Asthma! Ugh!

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

1) QVar inhalant, an anti-inflammatory.
2) Serevent Diskus inhalation powder, a bronchospasm inhibitor.
3) Albuterol inhalant, a bronchial anti-spasmodic.
4) AeroChamber, a device that is purported to increase the actual intake of inhalants by, I believe, 30%.
5) Prednisone. A steroid drug for the tough times.

Okay, there's the list of meds I'm currently dealing with to control the asthma. Asthma came late in my life, even though I've had moderate to severe allergies forever. Asthma's a bitch.

I've given-up my daily run only once in the past two weeks due to an increased shitload of asthma symptoms, primarily centered on an marked increase in the wonderful wheeze the disease provides every time you take a breath. My most interestingly "musical" wheezes seem to come when I exhale. And, the severity of my wheezing--this includes difficulty breathing, a kind of tightening around those tubes that take and expel air into and from the lungs--occurs most often after I've gone to bed and continues until about 8 or 9 in the morning.

Anyway, within the last two weeks this lovely disease has, for some reason (probably because I live a mile high and we've had one kinda/sorta snow storm out here on the high plains, thus contributing to very, very low humidity) become so exacerbated that I finally broke down and called the doc. Nice guy.

So, now I'm on Prednisone for about a week. Prednisone is probably the most commonly used steroid drug utilized for everything from, yes, asthma to Lupus to probably another ten-thousand maladies I'm not aware of. It's a wonder drug. It's a dangerous drug, if taken for prolonged periods.

When our baby boy, Calvin (150 pound Malamute), came down with lymphoma two years ago, Prednisone was prescribed simply to make him feel somewhat better and to abate the hemorrhages in his eyes caused by that insidious cancer. We lost him anyway. (God bless you, buddy.)

Well, didn't mean to bore you. But, if you've got asthma, I'm sure you can relate. If you don't have asthma, count your blessings.

"How do I love thee?"

I've got a few crosses to bear and asthma is one of them. But, I'm thinkin' if you love your crosses enough, if you smother them with your care and attention and mothering and fathering and obbsessiveness, they might just take a hike. Or, maybe just ignore it.

I can hope, anyway.