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Hee hee well carrying my meds on me has gotten me into trouble twice in the last week. First was during my animal physiology exam. I had my puffer out on my desk. Depending on how I’m feeling, I sometimes need to have it right there. This exam was in the arena too which almost guarantees that I will need it (I did). My prof was proctoring the exam and as she passed them out she paused at my desk, frowned, and said “Is it very necessary to have it out like that?” I just said that yes it was and she didn’t push it anymore because everybody knows you can’t keep an asthmatic from their ventolin. The reason she was a little bit iffy about it was because one of the exam questions was “which of these would be helpful if administered during bronchoconstriction?”, and of course salbutamol was the answer. It says “bronchodilator” right on my puffer so I can understand her hesitation. Hey, I couldn’t help that! Plus, she must have known she was giving a little advantage to all the asthmatics in the class.
The second time was in the airport. I keep all my meds in a huge ziploc bag when I travel. On the X-ray, my aerochamber probably looks a lot like a waterbottle. I was stopped and searched at security. Then, I was asked if I had a bottle of liquid, to which I replied no. The security officer just looked at me like I was blatantly lying. When she opened my bag, she found nothing but my bag of meds and said that it must have been my “pump contraption” that was showing up. Phew! They even opened my violin case, which makes me so nervous!
So you see, no serious infractions, just funny mishaps.
Sitting with: Mom and sister KJ
Listening to: Oliver Schroer (thank you Peter)
Sipping on: Himalayan Chai
Life Is Good
I am totally and completely exhausted, it’s overwhelming. I always forget that this is what comes after exams are finished. I leave for home tomorrow : ) I am so excited but I think that’s pretty obvious.
I have hardly packed anything. I’ve been doing little bits since yesterday night. I’m bringing up dust that I didn’t even know was there (!). The lungs are twitchy but letting me carry on. I really want to get all that done this morning. This afternoon I have to go to the hospital to see my lungy doctor so I can show him my beautiful peak flow chart. This afternoon I shall hang with fam and hopefully relax a bit.
I would really like to post something interesting and will try to do so soon, but it took me ages just to string these words together as my brain is mush!
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
I’m going to go hang out outside now, so there.
(Animal phys. was awesome)
Hey! Well I go and write my very last exam this morning. I am so looking forward to it. Animal physiology, here I come and I am ready to beat you to a pulp. After that I need to go to the french bookstore to stock up on reading material for the summer (no french bookstores out west!) and I’ll walk around a little bit because I will be free! See you on the other side…
Weird weather evening, phew. It’s dark outside, but it is 20 degrees. The air is warm and loaded with moisture, and the sky sits on your shoulders. I’m not used to this, especially since it feels like we only just chased winter away. The rain is heavy but falls gently as if suspended in the muggy air. My lungs don’t know what to do with themselves, but that’s far from being the worst of it.
The worst of it is that as I walked home from the library, I couldn’t see where I was stepping in the dark, and now the soles of my moccasins are covered in smooshed earthworms.
I think today marks roughly one year since I have had any hospitalizations for asthma, not counting ER visits obviously. That’s pretty awesome, I am cool with that. Ironically, this year has been one of my worst in terms of asthma control and exacerbations. I think the main reason I’ve managed to stay out of hospital is that I’m habituating to being more breathless and I think I’m able to deal with more at home than I used to be. I have more tools and meds available to me at home now as well to help me in this regard. I’m talking about having access to prednisone without seeing a doctor (except when I deplete my stores!) and a few other things I can try in an exacerbation.
I had a lung infection and some pretty bad pleurisy back in November/December. I was barely hanging on then, but I made it through that (coincidentally it was right at the start of final exams).
Anyway, being in the hospital sucks, and I am very glad that I have averted that situation for one whole year. I don’t foresee having to repeat it in the near future either, so hurrah! I think, as long as I don’t whimsically decide to go for a jog or anything, that I shall sail right through to my Wednesday departure date. 5 days until I am home and back in the land of easier breathing!
Everyone on facebook these days has their status set to something like “three exams down, two to go!”. Last semester, one of my friends had her status set to “I don’t care how many exams you have left and neither does the rest of the world so stop announcing it!” Maybe you don’t care either about my exam progress, but I must say this:
BIOCHEM IS DONE!!! It’s a huuuuge load off my shoulders, although it hasn’t truly sunk in yet. As I got to the arena where I was writing, everybody was in a frenzy. People were sitting on the floor, their notes strewn in front of them, people were rushing up to each other asking questions and also commenting on how “screwed” they were. It was a very stressful environment and I regretted getting there so early. Generally, I like to be early for things but this was not good. Thankfully I managed to find one of my more sane friends and we talked about other things. Side note: I failed to notice until this morning that I was writing in the arena today. I don’t usually do so well in arenas, something to do with zamboni fumes. Anyway I needed my puffer once or twice but I survived.
The exam itself was really good, but long! It consisted of 60 mcq’s and four big essay questions. I finished with 6 minutes to spare! I do feel really good about how it went and now I sort of have the feeling that if I did that, I can do anything.
I went out tonight to a show which included poetry, hip-hop, beatbox and some jazz. It was really interesting! I didn’t like all of it, but parts of it were great. The encore was particularly awesome as I’m pretty sure it was all improvised. Now that’s a skill I wish I had. I was just talking about that with a friend yesterday actually. My 13 year-old brother is a master in jazz piano and I will be forever jealous of him. Tangent! Sorry. The point is it was really great to get out tonight and do something out of my ordinary.
Ok, I am ready to go and rock this exam, and maybe even have fun doing it! I can’t believe it’s almost the end of the year! This morning I went over some of my notes, did a few practice problems, then I got out my violin! I fiddled up a storm for awhile, and let me tell you there is no better stressbuster. Thursday is always my favourite day of the week for some reason, so happy Thursday!
