on this day in january

So I've had non-stop allergies for roughly the last six months. The last month it got worse; the last week was just shitty. Being mature and responsible, I adulted the fuck out of yesterday: I made a doctor's appointment because grown-ups do that all the time and not just when they run out of oxygen and need an ambulance.

...I mean, so I've heard--never mind, yeah, I do that. Or my mother gives me a long look and shamefaced I adult-child my way to the doctor feeling resentful of my lungs. Fine.

Quick aside:

So last month I talked about the entire Thing That Happened With Anxiety and Asthma and Crazy. Now, my regular doctor at the time said it was definitely anxiety and not asthma, and the last almost-two years have sort of confirmed that. I still had my inhaler, but the only time I ever used it was when I was having very severe allergies, because albuterol is awesome, and anyway, why not split the difference? In general, it did help; it would loosen up my breathing and I'd feel about a hundred times better. So there's that.

Back to the story:

However, starting on Thursday, things got much weirder. When I say my allergies were bad, we added in not just coughing, but an unproductive one, and I was constantly coughing. It was also getting harder to catch my breath on my walk to and from work, as in, it took way too much effort to get a deep breath. So the inhaler came out and long story short, Monday, I was in 'fuck it'--which is totally the same thing as adulting--and called for a refill of my inhaler and then an appointment.

(Note: no fever, no borderline fever, not even a fake almost-fever. I was a cool 98.6 like some sort of--it was mocking me, the thermometer, I mean. It was bullshit.)

The CMA was awesome and was super concerned about my blood oxygen (which was really worrying because I actually felt like I was fine there??? Oh God am I adapting to a low oxygen environment???? In my lungs?????) Then he gave me this long tube with numbers and told me to blow into it, and recorded best of three.

...and as we all know, best of three indicates this is a score. I'll get back to that.

Anyway, my new doctor (in Austin) was also concerned, listened to my lungs, concerned some more, and gave me a breathing treatment, which I love (my mouth always feels so clean). It wasn't the dramatic improvement I expected, but as I realized while writing about this on twitter, the last time I had one of these I was in the middle of a literal asthma?/?allergy attack and of fucking course it felt like magic, I had gone from 'not very much air here' to 'like three times as much air, not all the air but boy it felt like it'. I had steady improvement almost as I finished the appointment for several hours, but that's when the tube became a problem.

I really, really needed to beat the clinic score, and set myself of in a coughing fit every time. cathyw assures me this is the correct behavior, so yay! So far, added 50 to that bad boy, and I have no idea how terrible my score really is, I am in the zone of breathing.

My doctor has taken a threefold approach to this. 1.) Allergist on the 11th. 2.) five days of steroids. If those don't work, 3.) a week of antibiotics. My guess is going to be steroids. I almost asked in the office for getting shot up with the high dose, but a.) honestly, I'm nowhere near needing my steroids delivered by needle for urgency-purposes, and two, they always knock me out in a weird way where I don't really feel tired but become prone and unconscious when offered some sort of relatively stable surface, not necessarily flat.

So that was the saga of how I adult. Also, I am officially to take Flonase twice a day (I stopped because I thought it wasn't working, which in retrospect might have partially led to these events but spilled milk).

I am so looking forward to the allergist, but I have realized something; about a decade ago, I was in Chicago and got this hat and scarf, which were a gorgeous mix of cashmere and angora. So, long story short, a few short hours later, I had a burn line across my forehead with welts because I'm allergic to angora.

Angora is a type of rabbit.

Now granted, that's an entirely different type of fur, and yeah, I had rabbits after that, but allergies grow, like my one to nickel where I can't even wear surgical steel or anything that may have slept with nickel's mother's sister or knew it in high school. Also, this is why you have allergy meds and everything, but. That does mean I may need to actively look to rehome maybe one or two and reduce the population at least. BUT THAT IS FOR LATER.

Comments

[out_there]

but allergies grow, like my one to nickel where I can't even wear surgical steel or anything that may have slept with nickel's mother's sister or knew it in high school.

Hee!

[seperis]

It's ridiculous. I can get welts from anything with nickel now, and much weirder, discovered that even nickel-free doesn't necessarily mean "no nickel at all" which...really?

A friend mentioned a piercing studio where I can get all jewelry 'no nickel at all really none, zero, zip' so I have some saving and shopping to do soon.

[out_there]

even nickel-free doesn't necessarily mean "no nickel at all" which...really?

That doesn't seem right. Where's the truth in advertising?

[lillian13]

Make sure it's titanium or niobium.

[timespirt]

Well, that sucks. Maybe the allergist has something new that can help with the bunny stuff so you can keep your pets.

[seperis]

It's not a sure thing, but I cant ignore I got my two original rabbits five months before that first asthma/allergy attack. That might also explain why my allergies have been slowly growing worse.

I do have a couple of people who were interested in adopting a bunny from me but when Kowalski died in July, I kind of didn't want to let any others go. The potential possible homes are good ones, don't get me wrong, but--yeah. That is pretty much final on my list of possibilities. And it's also possible it's not the bunnies or that they can find treatment. I just don't want it to get so bad that I can't have them at all.

[timespirt]

Well, when they do the needle testing they will test for dander from the rabbits. I had to be tested because of my birds and they tested me for bird feathers allergies. I'm grateful I wasn't allergic to them.

[katherine]

Here's hoping it's not the rabbits! And to a swift answer and effective treatment.

[lilacsigil]

My partner is asthmatic and allergic to cats, but we have two. We manage with daily vacuuming and I'm in charge of washing cat bedding frequently and brushing the cats. I hope it's not the bunnies, but if it is, management might be possible!

[grammarwoman]

*looks to The Brady Bunch for life advice* Are you sure it's not the bunnies' shampoo?

But gah, bodies! Why so bungled in operation? I hope you find solutions soon.

[lemon_badgeress]

oh hell, pet allergies are the worst.

total gold star for all the adulting, tho

[kore]

BODIES, man. (Flonase is wonderful. I use way more than I should, but that is how I am able to breathe!)

[minim_calibre]

Oh, ugh. Bunnies are adorable balls of allergens for a lot of people (including my kid, who loves them and still wants to dig her face into them). My sympathies.

[azurelunatic]

Flonase is magic and why I am upright and not half asleep in bed wheezing.