So it has been a few days. Hope you continued to improve and that you have either gotten in to your allergist/immunologist or at least have an appointment set up soon!
Know that your virtual world faux aunts and uncles are thinking of you.
Thank you, I really appreciate it! I am doing a bit better. But I am physically exhausted. I slept nine hours last night which is the best I could do. I’m not at 100% but I think I might be within a few days. This week is kind of crazy at work, but next week I plan to follow up with my allergist.
And thanks for the great PPT @Qadgop_the_Mercotan ! I am going to look into a spacer and peak flow monitor.
this is the first I have heard of this.
I am in the habit of having a Berocca multivitamin effervescent tablet with my breakfast as my morning beverage. It has 500mg of Vitamin C. Is this too much? Been doing it for a couple of years.
if you are not having kidney stones it is probably just fine for you. it’s not a big dose. probably not necessary unless you have a very restricted diet or unusual medical situation, though,
Thanks!
Friendly neighborhood noodge here. Next week has happened. Update?
Yes you are doing fine right now, but for an action plan going forward.
I seem to be able to exercise now. I’m not sure whether I should wait for my next appointment in July or try to get in earlier.
Earlier.
Doctors told me DECADES ago about how spacers improve the efficacy of inhalers. One said that even a rolled-up piece of paper (rolled lengthwise - as in, 11 inches long) would be a good option. Aero Chambers and their knockoffs seem to be the standard - we had them for both kids, as they were not good about coordinating the puff and the breath (I’ve had doctors observe ME doing so, and they say I’m fine)…
I generally just use a 2 inch plastic tube - the core from a roll of knee tape from literally 30 years ago! It may not work quite as well as an AeroChamber but it’s a good compromise in terms of portability. If things get bad enough, I’ve got my nebulizer but that’s not useful for daily inhaled steroids or the occasional one-off hit of albuterol.
As far as the interminable coughing: do cough suppressants do anything for you? I know we wheezers are generally advised to not use them because if there’s something to hack up, best to do so - but when it’s impairing your sleep, that’s quite different. OTC stuff doesn’t touch my cough. Codeine cough syrup is somewhat effective for me but obviously that’s not a good longer-term solution. Benzonatate is frequently prescribed; I have been given the stuff twice now, and it does zilch for me (but it helped my husband, go figure).
Having a plan is an excellent idea. Simply having it all written down can be helpful when you’re having a flareup, as a reminder of “if x, then do y”. There’ve been two times in my life where a flareup made me do truly stupid things (in both cases, I should have gone to urgent care or even an ER, rather than waiting until the morning). Not that I’ve done such a writeup, mind you - but household members are now primed to drag my butt for medical help if I get to a certain point.
So … doing better with the asthma? Have a clear maintenance and action plan now?
FWIW I’ve seen a few kids having more issues with the forest fire related air quality issues, and I personally have needed to up my QVar to twice a day.
I have had to reschedule appointment with allergist twice now due to unexpected work demands. Also my insurance provider now refuses to cover Alvesco. So I’ve got to go back and get different meds.
Just an update. I am having asthma problems currently as I had a mild respiratory illness. It’s not quite as bad as the last time that I got sick, but enough to mess with my sleep and ability to work. Since my insurance won’t cover my maintenance medication, I did buy it at full price so I at least have a month, and I started using that again yesterday. I also used the rescue inhaler the night before last and for once, it helped.
Today I bought a spacer and a peak flow monitor per @Qadgop_the_Mercotan’s lovely powerpoint. I also have scheduled an appointment with my allergist for September 12th.
This would have been done sooner but I have a veritable list of health problems to get sorted out. But my son is starting school next week and it’s critical I get this sorted before we run the winter gauntlet of illnesses again. I did tell the lady who scheduled my appointment to make a note that my asthma is not under control and that I need a new script for something my insurance will cover. That was my attempt to self-advocate.
I’m glad you’re seeing your allergist soon. And I’m sure there’s some version of effective asthma maintenance medication that your insurance will cover. It’s so annoying to have to fight to get that figured out but it is necessary to pursue.
I’d also request that your allergist make a personal asthma control plan for you, or have their nursing staff do it. And ask about how to contact the office when you’re having difficulty with your asthma, so you can get timely feedback when necessary.
If you find that an occasional dose of prednisone tabs are helpful for getting you under control, you can also ask your allergist to prescribe some for future use when you have a bad flare. Of course you’d need to let the office know when you had to resort to that, but it’s great to have a supply when things go sour on a Friday night, etc.
Good luck with the peak flow meter, and I bet the spacer helps you too. Feel free to message me if you have general questions. I was the in house asthma expert for our health delivery system of over 24k patients and haven’t forgotten quite everything I knew since I retired. (I was also the epilepsy/sickle cell/cystic fibrosis/COPD/Hepatitis C/warfarin dosing/hypothyroidism expert, which showed how in need our system was for more physicians rather than reflecting my actual expertise. I was a jack of most specialties, not a master of them).
Agreed and thanks for the update.
Trying to guess which preventative inhaler is covered on any specific plan is a pain on our side too. Honestly I don’t care which one we use but we need to use one. And pharmacies can’t tell us if it is covered until it is submitted. Or won’t.
I got two brands from my insurance carrier that they say will be covered, so I guess we can start there. They could not tell me why they suddenly stopped coverage in the middle of the year, of course.
I think can’t. My local pharmacist went to a great deal of effort to get me one brand of “generic” estrogen patch rather than another brand (they are very different, and the more expensive one works) but told me they couldn’t do anything until they had the prescription in hand to submit.
(And neither is covered by my insurance, but even the more expensive generic is a lot cheaper than the name brand. And I’d prefer to pay less out of pocket, somehow.)
Okay so I got a peak flow meter. It doesn’t have anything to compare to since I am acutely asthmatic today, so it’s using its own definition of optimal I guess.
There’s an app that comes with it (PEF).
It says my peak flow is 306 L/minute.
FEV 1 2.12L
It has classified this as Worse (options: Well, Worse and Critical) in the yellow zone, between 50% and 80% of max flow.
I’m coughing a moderate amount and worn out from lack of sleep, but I’m breathing okay.
I guess I’m going to be doing this every day now.
Nah.
What will happen is that you will get over this exacerbation.
Then you will get on a maintenance plan.
When at your healthy baseline you will determine your own personal best peak flow number and your future action plan will be based off that.
For a bit you will do your peak flows every day but after a bit you will do it less frequently except when you start to get snotty or cough or otherwise experience things that are your triggers you’ll do your peak flows regularly again. Dropping number will be your early warning system to alter your plan.
If you need to alter the plan too often the maintenance plan will get adjusted.
The goal of rare asthma episodes easily controlled is very achievable working with your clinician and following through.
Aplastic anemia sufferer here. Yes, you can have a sudden collapse of part of your immune system in middle age, in various ways including HIV, bone marrow loss, cancer…
How did it present?
Did it “present as somewhat more prolonged common viral infections, same as the rest of the household gets just lasting longer?”
I mean maybe it did but more often there are symptoms of the anemia (fatigue etc.), bruising, and the infections are often a bit different than the same common viral crud lasting longer … but unusual presentations of uncommon conditions happen. If it did that was unusual.
Hope you are doing well.