Gum…The New Asthma Medicine.

Has it only been 3 days since I last posted? It feels like a month. Today has been the first day Taylor has been fever free, so it looks like she will be able to go back to school tomorrow. It's been a rough week. Taylor just doesn't do well when she is sick. She doesn't understand taking it easy and she would rather go to school, sick or not.

The Bossman has been sick for over a week as well and I thought it was going to bypass me, but apparently not. I have really bad asthma and last night at around 10 or so, I could feel one coming on. I did the inhaler & nebulizer stuff but it just wasn't helping. Once I start coughing, I can't seem to stop. I have been hospitalized several times for my asthma. I usually have a good experience as far as any ER experience can be good.

However last night was not a good experience. I actually had the doctor tell me to try chewing gum to stop coughing. Yes, really…gum. We got the wheezing under control by several nebulizer treatments using a stronger medicine than I have at home. As far as my coughing goes, not so much. I have Delsym at home and sometimes it will help but not so much last night. In case you didn't know, Delsym is an over the counter cough syrup consisting of nothing other than dextromethrophan …you know…the same stuff in Robitussin. The only difference is that the Delsym is in a suspension form. It's supposed to make it last longer. Now this doctor tried to tell me that Delsym is a narcotic. Seriously? What narcotic can you buy over the counter at Wal-Mart. When I mentioned it's an otc, he said, "well, it tricks your brain into thinking it's a narcotic". Yeah, okay…whatever. I swear, he made me feel like I was a drug-seeking fiend. All I wanted was to stop coughing. Every nurse that came in the room kept telling me that my cough was making their chest hurt. Imagine how it made mine.

I suppose I'm done ranting. I'm feeling like crap today, but I'm hoping it's a quickie sickness and not some drawn out flu or anything. I don't have time for that. Taylor has her echocardiogram on Thursday and then her cardiology appointment in 2 weeks. Hopefully her aortic stenosis will not have advanced any farther. I am just not ready to be making valve replacement surgery decisions.

I have many blogs to catch up on and hopefully my internet friends will understand my absence. I have just been too busy and/or tired to sit at the computer any longer than I have to. Right now, I'm enjoying listening to this wild wind that is blowing outside. We've had gusts up to 25 – 30 miles per hour. I love the wind, so I'm going to go snuggle on the couch, watch TV and listen to the wind.