Never Lose Heart

Russian leader, Vladimir Lenin once said, “The most important thing when ill is to never lose heart.” That is exactly what I had to do throughout the first four months of 2013 - never lose heart.

It all began that New Year’s Day when I laid down on the pillow and suddenly realized that my throat hurt. Figuring that I had just swallowed wrong, I dismissed it and went to sleep, but was awakened in the night by gurgling in my upper chest.

I knew that following morning that I was sick, but I was also just a temp. I had no choice. I had to get up and go to work, but I had no medication in the house at all. So, I grabbed every lozenge I could find (I stock up on them during the colder months), and headed out the door. Since I didn't have to talk much, the lozenges did help, but I knew I'd have to pick up something stronger on the way home.

By then, I had forgotten about the gurgle, and just purchased Tylenol Cold Sore Throat, but it still only helped just a little – even with the lozenges included. So, that Friday afternoon, Mom showed up with NyQuil and DayQuil.

Since it was then the weekend, and I really wanted to feel better by Monday morning, I just took the NyQuil. However, in spite of working so well in the past, this time, the NyQuil had me bouncing off the walls. So, I barely slept a wink that entire weekend. Still, by Sunday, it seemed like I was definitely on the mend.

But, when I got up Monday morning and nearly passed out on my way into the kitchen, I knew that I was much sicker than I thought. So, risking the loss of a job (that was due to possibly end in twenty-four days anyway), I called in sick and headed to the hospital. There, they took a chest x-ray, gave me a breathing treatment, diagnosed me with acute bronchitis and acute sinusitis, and sent me home with four prescriptions.

One of those prescriptions – Ventolin HFA (albuterol sulfate) totally blew my mind. I knew that my maternal grandfather and my son had bronchial asthma, but I’d only ever been diagnosed with allergic rhinitis. There was no way that I was asthmatic, too (or so I thought).

Since I already knew that I was allergic to hydrocodone (and had told the physician who gave me the prescription anyway that I was), I didn't have that one filled. But, the Prednisone, Albuterol, and Bactrim were, and before too long, I broke out into an all-over body rash that exacerbated the pre-existing, non-diabetic, chronic wound that I had on my ankle. By the end of February, I was back in the ER with the rash, nausea, shortness of breath, and a very painful and abnormally large amount of fluid in my leg.

The physician assistant and her trainee were certain that I had deep vein thrombosis. So, the radiologist did a Doppler ultrasound of my legs. There was no clot, so they tested me for diabetes (which I already knew that I d didn't have), decided it was just a rash, and gave me yet another prescription for Prednisone and Bactrim.

Three days later, I noticed that my face was red. When I woke up the next morning, I was nauseated, could barely breathe, and my face was so swollen that my left eye was nearly shut. So, I went right back to the ER. This time, the diagnosis was a severe allergic reaction to Bactrim.

Now, just before I broke out into that rash, I had been taking Prednisone, Albuterol, and Bactrim. Which, when used in conjunction with one another can cause nausea, shortness of breath, very painful and abnormally large amounts of fluid in legs, and deep vein thrombosis. And, when patients are allergic, each of those medications can also cause rashes to appear. But, I am not an allergist/immunologist, so it’s not for me to say which of those medications might have been the culprit. But, since I am already allergic to Penicillin and Erythromycin, we suspect that it was Bactrim. After all, it has made me nauseated enough to throw up when I've taken it in the past. So, who knows? I sure didn't. All I knew was I was miserable and just wanted it all to go away.

So, in early April, I went to see and allergist. Since I was still covered from head to toe in that rash, she could not perform a skin test, but she did have several test tubes of blood drawn and a breathing test done.

The breathing test showed that through my small airways, I was only breathing at about fifty percent, and at the capacity was that of a sixty-seven year old. I was just under forty-five at the time, so that news blew my mind, too.

That day, I was sent home with prescriptions for Hydroxyzine and Qvar (Beclomethasone Dipropionate HFA) and told to continue to also use the Ventolin HFA as needed. Continue to use the Ventolin? Ha! I only used it a couple of times back in January to begin with. So, wow!!! What a shocker!!!

When the doctor said that the condition of my small airways explained why I was so susceptible to bronchitis just from going for a fitness walk, I knew I had to follow her directions – which proved to be quite difficult on those nights that I fell asleep before I could take my second dose of Qvar. But, within twenty-four hours, I could already see a difference.

For the first time in - I don't know how long (perhaps all my life), I spent nearly the entire night on my back, and never once woke up choking. I even took a few puffs of my Ventolin after a coworker who had just come in from her smoking break walked into my office and again when my neighbor was cutting his grass. Each time, the medication definitely alleviated my symptoms.

Three weeks later, when I went back in for my follow-up appointment, my breathing capacity had indeed improved. However, since it wasn't quite where the doctor would have liked it to be, she switched my preventative inhaler from Qvar to Dulera (Mometasone Furoate, Formoterol Fumarate Dihydrate).

So, the Hydroxyzine, and all three of the inhalers were actually working, but it would be another week before that realization would fully kick in. That day, I was (as usual) sitting at my desk at work putting together the work orders that were due to go out onto the floor.

When I got to work that day, I noticed that I had about 1500 sheets of paper waiting for me. So, I figured that I'd be putting work orders together until quitting time. But, I actually finished with them shortly after lunch. That was very good timing considering the amount of paperwork that was involved, so I was shocked.

I really thought that my allergist and the first doctor at the ER were overdoing it. Boy was I wrong. It wasn't them overdoing at all. It was I, and I didn't even know it. For all of my life, although I knew I had allergies and chronic sinusitis, and suspected that I might also have sleep apnea (which I still haven’t checked); I never even knew that I was asthmatic, too.

The only thing that I did know for sure was from New Year’s Day until May Day, I was miserable and getting angrier and angrier as the days went on. That, of course, wasn't doing me or anyone else around me any good at all, but never losing heart, seeking help, and finally getting the treatment I needed to finally feel better again certainly helped.

To make matters even better, it’s a week before my forty-fifth birthday, and I somehow managed to stay awake until 5:00 this morning finishing up the housework that I had been neglecting since January. Oh, and I am still working at that same temporary job that was supposed to end in January. Now, how cool is that?