

Dumb News: I didn't put a fleece on underneath my rain jacket. I chilled myself.

Good News: My regular medicine started to attack the congestion in my chest.

Bad News: During an asthma attack, I got dizzy and blacked out for a few seconds.

Good News: I was sitting in my chair and didn't hit my head or anything.

Good News: I went up to the Health Unit. They assessed me, gave me a neb (albuterol nebulizer treatment),

Bad News: They were trying to talk to me about taking an ambulance ride and my roommate(RN nurse) worked today.

Good News: Kelli wasn't at work and answered her phone.

I'm tired so I'm just going to cut to the chase. I landed myself in the ER. I'm okay. I was given 2 nebs total and a CT scan of my chest because my doctor and the ER Doctor thought it was really weird that I was having shortness of breathing-other signs of a pretty good sized asthma attack but no wheezing (I was wheezing before the first neb treatment, but not after) which is odd for me. (Both Kell and I think the bronchial thermoplasty is starting to work).

Anyway, I was sent home with prednisone, instructions to set an appointment with my doctor to see him in the next week--and I'm feeling a lot better. Kelli and her office is pretty much awesome. Her charge nurse let her watch after me and then told her to take the day off. Very, very nice of her. Also, my humidifier came, and it's pretty.

Anyway, I'm okay. I'm kind of dumb, but it came out well.

PS-Humidifiers are needed out on the east coast in the winter because when people turn on their heat, the humidity in the house drops. Plus, once the leaves turn color and drop, the humidity outside falls quite a bit when it isn't raining.

Life Lesson 301: Humidifiers

Memo to myself:

Get your humidifiers ready to go by November 1st. Otherwise you'll endure several days of nearly sleepless nights in a row 2 weeks later before you figure out why you have insomnia. Yes, you're "really quick" at figuring this things out. Have fun at work today!

PS: Clean out your humidifiers in March next year. Seriously, that humidifier is gross.

PPS: Hopefully 4AM "impulse" purchases work well and you'll be sleeping well Tuesday night!

PPPS: To paraphrase Ron Howard, "You're really getting life lessons all over the place this week."

Life Lesson 548: Albuterol is not a sleep aid.

I've been having trouble sleeping the last couple of days. Insomnia comes with having asthma so it's not a big deal-although it's super annoying. Anyway, last night, exhausted, I went through my regular bedtime routine. However, right as I was finishing up, I accidentally grabbed an Albuterol (rescue) inhaler instead of a controller inhaler and took two puffs before I realized I just wired myself right before bed. Needless to say, I didn't get to bed until 3:00am last night. Ah, I'm still kind of chuckling at that one.

10 Days After Surgery

Me in 10 days, except we won't have poles and I'm pretty sure I couldn't pay my brother to wear a scarf. Really.

So, what does one do 10 days after "lung surgery"? Why, take a transcontinental flight to Switzerland to embark on a hiking trek for 7-8 days and then over to Provence for 4 days. I'm the first person to admit that this may not be a good idea. But hey, I'm game for an adventure! (Okay, I'm almost always game for "adventure")

To Paraphrase Eric Cartman.......

Via Grain Edit

Okay, maybe I can't do everything I want to like well.... ride my bike, talk to people long...or walk much further than about a half mile slowly, but I'm doing better. The biggest problem is a "gurgly" right lung...but it's less audible than yesterday, and I'm feeling stronger than the past couple of days. Last night, a couple of friends brought me dinner which was awesome of them.

This weekend? Go out, but prepare for the Memphis trip the weekend of the 7th and 8th of August. Guitar shaped pool at our hotel? Yes, please.

Surgery Eve

I go in tomorrow morning for the first Bronchial Thermoplasty treatment tomorrow morning. I've been on prednisone (40 mg a day) since Thursday in preparation for the surgery which means I've gotten by on little sleep, done tons of projects, am eating constantly and have 5 boxes (they were cheap) of Klondike Bars in my freezer. Plus, I mopped the kitchen twice.
"Prednisone Joy" is kind of awesome, but I'm hoping this procedure will make it so she doesn't appear again.
Mostly though, I just feel lucky that I've been given an opportunity to have a "new" pair of lungs that won't be so high maintenance. This just might be life-changing...at least to me. Plus, I have 5 boxes of Klondike Bars in my freezer!

