Wheeze, Cough

After 44 years on this planet, I have been diagnosed with reactive airway disease and/or asthma. As I look back on my history of labored breathing episodes, I am not surprised. This past weekend really sealed it. Although I slept well Friday night, I slept poorly last night and the night before. I woke up in the middle of the night coughing so violently, I could hardly breathe. WineGuy saved me last night and sent me back into a hot, steamy shower at 3:00 a.m. so I could get some more sleep. (It was my third steam-shower of the day.)

This morning I called the pulmonologist as soon as his office opened. He fit me right into his morning schedule, so I ran down to his office with the three boys in tow. Dr. Lung took one look at me and said, "You look awful." Gee thanks, I know. He listened to my breathing and said we were done with conservative case management. He wrote me prescriptions for prednisone and a chest x-ray. He also gave me a starter dose of Advair®, which is a powdered combination of Serevent and Flovent (inhaled corticosteroids). I'm on so much cortisone, I'll probably grow testicles!

Dr. Lung gave me the results of last week's CT, too. I do not have sinusitis, but I do have a left maxillary retention cyst. It's basically a benign collection of fluid that resides in the sinus behind my left cheek. Oh, goody, more crap in my head thankyouverymuch.

We had an hour to kill before Moose's podiatry appointment, so I ran and had the chest x-ray done. I inhaled my first dose of Advair while waiting and started to feel better. We ran back over to the podiatrist to pick up Moose's new orthotics: he has flat feet and pronates slightly. Wild Thing also wears orthotics because he pronates badly. Then it was off to the shoe store, during the lunch-hour rush at the height of tourist season. Moose ended up with the same shoes WT has, so we marked Moose's. Lunch out at Tropical Smoothie Café, which wasn't bad. I stopped at the pharmacy on the way home to pick up my prednisone and then came home and collapsed. I was grateful the boys played outside all afternoon so I could nap and rest a little.

Tonight, I felt well enough to make two new recipes for dinner: Tortellini Bolognese with an Endive and Gorgonzola Salad. Check them out; they were quick and delicious.

I'm hoping for a more restful night tonight. The kids are on winter vacation from school this week [read "it's ski week"]. I'd like to do some fun things with them if I feel better.