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We are getting a new roommate today!! We could not be more excited.
To celebrate our slob roomie moving out, we are having a cleaning party. Like MAJOR cleaning. We even emptied all our kitchen drawers to wipe them dowm. Everything looks great. Only thing is, I feel worse now than I did right after my run… now THAT is saying something. It is worth it and necessary though!
The new roommate has a Wii. Hurrah!
That I think my contact lenses keep my allergy symptoms at bay. I wear contact lenses for long periods of time with next to no problems. However, on days when I do wear my glasses “to give my eyes a rest” my eyes are constantly streaming and itching. Huh. I guess the contact lenses are just a protective barrier against allergens??
It’s too bad, because I have to admit I like the way my glasses look and it’s nice to wear them once in awhile.
Hi everyone, I’m here to tell you that the asthma drug Singulair was developed my Merck Frosst in none other than the Canadian city of Montreal! I thought you’d all like to know this piece of trivia. Also, the mont in Montelukast, the drug’s generic name, is a little homage to the city. How about that?
There’s actually a large billboard outside the Merck building in Montreal underlining this fact.
Well as promised this appartmnet will fit my lung needs. The hardwood flooring is the nicest part. Today I did a few things in my own room to make it even better.
First, the previous tenant put these stickies in the window that melted in the sun and attracted a LOT of dust. They also looked hideous. After using some elbow grease I was able to get it all off. The paper towel was black with dust after I was finished wiping the windows down, you’d think this girl had never heard of windex
I also went on a dusting spree. At home my mom dusts my room because she’s nice and she knows that the act of dusting makes me wheezy. Anyway, I mercilessly went over every corner so that there would be no dust bunnies to be found. Of course, this is something I will be doing regularly.
I also have a strong urge to attack the bathroom to get after any lurking moulds, which I suspect there may be. I think my roomies would think I was crazy if I did that though. I probably still will.
I’m a bit sneezy after my cleaning binge, maybe I’ll go get some air.
Your mother finds it worthwhile to buy you antihistamines from Costco in jumbo format.
I’ve never seen such a huge package of Reactine!!
Not feeling good today at all. I have the same symptoms as the last flare/pre-flare. That is, mopiness/indifference, watery eyes and and a foggy brain. And, a tight chest. It started to bug me pretty badly at work, I went out of the lab to use my puffer (no sticking stuff in your mouth amidst the chemicals) and sat in the office area for a bit. Most people were gone for the day so I had some peace and quiet. However one very nice person kept looking at me and asking if I was ok. Of course I just said yes and flashed a big smile. Then I called my mom to see if she could pick me up. I also started out with some hives this morning which is most unusual and I really wonder what’s making me so allergicky. If only I knew I could probably fix this very easily.
It’s so good to have my mom around at times like this, I could almost cry. She’s so sweet and helpful and level-headed. She makes it easier to recognize when I’m having trouble, which is a funny thing. Being sick at home is much much better than being sick all the way across the country.
HEY! A thunderstorm is starting up… maybe this whole weather system is part of the problem? Geez I didn’t notice how angry the sky looked until just now. ANYWHO…
4 PM : Grumpy, mopey
6 PM : Watery eyes
7 PM : Itchy throat, dry cough
1:30 AM : flaaaare!
I recognized it early on and took appropriate measures before bed. I would like to think it lessened the blow. Even though almost every surface outside is covered in ice crystals this morning, my mom decided to put all her potting plants that had been on the floor of the family room outside. We suspect they were the culprit. Poor plants!
The pollen season here is nearly a month behind the pollen season where I go to school. What a huge difference. I am only starting to feel those itchy streamy eyes now. Even though I’m probably in for some allergy annoyances, I don’t think pollen season here has anywhere near as much oomph to it as it does back in university city. Thank goodness for that, I don’t know what I’d do if I had to live through it twice in a row!
Much of what I am working on this summer involves research around the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes. These code (as you may have guessed) for the antigens present on cell surfaces and regulate the body’s immune responses. So, it makes sense that there would be an allergic asthma connection. I’m not working on asthma at all, but my project probably would bore you to death so I’m not going there.
Asthma is described as a polygenic condition. This means that many genes affect the manifestation of the disease, as opposed to a single one such as in cystic fibrosis. Further, environmental factors will affect the expression of the genes an individual has inherited. That’s why this thing is so hard to figure out! Over 25 genes have been shown to be associated with asthma and many more are suspected of such.
There are several HLA genes (all on chromosome six if you are wondering) but the ones found to be associated with asthma are HLA-DRB1, HLA-DQA1 and HLA-DQB1. Another cool thing about HLA genes is that they are HUGELY variable (polymorphic), which really isn’t seen anywhere else in the genome. There is a huge number of versions of each gene that it is possible to inherit. What I’m trying to get at here is to give you an idea of all the possible ways a person can inherit a predisposition to asthma and atopy. The possibilities seem endless. And if you couple that with environmental exposure, it’s easy to see how we have this huge asthma spectrum. It’s sort of mind-boggling. The question now is how to we untangle this whole genetic mess? The fact that we have identified some genes is amazing, do you think we will ever get to the point where we can genotype someone and reliably determine what their risk for asthma is?
If you would like to read about this in even more technical terms, see this article.
I love to write about medicine in scientific jargon, but also feel like this type of post might be a bit much. At the same time, I’m paranoid about all the stuff I know I’ve left out. So please just humour me as I try to give my scientific brain a little exercise. Comments, impressions, and feedback are appreciated as well, as always.
