Breathe Easy

[shanmonster]

I went to the airway clinic today to get my asthma checked out, and the results were illuminating. I was doing fine inside, but once I biked to the hospital in the heat and the smog, my lungs started seizing up a little again, and my perennial cough returned. Still, as far as things have been lately, I wasn't too bad.

So I get inside and the nurse practitioner checked my air flow. Much to my surprise, I was only operating at 68% of normal lung capacity. The nurse says that my asthma is "out of control," and he is astonished I am able to bike without keeling over. He says I must be in amazing physical condition to be able to do what I do with these lungs.

After I took three hits off a Ventolin puffer, he checked me again, and my breathing had improved by 45%. But Ventolin/Salbutamol is not the answer. Apparently, taking Ventolin all the time is actually damaging, and your lungs build up scar tissue so that you basically end up with something akin to emphysema. It's like taking Tylenol for a brain tumour. It helps get rid of the pain, but does nothing for the tumour.

I've been put on a different med: Symbicort. And in six weeks, I go back so he can judge my progress. This stuff is supposed to help strengthen my lungs and keep the inflammation down. Here's hoping I see big progress.

Now, how come none of my doctors ever checked out my lungs in the last decade? Why did they just keep giving me prescriptions for Salbutamol without ever checking my airflow? All of my doctors suck.

Comments

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Doctors (generally) suck.

Nurse Practitioners (generally) rock.

Congratulations on finding someone who is more concerned with helping you than pushing whatever is the drug du jour.

[zombienought.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, blame the doctors! You could
have been googling asthma info all this
time!

The vet mentioned that what was seen on
the x-rays in Rincewind's lungs might
have been scar tissue from asthma. I
guess we'll know if that's true or not
in a few more days.

I wonder if maybe your migraines are
caused by lack of O2.

[elanya.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm symbiocort - i am a big bog fan of that stuff.

And yeah, most doctors/NP's who have half a clue wouldn't let someone like you only use a bronchidialator without a steroid. The only downside, of course, is that the steroids are so much more expensive. My doctor game me some free samples of Symbicort a few years ago, knowing I'd never be able to afford it without insurance, as they were like 125$ a pop...

But it works so very very well!

[lickthefrog.livejournal.com]

yeah,.. I've been given Salbutamol. And my Dr. never checked anything. All I did was say, I've been having touble breathing when I do certain extenuating excercises. She was like "OK, here's a drug".. that was it.

[miraba.livejournal.com]

I was tested against normal lung capacity when I was unsure if I had asthma, and I was somewhere just under 70%. They also insist that I get retested every 6-12 months to make sure it's ok.

[miami-pony.livejournal.com]

Holy shit, Shan.. 68%? Yeah you must be in amazing health to be able to bike around. That'd be like a healthy athlete suddenly biking along in the Andes or something.. suddenly a third of your oxygen is missing.

Doctors prescribe drugs to asthma patients because that's what they do. Patient comes in, says "I can't breathe well" and doctor says "I'll write you a scrip for Drug A" a.k.a. first-line-of-defense, and the patient goes away and the doctor hears a little cha-ching sound effect in their head and moves on to the next bag-of-meat-covered-in-dollar-signs that's been waiting for an hour to see them. It's easy, right? Any bozo can do that. Can't breathe? Ventolin. Can't get it up? Viagra. Bleeding? Tourniquet.

OR, if they're a good doctor, they'll actually want to repair you. But then you might not come back. So much for repeat business.

[superbrad.livejournal.com]

Doctors on average suck as much as the so-called "computer technicians" at my old Compaq tech-support-over-the-phone job. Maybe 1 in 10 has some idea what they are doing and maybe 1 in 30 you could call "competent". 1 in 100 you could call "fully competent".

I wish that whenever I got a medical problem that I wanted to discuss with a doctor, I could briefly discuss it with a whole bunch of different doctors, so that I could observe their attitude to find the one in 100 that is actually interested in helping people, ie actually interested in fixing my problem, not just shoving a perscription into my hand and showing me the door.

I might as well be wishing for an everfull wallet. :(