Tuesday, September 08, 2009

broken-hearted (or lungs) blues

i am broken hearted
i went to the doctor today
'cause i have a swollen finger
probably a spider bite he said...
but then he got to listen to my lungs

and oh boy!
my oxygen levels are really really low
from a normal 300 points
i got 120...
i saw it coming
i've been wheezing a LOT and having to
use my fast inhaler almost twice a day

and i saw it coming too
i am allergic to the Gatos, i knew it
no matter how much benadryl i take
or how many times i wash all around my home
when you are asthmatic, you are asthmatic
and when you are allergic to cats, well, you are
and not much can't be done

so... i am so sad and confused
not to mention tired

dunno what to do about my beloved Gatos
who i finally seem to have taken care of
to a point where they feel OK, with a home
and not living in the alley
but now this...

i am on Corticosteroids (QVar) inhaler for 2 weeks
and having to use my allbuterol inhaler for a while

and i must find a solution to deal with the cats
i could move to a place with 1 bedroom to
leave them outside my room
(i live in a studio now)
but also, they love this place so much
they are able to go out (most of the time they
are outside my house...)
and they got attached to this place more than to me
although by now they roll over & purr
when they see me...

as my mom & my best friend said
some illumination might fall to my head
(and lungs) and i will have to make a decision
to move or how to deal with the cats sooner
than later

or in the meantime, and thanks to my new
friend blogger's inspiration Diatton
of listening to some incredible blues
i could well write the "asmathic & the cats"
blues...

to all my friends who i owe replies
comments, etc. please bare with me
i am stupidly busy at work these days
taking a class, and fighting with myself
to get some air in my lungs...



here some info on asthma, that i should
read
http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec04/ch044/ch044a.html

6 comments:

Frau Feli said...

Oh Dear, I feel so sorry! This is very sad, about the gatos..apparently there is no medical treatment to heal the allergy? What a shame. Maybe a friend or neighbour living near by could take care of them?

Really, I would love to if lived around your place!! I keep my fingers crossed for a good solution, and don't worry if can't find time and nerves to answer me back, I know stressfull times so well!
A big hug to you, and the very best wishes for you and your health, Feli.

Διάττων said...

I saw that you have problems with your health and i got sad. I often have problems with my health (strong headaches, you know), and i can feel everyone who has similar problems. Please, try to do your best my friend! My best wishes also to you!

Many many thanks for your visits in my Music Arrows. I hope you like them (but i don't know the language very well)...

bereweber said...

hola dear lovely Frau Feli & Diatton!

thank YOU so much for your comforting words! today, after the hell of a day yesterday, i feel much better and optimistic, after only 2 doses of the inhaler i feel much better already... also many of my local friends have offered help with moving in case i decide to move to a 1 bedroom home so i can still keep the cats... things are looking up!! yet Feli, i'd love for you to move to San Diego and be the sole care-taker of the cats! heh heh, you seem like a great Cat-mom! ah! btw i added a photo of the furry suspects from this morning by my door, i love them so much now and we have bonded so much that it will be really hard for me to get apart from them!! so pretty much i have to suffer from either broken heart or broken lungs, but i feel if i am really careful, i might be able to manage it all! also i need to replace my old air purifier, that might help too!

also today at work is NOT as busy as before and things seem to be looking up! :) as they say: one day you are the bug, and the next one the windshield

and dear Diatton, yes! your musical selections are superb, thanks for sharing... and on your headaches, i understand very well, apart from the asthma, i am a migraine sufferer too, not sure what happened to me but from age 37, all my system went down! got the asthma, migraines, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) any of them are horrible conditions but they all keep me feeling not so great in most of days...

i hope you both feel healthy and happy and thank you again for sharing with me :D

Ruchi Bhatia said...

Hi Bere...sad to know u r Asthmatic ! However good news is that Asthma can be controlled to a manageable level and better quality of life offered by new drugs. I worked in pharmaceutical industry ( Glaxosmithkline, Respiratory division for 2 years and have background experience of witnessing lives of Asthmatics) . It is only our ignorance and (sometimes medico professionals too ) that people continue to suffer when better alternatives are avaialable which make life so much easier. Please ask/talk to your doctor about Advair today. It is an award winning product and really benefits .

www.advair.com.

P.S : I no longer work with GSK anymore, i moved to IBM 4 years back . Lol ! Just in case ( my advice seems like a marketing campaign).

Glad to be in touch with you again.

Love
Ruchi
www.twitter.com/rucsb

Smorg said...

Meow! O Bere! I hope the inhalers are working for you. That sure is a tricky development to be allergic to cats! :o(

I wish I could help somehow. I grew up with cats, but had an allergic reaction once when I stayed over at a friend's house and their tom cat decided to spend the night on my face (I was sort of reluctant to remove him since he still had all his claws and had something of a vicious reputation... He was quite nice to me, though). But the next morning I was sneezing like a steamed engine. :oP Luckily that was taken care of with a dose of antihistamine.

Hmmmph! Have you tried using a HEPA room air cleaner in the apartment? It's supposed to help reduce the amount of airborne dander. An aunt of mine (who seems to be allergic to everything except for gold fish... and only because she can't quite pet Cleo directly) has that and vacuums twice a week because her son is very attached to his cat. She still sneezes, but says things are manageable with that.

Keeping my fingers and toes crossed for you and your furry bodyguards!

Smorgy

bereweber said...

hola dear Ruchi and mister Smorg

thank you very much for your kind and informative words... luckily I've been feeling a bit better now and I think if i take my medication and keep the cats out as much as possible, i might be able to handle living with them

Ruchi, thank you for the information on the Advair, I will definitively talk about it with my doctor at my next appointment, I am going by the end of this coming week for a follow up... right now what I am using is QVar inhaler

http://www.qvar.com/

I am on a 10 day treatment with it, I have used it before and it works great for me, although it has some side effects, like i get really dizzy and lightheaded, but my flow peak of oxygen has increased since last week for at least 100 points, but i'd like to try other medications with less side effects, so i really appreciate you mentioning this product

and mister Smorg, yeah!! air purifiers do work, i actually had one working for the past years... and i think my asthma got worse actually 'cause it stopped working properly, so i turned OFF, i had a Holmes HEPA indeed purifier, but now that's gone, indeed my asthma went worse.. i am looking at COSTCO online right now to replace it, i've found a line of Blue Air HEPA purifiers that sound really great

so... yes!! i think i can after all live with the Gatos, but i must remember to take care of these details... a couple of weeks with no air purifier, and a couple of months without asthma medication can really throw me back... but taking care of myself has never been easy, now as i grow older i must remember to do it!!

thank you so much to you dear friends for your advices and for caring for crazy me ;)

hope you all had a great weekend!!

ps. and Ruchi, yeah!! it's great to be in touch again with you!