Its an amazing thing medicine. Having been ill for ages I'm not quite sure how I would have begun to get better without it. Makes you realise just how exposed early man must have been to ailments and injury. I bet Neanderthals didn't live that long at all.
After two months of gradual respiratory decline peaking with near-hospitalisation last Friday I was finally diagnosed by our GP, a severe allergic reaction to something resulting in sudden onset asthma. Whether its long term I don't know but hopefully a man in a white coat will tell me one day. I'm just glad to be breathing fully again and letting the air in. Shortness of breath all day and night is a scary thing and I sympathise with anyone who suffers from it.
As for now that amazing thing medicine is working wonders and a crash course of steroid tablets over five days is blasting away the inflammation on my windpipe and reducing all the nasty symptoms like wheezing, shortness of breath, cracked voice, coughing and gagging.
The Godzilla breath pills are backed up by a steroid inhaler and a Ventolin inhaler. I may be on the Ventolin for a long time but I hope not. Last Friday I enjoyed it via a masked nebuliser, which was like breathing alpine air for the first time in months! I think that was the start of my recovery.
Currently on sick leave I'm enjoying doing not much at all. I need to get my strength back if I'm to get back to work soon so I'm taking it steady and with fully inflated lungs doing a few household chores. Missus Moonbase has done everything for ages and deserves a Project SWORD Supremo badge for starters!
Its a funny thing an allergic reaction. I've wondered what I could have done to trigger one: something I ate, something I drank, something I touched or breathed in? The docs don't know yet.
We have had a doggy friend staying more than usual but he's been here off and on for ten years so I don't think its dog hair. The most likely allergen is mould in my opinion. Mould either at home or elsewhere.
I say at home as we do have a few patches of the stuff on one wall, which we were in the process of dealing with with the installation of a Drymaster unit, which we probably will do soon as our home has been classed as partly damp.
A more likely culprit is the huge pile of wet leaves we shifted in the garden or clearing out our mouldy shed.
We cleared out our mouldy shed in February. I had had a bad cold in January and maybe the two things didn't gel. The shed was stuffed with old furniture, pictures, books, jigsaws, toys, ornaments, videos and cassettes.
This is worrying as part of this is as a result of my collecting and in part Missus Moonbase too when she had the collectors bug. I fear we have strayed into that evil twin of collecting, namely hoarding.
I personally think its easy to let collecting turn into hoarding. My reluctance to throw away old stuff is a daily thing. Deep down I think it may have something to do with the fact that most of my childhood possessions were thrown away when we moved house in 1977. Who knows.
We do have a hoarding problem at Moonbase. There's old stuff piled up in the loft, spare room and our other shed. Its out of the way but its there brooding like Smaug on his dusty mounds.
One day we will have to tackle it but the mouldy shed, culprit or not, has put me off. When we do face the dust devil in the future we'll be wearing masks that for sure and we may need some help. There'll be masks for everyone!
For now I am happy to be away from allergens if that's at all possible and look forward to full breaths of clean air again every day.
It would make a good Ridley Scottesque film title, A L L E R G E N. I just don't want to be in it!
Have you any experience with hoarding stuff and or allergens readers?
Hiya Woodsy, really glad your lungs are on the mend... great to hear the medicine is kicking in at last.
ReplyDeleteYep, it's a fine line between being a collector and becoming a hoarder. I see myself as a collector who now also stores. 'Storer' is a nice negotiable word I like to use. If I keep using it to bamboozle Mrs K, I'll probably get away with hoarding by increment for a while longer. Wishing you a speedy recovery :D
I like that Tone, Storer. Suggests you are the custodian of precious things, which I suppose we are although not everyone would agree! ha ha.
DeleteYep the meds are working wonders. Its a great thing the docs know which ones to give us even if ot takes a while. I am opening the shed door every this spring and summer to try to air it out without stepping in! One day it will have to be fully emptied but as he says in Gladiator, Not Yet, not yet!
I'd love to have a yard sale one day and just let the public in!
Hey Woodsy, good to hear science is helping you get well. Allergies are odd. I live on the gulf coast and if I eat fresh shellfish (shrimp etc) I will end up in the ER fairly soon. However, if I freeze them for a long time or get processed ones from the grocery store, I'm ok. I take a blood pressure med also. I was on Benicar for 4 years with no problems and then one night around 7pm my lip started swelling. A trip to the ER and a couple days stay in the hospital to be certain I was not going to have swelling "past the lips" and I was released. No more Benicar for me. So we went to Bistolic which after 6 months I became allergic to with the same lip swelling. I'm now on Amlodipin with no problems the last 2 years.
ReplyDeleteJust take care of yourself and try not to over think what you had a reaction to. Get well so you can get your flight clearance and resume space duty!
Hi Lance, thanks for your kind message. Yes allergies, what a pain. Its a shame you can't eat fresh shellfish living near the coast, all those crab shacks and lobster joints we're so envious of over here in the inland parts of the UK. It sounds like you understand your allergy and the journey of meds you've taken. I was amazed when I went online just how many people suffer with conditions which they can't seem to alleviate even with professional help. Breathing and wheezing problems seem to be at an epidemic level online. I suppose it makes sense given how many different things there are to breathe in in the modern world, some fine, some not and depending who you are. This aerial onslaught always puts me in mind of HG Well's closing lines in War of the Worlds:
Delete'By the toll of a billion deaths man has bought his birthright of the earth, and it is his against all comers; it would still be his were the Martians ten times as mighty as they are. For neither do men live nor die in vain'.
That is awful Woodsy but it's good to hear you're on themend. To think of what our mom's and dad's had to go through not all that long ago it's amazing how far we've come. I sure do hope and pray it's not long-term thing. Take, care, take your meds, rest, and enjoy your time off of work!
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