Friday, June 19, 2009

On Second Thought

Hooray for Friday!!! It was one of those weeks I must say. Good in the fact that I was in charge and the work week went very smoothly. Rough in the fact that I'm still fighting whatever is going on in my lungs...Asthma flare up? Inflammation? CF stuff? Infection despite not having infection type symptoms? Nobody knows! So today at work I decided to use my very own lovely medical brain and do something different. Granted I know that there is a risk when not consulting your doctor first etc. HOWEVER I chose to follow my gut and I'm glad I did. I take Albuterol PRN and haven't really had to use it too much over the years. I've been using it before workouts now though ever since getting back to a full workout schedule. Well at work we have Albuterol neb treatments so I decided to do one today. I took my vitals beforehand and they were perfect. MY pulse Ox was 100% yippee :) Let me rewind a bit. I called Hopkins again today to touch base on my symptoms. I told my nurse that at work today I was around 2 SEVERLY sick sick people. I mean they were really sick and they were DOCTORS! Grrr, I wish they would have just not worked but that's not how that works unfortunately. So needless to say I washed my hands a million and a half times (like I do everyday) and held my breath anytime one of them walked by me. I told my CF nurse that I was worried since I'm on Prednisone I'm already immunosupressed and afraid If by some chance I developed what they had over the weekend. She didn't want to do anything differently. I didn't want to start an antibiotic, but I wouldn't have minded having something on hand just in case. At any rate she said to just keep doing what I'm doing which is Prednisone, Pulmozyme, TOBI (on month), sinus rinses as needed, Zyrtec D, Singulair, etc. Oh and to wait to call her on Monday If I've developed an infection over the weekend. That didn't sit too well with me. I'm telling her on the phone that I don't feel so great, my chest is still very tight despite this regimine but no changes. I'm very patient, sometimes too patient I'll admit. But today I decided to make a step myself and did an Albuterol treatment at work and WOW it worked WONDERS on me!!!!!!!!! I came home and did my home PFT meter and the reading was the absolute highest I've ever gotten since I owned the thing!!!! I felt amazing and so relieved!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not saying that you shouldn't listen to what you're told by any means. It just felt great to be able to assess my symptoms and act accordingly and see amazing results. I haven't been able to breathe this deep all week! The bonus for me is to be able to laugh and not cough! I'll definitely be reporting this to the docs at my appointment on Tuesday for sure. I can't believe the difference. Is this something I should do routinely? I've always had a history of Asthma on top of CF, but I feel like it often goes secondary to CF. So we'll see what they say.

As for the rest of the day...I did a good workout after the Albuterol neb. I did a 30 minute cardio workout on the mountain bike. I did a total of about 4.5 miles around the neighborhood which includes many hills! Went and got Father's Day gifts, Birthday gifts, groceries, etc. When I got home I had a phone call from one of our friends whom Scott is helping do some remodeling work on their house. They said to come over and join them all for food and drinks. So my night of relaxing turned into a night of friends and fun. Happy I must say eventhough I was needing the rest. It was a very relaxing night of chatting with friends and just enjoying company.

Here's to the start of a good weekend with happier breathing!! ;) *Fingers Crossed!*

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Man you were an animal today! Great job on the PFT's and the exercise! I've got to learn how to keep up with you! We should set up a little duel. You game?

Ronnie

Jess said...

A duel? Oh I'm game! ;)