And the catharsis continues

Hi all! Thank you for your kind birthday wishes. I would like to especially thank miss Kerri, who wished me happy birthday in the comments section, by email AND on facebook AND on WeAreBreathless. How sweet is that? I have had a most wonderful day and even though I’m far away from my family I’m surrounded by a bunch of friends who have totally made my day.

Wanna know what my favourite part of today was?

My roommate dragged me out to a skipping class. Skipping, as in cardio, and full body conditioning. Yeeesh. Since moving back to school, I’ve been keeping fit by semi-jogging, something I promise to write about very soon. This skipping class seemed a little daunting but I decided to give it a go. I swear, even a few months ago I would have said that a workout so cardio-intense such as skipping was not for asthmatics like me. I’ve been told that type of thing many times and I seem to have been stuck in that mentality for awhile. It crossed my mind that I shouldn’t do it given how the weather is affecting me today. But, I decided that I would go and try it, do my best, and just keep my breathing in check.

Um, it was really hard. And I was soooo sweaty by the end it was not even funny. But I did okay! I did not die and am still not dead. I was by no means power skipping, but I looked around and neither was anybody else really.

Surviving the class isn’t what I’m most proud of today. Get this: while the instructor was working us into the ground, I started to feel pretty tight and was a little on the gaspy side so I put down my jump rope, walked to the front of the class, picked up my puffer, and took a few puffs IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. Then when I felt like I was loosening up, I joined in again. That is pretty much unheard of for me.

I’ve been known to do the following things to avoid taking my puffer in front of people: a) keep going even though I feel like I will pass out until I really am close to passing out, creating an even bigger scene than the one I was trying to avoid b) excuse myself, trying to pretend I’m going to the bathroom then take my puffer and wait a few seconds before going back c) stopping and pretending I’ve got a cramp or I’m just unfit or something.

Can you see how immature and impractical a) b) and c) are? Can you? How did I not realize it before? Taking your puffer in front of people is not a big deal. In my head it seemed really scary for the longest time but it’s fine. You can bet I will be doing this in the future instead of a) b) and c).

Gosh, what an epiphany I had today! It may not seem like a big deal at all but it feels like it to me. I feel like I may actually be getting over the self-consciousness part of my asthma, which has been a HUGE roadblock for me. I’ve touched on it repeatedly in this blog. I believe my asthma control will improve immensely if I can learn to take care of it wherever I am, whoever I’m with.

Let’s talk inhaler devices

I wonder why there are so many different inhaler devices? I guess each drug company just likes to have their own and I imagine it has to do with patents or something. I’ve tried most of them and by now I definitely have my preferences. In light of my thrushy problem and the mini-discussion in the comment section of my last post, I thought I would review them.

 First off is the turbuhaler:

I take symbicort and pulmicort, which are both turbuhalers. To use it, you turn the coloured wheel at the bottom, put your lips around it and take a sharp breath in, but I find that using them makes my breathing worse. Something about the huge suck that you have to execute to get the med really sends me into bronchospasm. Once, when being discharged from hospital, the doctor asked me if I would like to try bricanyl, which is a bronchodilator  like ventolin in the form of a turbuhaler. I said yes because I was excited at the fact that a turbuhaler doesn’t actually look like an inhaler to most people. I soon gave that up though because I couldn’t use it if I was already having trouble breathing. Either I couldn’t take a deep enough breath, or it would make me much worse.

Next, the diskhaler:

It’s a dry powder inhaler and you take it much like you would a turbuhaler. Advair and ventolin can come in this format and I had much the same problems with it as I did with the turbuhaler. Also with this one, I find the powder gets stuck at the back of your throat more and it doesn’t feel so nice.

Aaaand, the MDI or metered dose inhaler:

My favourite, my baby. I mostly like it because you can use it with a spacer. For ventolin when I’m having trouble breathing, it is so so easy to use. You just load the ventolin into it and take a few breaths, as deep as you can. Studies show that way more drug actually gets into your lungs when using an MDI with spacer than with any other device, including the MDI alone. For inhaled corticosteroids, this means that less gets into your mouth and throat, reducing the risk of thrush infections. That’s why an advair MDI I could use with my spacer seems like a better idea to me all of a sudden. My only qualm is that when you’re out and about, the spacer is slightly bulky to have, and it looks a bit odd.

I didn’t talk about nebulizers. I don’t use one at home but often get them at the clinic or in emergency. If you are really struggling to breathe, they are definitely the easiest way to get medication into your lungs and I usually get some relief from the first one, unlike with my puffer. They deliver a lot more medication in one dose than an inhaler does and I don’t need that for everyday, though I know of some people who do.

Sooo, what do you use/what is your favourite to use, and why?

Symbicort messing with my mouth

As I’ve probably mentioned before, symbicort is a great thing for me, I’m so glad I have access to it. The side effects are mild and worth it one hundred times over. All I’m saying is that these mouth problems are new and weird. If you’ve had anything like it, please leave me a comment!

About 2 weeks ago I had a really sore throat and white spots that looked a LOT like strep. But I felt fine and definitely didn’t have a fever so I just took some advil for the pain. After that yuckiness cleared up I got these really sore white spots on my tongue that took about a week to clear up. Now that they are gone my front bottom teeth are killing me! Grr. My dentist repeatedly warned me to rinse and brush vigorously AFTER taking my maintenance puffers because it could be hard on my teeth. But I must admit I have not been diligent about this, mostly because I never had problems. Don’t get me wrong, I brush my teeth well twice a day, it’s just that my routine is such that I do it before I do my puffers. I happen to have a dentist appointment next Friday but I fear that all I can do is be better at brushing and rinsing after taking my meds and possibly get this (these) cavitiy(ies) filled if that is indeed what they are. Lesson learned!!

Gettin’ into trouble

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.

What the…?

OK, so something very weird happened this morning. Pics first, explain later.

So you see, I have this puffer. It stays in the pocket of the ratty old fleece I wear around the house all the time. I used it early this morning, and when I went to take it right before leaving the house, it came out in many pieces in my hand. Huh?? I’m not too sure what went wrong here people. I was wearing the fleece the whole time, except while I was in the shower. Weeeiirrd.

I should add that the pressurized canister was intact, so it’s not like it was caused by an explosion or anything.

Anyway, I had a pretty bad night last night. I seem to have almost completely rebounded though. This is unusual for me, but it’s a very good thing. Here’s hoping for a sounder sleep tonight! Off for some maaad studying.