Odds and Ends
When discussing the medical profession, my father would often say,“ They are just Practicing.” Boy did he have that right!!
Last November I cleaned up the last of the leaves and apparently some of the left over mold as well. Within a week I had a pretty good case of bronchitis. Not at all unusual for me – happens every fall if I am not careful. The thing runs its course ---- I lose my voice for a short time, feel awful, then feel better and life moves on. This time I got caught in a time warp. By January ----- time for the Doc.
I was given a bunch of pills, and MR. Neb. Things got better, then much worse. I would go to sleep feeling fairly good and then wake up needing a sewer snake run down my windpipe. Back to the Halls of Medicine. “ Beginning asthma, complicated by post nasal drip.” One month later, back to the Doc. This time we discovered sever bronchitis and definite asthma so bad I would need an inhaler and Advar.
In 1968 sucking white powder down my throat didn’t seem like a good idea and the idea hasn‘t improved with age. Plus I know the history of me better than anyone else.
One of my clearest memories was having croup as a kid. I would be fine, go to bed wake up unable to breath. Needless to say, this caused some commotion. Shortly the big metal humidifier was out, Vicks was on me, in me and being blown at me and I didn’t go to school the next day. Sometime in the late 50’s, I got a real mystery disease. Since only small kids got croup, it had to be a mystery disease. We went to the doctor every week for what seems like months. They did tests, ran a light bulb down my throat, even suggested mental therapy.
The whole thing turned into a bonding time with my mother. I would go to bed at 10 wake up choking at 11 or so, and then we would sit up the rest of the night watching old movies. I learned a lot about her during those weeks.
Anyway, Spring came, the disease disappeared and it didn’t return. I did have some mild bouts while teaching, but usually pretty mild.
This time around, it never got as sever, but it acted exactly like that 50’s version. But this time I had the internet and did some research. Turns out the symptoms perfectly fit chronic croup. Something young children get for no apparent reason and outgrow by the age of 6 or 7. The present cure is a series of steroid drugs.
Well, back to the present. For the first time in life I told the Doctor what we were going to do. Steroids!! She was willing to try it with the admonition that if it didn,t work we were sucking white powder. Remember three months of wheezing badly enough to wake people up? One, six tablet dose of steroids, 24 hours and no wheezing. Since I also had bronchitis, “ one step from pneumonia” I got to take the same Cipro dose given someone exposed to anthrax. But, at least for the time being I seem to be healed. That would make me the oldest croup patient in history.