@Aria Any chance you’ve been to California’s central valley recently?
If you were ever curious, manic phases are a lot less fun than they sound.
@Aria Any chance you’ve been to California’s central valley recently?
Nope. I am, however, going to contact the pulmonary specialist that I ultimately badgered my doctor into recommending to me.
I’ve been given inhalers before, once for what-is-this-horrible-wheezing-sound-this-person-is-making back before they had COVID tests available in hospital ERs, once for bronchitis, and once for “Holy shit, someone who is allergic to mold had major mold exposure and now their lungs are doing a big-big mad.”
They marked it down in my chart as asthma in the first and last cases because they didn’t really have medical codes to use for that. But now I’m pretty much sitting here like, “Uhh, guys. Do you think, y’know, maybe I straight up have always had mild, intermittent asthma and now it’s not so mild? That those were asthma attacks brought on by various forms of ick and I just didn’t know what was happening because no one had ever told me I had asthma before?”
Before civilization collapsed I quite enjoyed going to FanExpo (the biggest comic book etc convention in Canada).
This year they are opening their non-virtual doors again, and of course my mailbox is blown up… The question is, do I want to go, given all the various plagues that still linger? Thousands of nerds, not exactly known for hygiene to begin with, all in close proximity and indoors seems like a not so great idea.
On the other hand… there will be so much merch and stuff there. 
That out here and most parts I can reach, everything is built around the assumption that one possesses and operates a reliable personal vehicle.
My daughter, whom we have spent the past year supporting through a major personal tragedy, is moving two states over/up in about three two weeks now and her car is dodgy as fuck, even after we’ve put all the time and money we can all pool into it.
ETA: This is her second car, after some asshole failed to yield and turned left into her at a major intersection April 1, which totalled a vehicle that was running and behaving perfectly, and was also bigger enough where that would be really nice right about now.
This shit really stresses me out.
“Uhh, guys. Do you think, y’know, maybe I straight up have always had mild, intermittent asthma and now it’s not so mild? That those were asthma attacks brought on by various forms of ick and I just didn’t know what was happening because no one had ever told me I had asthma before?
That seems plausible. The pulmonologist should hopefully be able to rule that in or out pretty easily.
I had a similar thing where apparently I’ve had asthma all my life and nobody noticed because it was never severe enough for me to have a proper “attack” (thank goodness). Like… oh, wait, so that’s why I always cough for weeks after every cold, have never been able to run for long even when in the best shape of my life, etc? Who knew?
The only bummer was finding out as part of a screening for taking a SCUBA class I was really looking forward to. I guess it’s kinda bad if your lungs trap air deep underwater and then explode.
I had a similar thing where apparently I’ve had asthma all my life and nobody noticed because it was never severe enough for me to have a proper “attack” (thank goodness). Like… oh, wait, so that’s why I always cough for weeks after every cold, have never been able to run for long even when in the best shape of my life, etc? Who knew?
The pulmonologist had a cancellation and was able to see me today, much to my boss’ irritation. (It was that or wait until October. I regret nothing.)
They’re going to do some more tests to confirm but it’s basically exactly your experience – mild, intermittent asthma with very specific and obvious triggers. Those triggers just also happened to be things that make people sick in general and instead of just coding them in that way to get my insurance to cover a one-time prescription, I should’ve been referred to a pulmonologist, like, ten fucking years ago.
ETA: If anyone who has had asthma for a long time has tips on managing it for someone swearing and figuring out how to live with this for the first time, that would be aces.
ETA: If anyone who has had asthma for a long time has tips on managing it for someone swearing and figuring out how to live with this for the first time, that would be aces.
I’m glad they got you in quicker and you’re on the path to sorting things out.
Everyone’s different, but for what it’s worth as a frame of reference…
Not a whole lot changed after I was diagnosed, other than the aforementioned SCUBA training being nixed. Mostly it was just a relief to finally understand what was going on.
I got some medicine that helps some, including a “rescue inhaler”. There are various kinds of meds, so don’t be discouraged if the first crack at it isn’t perfect. Some kinds help with specific triggers, like exercise.
My asthma is pretty self-limiting. I get out of breath exercising, I can just stop and rest. And the post-viral (or allergy-induced) coughs are more a nuisance than anything, though the inhaler sometimes helps. (“I promise it’s not covid I just have allergies and asthma…”)
Good luck!
Fuck covid. I’m tired of feeling exhausted.
I draw things! http://www.mahaldoodles.com
Fuck having to solve a major problem with someone who freaks the fuck out about it to the point of yelling at me whether I make suggestions or not, especially given the decades this person has spent being fucking useless at many of the shared problems we’ve had that I’ve had to sort out my own self.
This is the kind of shit that ends up on ‘Snapped’.
Grr.
I have so much good food in the kitchen waiting for me, but the only thing that sounds good to me is some greasy pile of poorly cut beef handed to me in a brown paper bag through the window of my car. Addiction sucks.
@GF This is hugely frustrating to me. When I have good, wholesome stuff at home to eat, but my brain is just like NO. GO OUT. GO OUT AND GET FOOD.
NO MAKE. ONLY EAT.
@Pyrephox I don’t even mean wholesome, I mean actually good. I have a perfectly decent jambalaya, some pretty kick-ass noodles, and a chicken noodle soup I’d confidently stack against anyone’s; but no, me want garbage in mouf pls
I’m exhausted, I feel sweaty and gross and its not even the hottest its going to get this week but hot damn I got this tabletop air purifier (same brand that my school used during covid) and I don’t even give a fuck if it really purifies the air or not bc the air comes put cool and I am surviving by having it blasting in my face (I put it on my nightstand) while I’m in bed. Hell I don’t even know if this is a peeve or a love.
#HotFlashesFuckingSuck
@mietze I’m sorry you are suffering the burdens of corporeal existence. FLESH IS THE WORST. I was honestly thinking about the fact that my friends have gone from ‘moisturize’ to ‘moisturize and use retinol’ and pretty soon we’ll be talking about hot flashes.
I have very bad insomnia, and accordingly I get prescribed very good sleeping pills.
This morning I accidentally took them 30 minutes before I’d intended to leave the house, instead of my wake-up dose.
Oops.
Oh no, that’s not a fun whoops to start the day with.
Just had to go to the battery store to get a battery for my car key, which is an idea that kind of stopped me dead in my tracks. What a wasteful fucking concept, you know? What a stupid thing to do.
Fuck having to solve a major problem with someone who freaks the fuck out about it to the point of yelling at me whether I make suggestions or not, especially given the decades this person has spent being fucking useless at many of the shared problems we’ve had that I’ve had to sort out my own self.
This is the kind of shit that ends up on ‘Snapped’.
Grr.