Roundup: Whoop, Whoop Whoopie Pie Edition

1) Kelli and I went up to Lancaster County yesterday to a Whoopie Pie Festival. We didn't make the festival until the tail-end of the festival, but still had a great time. Ever see a 250 lb whoopie pie? Those things are huge. We also found a pottery shop that is one of the coolest shops I've been to out there.

Lancaster County is gorgeous-the Amish were harvesting feed corn but did I take any pictures? Oops. Taken October, 2007

2) A blog I read had a post about a Faces of World War II project that is currently ongoing. The photographer is a 24 year old who has been traveling the country taking pictures of World War II vets. Pretty amazing stuff. He photographs the men and women in their uniforms, or with their army issue equipment.



3) Actual sentence from Dan Brown's new book, "The Lost Symbol":

"His massive sex organ bore the tattooed symbols of his destiny" ...

Ouch.

Okay, now that I've pointed example 353 of Dan Brown's horrible writing, yes I'll probably read this book. Will I give it a four star rating? We'll see. Brown's books are fun even though that man needs a new editor and/or a 12 week English bootcamp course from Mrs. Hawkins.
Link

4) I'm not going into the details about how this was leaked (maybe there is a use for Twitter) but President Obama calling Kanye West a jack-ass for that stunt at the VMA's? Obama went up a notch in my book.

5) I had my first xolair shot two weeks ago. Two of my closest friends have both commented that I seem better than I did before the shot. You aren't really supposed to feel the effects until a month after a shot, but I feel better. I rode my bike to work 3 days in a row and hadn't been able to do that since October of last year.

Xolair

Note: This post is mostly for my family, but I decided to put it on here as there are others out there dealing with severe persistent allergic asthma. Knowledge is power!

When I first heard about Xolair and Omalizumab, I thought they sounded like characters out of a bad sci-fi novel, not asthma therapy. My Doctor first mentioned them about four or five months ago in passing (and butchered the word omalizumab) as treatment possibilities. When it was clear by the first of June, that inhaled corticosteroids were maintaining me at a sub-par level but not helping me get better, my doctor mentioned Xolair again. I took some blood tests, submitted my allergy “scratch” test results from last year, and the results of those tests qualified me for Xolair.

Xolair is the brand name for Omalizumab treatment. Omalizumab treatment attacks the IgE levels in the blood. The body produces antibodies in response to substances it perceives as threats. One of these antibodies is IgE which releases a variety of chemicals including histamines and lukotrienes which asct as messengers in stimulating acute bronchospasms in the airways. IgE doesn’t just play a part in intital attacks, but also the cascade attacks. 4-8 hours after the initial attack and exposure to the allergen, asthmatics may have a second attack which is called the allergic cascade. IgE plays a similar role in that too.

Xolair targets and attacks the IgE, which lessens the number of attacks, and allows many on it to live more normal lives. Xolair isn’t a cure, and it isn’t without its risks. The drug is new (approved in 2006 by the FDA), but there seems to be an association between Xolair and lymphoma which makes sense because these IgE receptors also do double duty by attacking cells that can lead to lymphoma. Xolair may also lead to heart problems, but the results of that study won’t be released until next year.

Xolair is incredibly expensive. The treatment runs 10k to 30k a year, and because of that there’s certain criteria that has to be met in order to go on the shot. Xolair treatment is only considered when cortisteroids aren’t helping to make a patient better. Although we haven’t received health insurance approval yet, my blood work and allergy test results show that I qualify for the drug.

After talking to my allergist and the pulmonologist, doing research on the treatment, talking to my family and close friends about it, I came to the decision that this is what needs to be done next so I can go back to leading a more normal life. I’ll continue to be on the cortisteroids, but hopefully we’ll be able to start cutting back on those after being on xolair for a period of time. Xolair isn’t a cure, but being healthier? That sounds great.