The Bean Blog

Breathing never felt so good

Oct 28, 2008 At least I still have my health?

It’s been an exciting couple of days for me. And by exciting I mean totally crappy and awful. I spent the last three days gasping for breath, hacking up a lung and sucking on to an inhaler. Good times.

It was so bad on Sunday I almost went to the ER. But I decided against it because I’m that cheap. If my kids were sick I’d rush them right to the ER. But me? I think I can suffer through one day of chest pains and blue lips rather than spend a hundred dollars at the hospital.

Early Monday morning (and early for me is around 9:30am) I made an appointment with my doctor. I went in at 11:30am. By then I practically had to crawl in to the office because I couldn’t catch my breath. My doctor listened to my chest and had me do some peak flows. My normal is around 390 (your healthy non-asthmatic lungs probably get you a much higher number than that). I was blowing around a 230 to 250. So then I got an albuteral breathing treatment. Followed by more peak flows. This time I blew around a 250 to 280. Improvement, but still not great.

That’s when my doctor used the H-word. No not hell. Not even heck. No, he used the word “hospital.” He said he was going to give me a steroid shot, prescribe a higher dosage of Prednisone (I take a small dose every day for my sinus issues cause I’m just all kinds of healthy), and schedule another appointment for the next day. He said if I wasn’t feeling even a little bit better or if I had a fever that night I needed to call him and he would do a direct admit to the hospital.

I hate hospitals. Not that I’m scared of hospitals. I just don’t like them. The nurses come in every four hours to take your vitals and they always wake you up. The beds are never comfortable. The gowns are less than stellar. If I wanted my butt to hang out I’d by some assless chaps. There’s always loud people walking down the hall. And my families not there. Plus I have a hundred things to do at home that I just can’t get done at the hospital. Immediately after Keaton was born I told my parents I was ready to go home. Then I tried to stand up and my legs felt like jello (that happens when you push out a nine pound baby with no drugs). So I decided to give it a day. When I had my appendix out I gave the doctor two days. When he came in that second morning for rounds I said, “I’m going home today so write up my discharge papers.” I have no time for hospitals.

So, even though I really wasn’t feeling any better I refused to call my doctor last night.

This morning I walked the very tall hill to school. By the time I got to my classroom I seriously thought I was going to die. I parked my backpack at a desk and went out in the hall to cry. But after a couple puffs of my inhaler and some deep breaths I recovered enough to return to the classroom.

I went back to the doctor today at 1:30pm. I was fully expecting him to send me to the hospital. And I was quickly running reasons why that just wouldn’t be possible through my head. But by then I was starting to feel a little better. My chest was still very tight and any sort of movement took my breath away (not in a good way). But I wasn’t wheezing as much as I had the day before. My doctor listened to my chest and said it sounded like air was going through better. Then I tried the peak flows. They were between 280 and 300. Woo hoo. Improvement. A 300.

So my doctor decided to continue to treat me as an outpatient. One more steroid shot (which goes in the butt cheek, but different butt cheek today), keep up the higher dosage of Prednisone and nebulizer treatments every four hours. I’d take a steroid shot in the ass every day if it means not going to the hospital.

So I’m feeling slightly better tonight after my second shot and some breathing treatments. I go back to the doctor on Friday. I’m hoping that will be the last visit or a while. Love my doctor to death, but I’d like to see less of him.

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Tags: Albuteral, asthma, nebulizer, peak flow, prednisone