Asthma????

So..... I'm been sick since November. FREAKIN' sick. I get this way every year that I forget to start taking clariten the week of Thanksgiving when they bring all the Christmas trees to town and shake all the pollen in the air. This is the fourth year in the 10 years I've lived in Austin that it's happened. where I cough so hard that I throw up. (not a pretty picture).

So I go to the doctor, can't get in to see my doctor because that never happens on a "that day" appt, but another nice doctor gave me some antibiotics for my "sinus infection". That was last Thursday. I went back to the nice doctor on Monday. I got the same doctor as last time but still didn't get to see my doctor (who i had a set appt with that coming Thursday). He gave me a stronger antibiotic. I swear that thing is HUGE! I keep expectig it to get up and scurry away!!!! so that anti-biotic is working now.

I go to my wonderful wonderful doctor (who is about to have twins) and I come away from her with FIVE shiny new prescriptions. FIVE. and she is a doctor who doesn't like to prescribe a lot of meds. must've been script happy since she's about to go on maternity leave! haha...

Anywho. Turns out I have asthma. I've never been diagnosed with it before because it's irritated by allergies and excercise. I didn't have allergies until I moved to Austin and I used to be so out of breath when doing aerobic excercise that i just didn't do it. I lifted weights or did water aerobics instead. In PE in jr high and high school, I took marching band. so it wasn't an issue. but I have always shyed away from any long running sports. I did manage to play soccer, but it was short bursts of running that I can handle and the same with base ball. I did biking in my early twenties, but I would easily get heavily winded and just slow down to a leisurely pace.

So, I have an inhaler (me likes the inhaler...), Flonase, and she told me that Clariten wasn't anywhere near strong enough for me so I am now on Singulair. I've been on that regimen for one day and I already feel a ton better. I've had a couple of coughing fits today and used my inhaler and WOW. I can't believe I've been living with this freaking cough through allergy season for year after year!

My other two scripts... We talked a little bit about before. I've had insomnia for as long as I can remember, so i've been taking Ambien for it. From Dec last year until August of this year, i had to take it every night. Since August I take it maybe 5 times a month. so it's a LOT better. but I'm supposed to always have it on hand, so yea!

The other one... it's time for me to be weaned off the Zoloft. I told her that I wanted to talk to her about staying on it long term because I was a lot less irritable and i didn't get sick, dizzy and nauseous when having to talk in front of a large group of people or sing in front of people. I was a music major for 5 years and finally just walked away from it all because of the stage fright. (i know.... seems sort of weird for me to say I have stage fright). A lot of times I could control it if all the stars were aligned and I was fully concentrating on it. But with the Zoloft, I didn't have the stagefright at all. so I asked if I could stay on a lower dose forever.

Turns out, the Zoloft is what she thinks made me plateau in my weight management last year because the plateau happened right when we hit the highest dose. So she switched me to something in the same family that I will stay on indefinately. Something called Citalopram. I switched straight over, so she said i might be slightly irritable for a week or so with headaches, etc. oh joy. But I do feel good about staying on something, because truth be told, even before this past year when I decided I should get on something to control the anxiety, I was extremely moody. I could often control it around people, but the range of emotions that I would experience would tear me apart. The recent discussions on my mommy's newsgroup on this topic really helped me make this decision and it really is the right one for me. I'm one of those that hates to take medication, hence coughing until my insides are on the outsidefor two months before I'll take myself to the doctor.

So for all of my friends and my village who have shared a piece of their most private thoughts and fears, thank you. You've helped me make a decision that will make my life a lot better.

My next step will be getting my children tested for it, since both of them have that SAME cough, but I can usually zap it with kid's clariten. If they have it like I do, I do not want them to be almost 40 before they find some relief!!!!