Do you or anybody in your family have asthma? Is it serious enough to where just a nebulizer will suffice or do you need an inhaler as well?
Just this past summer (2010) I was diagnosed with chronic asthma. I'm on a nebulizer at the moment and our doctor is looking into getting an inhaler for me, as he finds it funny (not in a laughable way, but funny as in weird) that Medicare will pay for a nebulizer but not an inhaler.
Mine started off pretty simply. I often woke up in the middle of the night with breathing problems, not knowing what it was, but I found it weird that once I did a nebulizer treatment, I felt okay and then went back to bed no problems. Really bad episodes were worse, as I would do a nebulizer, but in order to go back to sleep properly I would have to take some Benedryl just to help wind down, and then I'd be up for a while listening to music, reading, playing my DS, etc, just waiting for all my meds to kick in.
We went to the dr and I explained to him what had been going on and what treatments I found out that worked for me (nebulizer and Benedryl or Tylenol PM, depending on how crappy I felt at the time of the treatment). From there, he referred us to a specialist to be checked out for possible asthma. My main dr at first just told me to keep doing the treatments like I'd been doing, because he thought it was only mild asthma, like it had been when I was a child (I've basically, based off of old IEP's, found out that I've pretty much had asthma since I was born). Unfortunately, despite the nebulizer recommendation (which I have obeyed the dr's order to commence these by and large!) I still commenced having episodes and they seemed to get worse all the time, eventually coming to a head and getting to a point where I'd be calling in sick from work... all because I felt crappy on account of my stupid (undiagnosed as of yet) asthma!
We were referred to a breathing specialists, and from there I underwent a series of breathing tests to determine why I was having so many episodes, and why some of the worst ones were leaving me wiped out all the time. Unfortunately, I didn't come out of that one too good, as, yes I did have asthma, but it wasn't as mild as my original doctor had predicted. It was Severe with a capital S.
As a child asthma victim, I was only on one thing of meds, Abuderal, something that I'm no stranger to this day as I have been on that one all my life. But one that was new to me was something called Pulmacourt, which made my meds slightly stronger since I am no longer a child.
My asthma has, sadly, affected my job too. Not so much my job performance, I can still perform my duties as well as I could even before I got sick, but, I work as a housekeeper at our local Select Inn, and my illness has kept me from going into guests rooms that allowed smoking. We have approximately 8 guests rooms in our motel that actually allow smoking, although I think almost all of them allow smoking as techincally, sometimes when you go in the rooms that don't allow smoking, there can be a heavy scent of cigarette smoke in there. My illness has made the upstairs part of this small motel almost off-limits to me, unless I'm working weekends when there's only two of us working.
One day my asthma actually hit home when I went to go upstairs to get a Pinesol bottle which we think that one of our co-workers probably nicked, because as usual we had nothing to work with! I walked by the 8 rooms that allowed smoking so I could retrieve the bottle, and at first when I came back downstairs I actually felt fine... Just went back to work, no problem. Then my breathing started acting up and I wasn't feeling well, and I said aside to my job coach, Kris, you have to take me home now I'm not feeling well and I think I know what may have done it.
One memory I have of having asthma as a child was when we brought our pet cat home for the first time as a kitten. Everytime I started doing a nebulizer treatment, she'd run from the room because she was scared of the noise (my old machine was kind of loud!) But now I think she's finally realizing that I'm stuck on that thing for the rest of my life, as when I was diagnosed with chronic asthma, I'd gotten a newer, smaller machine as my old one was about as old as I am!
So yeah, all in all it hasn't been a very fun summer, health wise, I don't forsee this winter being any better. Trust me, having asthma sucks, and for those of you who reply to this and say or claim that you don't have it, be grateful you don't! It's tough living with this illness and can cause many setbacks, including schedule conflicts with work, school or church, and it's just downright not fun.
Just this past summer (2010) I was diagnosed with chronic asthma. I'm on a nebulizer at the moment and our doctor is looking into getting an inhaler for me, as he finds it funny (not in a laughable way, but funny as in weird) that Medicare will pay for a nebulizer but not an inhaler.
Mine started off pretty simply. I often woke up in the middle of the night with breathing problems, not knowing what it was, but I found it weird that once I did a nebulizer treatment, I felt okay and then went back to bed no problems. Really bad episodes were worse, as I would do a nebulizer, but in order to go back to sleep properly I would have to take some Benedryl just to help wind down, and then I'd be up for a while listening to music, reading, playing my DS, etc, just waiting for all my meds to kick in.
We went to the dr and I explained to him what had been going on and what treatments I found out that worked for me (nebulizer and Benedryl or Tylenol PM, depending on how crappy I felt at the time of the treatment). From there, he referred us to a specialist to be checked out for possible asthma. My main dr at first just told me to keep doing the treatments like I'd been doing, because he thought it was only mild asthma, like it had been when I was a child (I've basically, based off of old IEP's, found out that I've pretty much had asthma since I was born). Unfortunately, despite the nebulizer recommendation (which I have obeyed the dr's order to commence these by and large!) I still commenced having episodes and they seemed to get worse all the time, eventually coming to a head and getting to a point where I'd be calling in sick from work... all because I felt crappy on account of my stupid (undiagnosed as of yet) asthma!
We were referred to a breathing specialists, and from there I underwent a series of breathing tests to determine why I was having so many episodes, and why some of the worst ones were leaving me wiped out all the time. Unfortunately, I didn't come out of that one too good, as, yes I did have asthma, but it wasn't as mild as my original doctor had predicted. It was Severe with a capital S.
As a child asthma victim, I was only on one thing of meds, Abuderal, something that I'm no stranger to this day as I have been on that one all my life. But one that was new to me was something called Pulmacourt, which made my meds slightly stronger since I am no longer a child.
My asthma has, sadly, affected my job too. Not so much my job performance, I can still perform my duties as well as I could even before I got sick, but, I work as a housekeeper at our local Select Inn, and my illness has kept me from going into guests rooms that allowed smoking. We have approximately 8 guests rooms in our motel that actually allow smoking, although I think almost all of them allow smoking as techincally, sometimes when you go in the rooms that don't allow smoking, there can be a heavy scent of cigarette smoke in there. My illness has made the upstairs part of this small motel almost off-limits to me, unless I'm working weekends when there's only two of us working.
One day my asthma actually hit home when I went to go upstairs to get a Pinesol bottle which we think that one of our co-workers probably nicked, because as usual we had nothing to work with! I walked by the 8 rooms that allowed smoking so I could retrieve the bottle, and at first when I came back downstairs I actually felt fine... Just went back to work, no problem. Then my breathing started acting up and I wasn't feeling well, and I said aside to my job coach, Kris, you have to take me home now I'm not feeling well and I think I know what may have done it.
One memory I have of having asthma as a child was when we brought our pet cat home for the first time as a kitten. Everytime I started doing a nebulizer treatment, she'd run from the room because she was scared of the noise (my old machine was kind of loud!) But now I think she's finally realizing that I'm stuck on that thing for the rest of my life, as when I was diagnosed with chronic asthma, I'd gotten a newer, smaller machine as my old one was about as old as I am!
So yeah, all in all it hasn't been a very fun summer, health wise, I don't forsee this winter being any better. Trust me, having asthma sucks, and for those of you who reply to this and say or claim that you don't have it, be grateful you don't! It's tough living with this illness and can cause many setbacks, including schedule conflicts with work, school or church, and it's just downright not fun.
