Barely Breathing

My recent prescription

When I said in my blog introduction that I'm asthmatic since I was a child, I'm not kidding. I've been hospitalized before because of it and I do not want it to happen again.

Ever since I returned from the US last December, I haven't stopped coughing. I've visited a doctor twice: one on Dec. 22 and the other on Jan. 14. The December doctor noted (this was at the Asian Hospital ER) that I just arrived from the US a couple of weeks before my consultation and immediately had x-rays done. Since I was not showing any signs of infection, he just prescribed Strepsils for Dry Cough. I went home relieved and bought my first batch of lozenges. Unfortunately, even if I'm sucking on those tablets like crazy, the cough still won't abate.

I went back to the hospital on January and this time, visited a pulmonologist. After listening to my breathing and my lungs and considering my other symptoms, she ruled that I'm having an asthma attack. I was surprised as I was barely wheezing but apparently, the cough is already a symptom in itself. Since my attacks have been not as frequent lately, I have not been taking my maintenance, moreover, I'm not comfortable in taking in medication. I just use my inhaler whenever I'm having an attack.

So, she gave me steroids, asthma medication and something for my cough. I took those things as prescribed but the cough, though it abated a bit, still won't go away.

When I had a bad attack last weekend which kept me in bed the whole time, I succumbed and found another pulmonologist yesterday. This time around, she added to my medication as noted in my prescription above. I was shocked when I saw it but since my symptoms were not going away, she decided to aggressively treat my asthma. It was that or be hospitalized due to bronchial spasm which my lungs will I will end up with if I don't treat my current condition. I was also given antibiotics as the lethargy that I was feeling which made me take half the day off last Friday was already a throat infection, which exacerbated my cough.

I've also been ordered to rest for another day. Hopefully, I will get better soon. I miss walking and biking. I want my life back!

Asthma is a condition which I have to live with for the rest of my life. I just have to learn to live with it and not let it rule my life. Unfortunately, having a low RBC count is not helping my case. I'm still having tests done for that as I'm perennially anemic which means that oxygen is also not circulating properly in my blood. Thus, it was not a surprise that I feel faint whenever I push my heart rate (in fact, in my last Executive check-up, the nurse made me life down after my treadmill as I was quite pale and my blood pressure was dropping too fast). Let's just see where that will go.

In the meantime, I hope this latest batch of meds will do the trick!