i can't breathe...

i never thought i'd see a nebulizer much less need one during my asthma attacks. unfortunately, last saturday, not only did i have to consume a nebule of ventolin, i had to consume 3! i thought i had outgrown my asthma. i mean, i don't have an inhaler and it certainly isn't on my top 5 essentials list.

but last week's bout with asthma was a reality check.

rewind to august 18 or somewhere around that date. now the metro's weather is at times very unpredicatable. you get summer in the morning til noon then somewhere in between 12 and 1 p.m., the clouds sudddenly check in on the horizon and sooner or later, it's raining cats and dogs! now, i really don't like lugging an umbrella around therefore, getting wet was inevitable. so, i guess that's where my cough and colds decided to come back into my life. i was taking cough medicine but before i knew it, i was wheezing at night. no need to panic since i popped a ventolin capsule and i thought it would go away. it did; but just for a few hours. the wheezing progressed into a full blown attack and the ventolin capsules were no match for it. i slept for two nights in an upright position (read: sitting) and my cough progressed into such a nasty one. i also had chest pains akin to broken ribs. when i coughed or sat in a certain position it was painful. it was so difficult to walk and climb the flight of stairs at the lrt and mrt stations...sometimes even going down the stairs resulted into shortness of breath.

workload at the office wasn't letting up either and i was informed that i was to handle the first 2 batches of accent training in subic on monday (aug. 22) which meant travelling to subic on sunday. damn!

so saturday, aug 20, i voluntarily went to makati medical center with ricky in tow. i told him, "please take me to the hospital." i couldn't take it anymore. i went into e.r. had my vital stats checked and the nurse wheeled me into the pulmonary section of e.r. the physician on-duty (he was so cute!) held a stethoscope to my chest and back and listened to the rock concert going on inside my lungs...then he put me on my first (of three) nebule of ventolin. in between nebules, i told him of my chest pains so he decided to photograph (read:x-ray) my lungs. he did explain to me that the pains were actually muscular pains due to the inflammation in my lungs but just to be sure, after an hour, i had my chest x-ray and then they injected a steroid...

well, it was a relief to be finally let go and feel it easier to breathe. of course, my prescriptions read like a mini-pims hehehe: ambroxol capsules, azithromycin (antibiotic for my lungs which were so costly!), medrol (steroid), bambuterol and of course, my latest fashion accessory, the salbutamol inhaler :)

although it was easier to breathe and i slept on my side after so many days of sitting, i still had the wheezies. but my trip to subic was much more comfortable. i could imagine the difficulty i could've been in had i not decided to have my self checked at makati med. it's been a week after and there are still traces of the cough but the wheezies are gone and the pain has subsided but the meds go on for another day. after that, i hope i won't go through this again.

and at 35, i thought i was rid of the wheezies...