Back to Normal

Normalcy is the theme right now.

Done with the excesses of the holiday.

Back to low carbing.

Done with the excesses of prednisone.

Down to 5mg.

Waiting for 5mg to feel good so I can get back to exercise.

Done with the shortcomings of aberrant adrenals.

For the moment anyway.

Changing topics...

Got a call from a mom friend whose little one has asthma and is not getting relief with the current treatment plan.

Clarification, I've been getting phone calls from this mom friend for a while now.

Because it's not been going well for her little one for longer than it should.

So now they are on the merry chase for the right doctor, the right medication, the right tests.

Call me crazy, but I think medical 'Chinese fire drills' are really the biggest problem in health care. Both in terms of costs and quality of care. When a child with asthma has to see more than 4 doctors to get proper care which, in turn, also forces them to use Urgent Care or the ER as the stop gap, it's costing everyone a lot of money.

No one wins.

But that's just normal for our medical system.

Under Attack

So the asthma has been a bad bad thing of late. I don't know why. I had an attack last night while walking the dogs and was up at 5am with another acute episode. I would like to Zumba tonight, but fear that will end in attack as well.

The good news is I don't have an underlying infection making the situation an emergency.

The bad news is I can't get the pulmonologist's office to give me a new Pulmicort prescription.

Oh, sure, they'll call in a refill because they know how to do that, but my insurance will reject it as it appears to them that I am trying to get medication a full month earlier than I should be.

People seem to be having difficulty with the concept of the dose/usage has changed and I need a NEW prescription reflecting this, NOT an effing refill.

I have left messages to this effect and nothing has happened.

Other than I have paid cash out-of-pocket for 20 more days of Pulmicort. (Cash that I SO do not have, it has been financial apocalypse over here all week long, we are so poor right now--temporarily so).

This one Pulmicort inhaler is not enough to get me to where I can refill my 90 day script (which the next 90 day refill would get me to the next pulmo appointment where, I hope, I can resolve this).

I would happily taper down, but see above re: two acute asthma episodes in less than 24 hours.

This is not the time to take less medication. Somehow I'm going to have to come up with 10 extra days of Pulmicort.

Any ideas? As far as I can tell, I have my shit together, but the doctor's office and insurance company are a hot mess and I don't know how to compensate for that. Shoot, I started this process when I still had 10 days of Pulmicort left, surely that would be enough time to get everything sorted out?

Ha ha ha ha ha. Joke's on me, my friends.

There's always the emergency room right? They live for this kind of shit. Not!

So Confused

Spoke to the pulmo today. The thinking is Friday was the day my body just hit the wall.

Whaddaya mean we're not getting prednisone everyday? I'll show you what I think of that, missy.

So now we wait???? And retest in 2 weeks if things don't come back????

The thing that sucks about that is I have to live my life, you know? I have to clean my house (which I'm all for letting things slide when ill but, you know, basic hygiene = important). Cook. Work. Parent.

Forget exercise, I'm just trying to navigate the bare minimum of daily life. It feels like climbing Mount Everest.

Plus, to top things off, I need to baby the hubby who has been sick with some kind of stomach bug. Which, thank God I have not caught that. The last thing I need to be doing is puking. Hubby is never sick and is a typical guy; he can't handle the pain. So he has required lots of TLC at a time when just moving my arms is so. hard. and I keep falling asleep unintentionally.

And I'm confused on whether or not I'm anemic. The ER doc said "You barely have any red blood cells. You're probably anemic." The pulmo is saying "Eh, there are people walking around with hemoglobins of 10 and they're fine. You're not anemic. Don't worry about it."

I don't particularly care one way or the other, but I had been clinging to this idea that maybe the weakness and shortness of breath can be blamed on anemia. If I had my choice, I would much rather have anemia than low cortisol. Actually, I'd rather have neither, but since that is not how my body works, let's pick easy over hard, shall we?

The official prescription is to rest. Take it easy. When I feel bad, have some simple sugar and have someone watch me--if I don't improve call 911 and go to the ER.

Except....

I'm home alone.

Every day.

With the toddler.

Yeah, this is going to go well. *sarcasm*

What a mess, no? Just a hawt mess.

Well, let's focus on the positive shall we?

I can keep my eyes open.

I think I can drive okay.

I don't feel like I'm going to pass out.

That's it, that's all I got.

Post Script: 2010 has sucked for me and mine. Hubby has been sick multiple times and he is NEVER sick--he even went to the doctor of his own volition. The toddler was continuously sick from January through March. I was sick March through April, now going into May.

I told my husband, we may as well shoot for June so it's an even six months.