Leimamo’s Life

I caught a cold and as usual, it developed into bronchitis. That’s not to say I always end up with bronchitis; sometimes the cold will last only a day or two then go away. But at least once a year, I’ll end up with bronchitis and this is the time of year it usually happens. For the past three days, I have been sucking on my albuterol inhaler. It’s the same inhaler I was prescribed a year ago. It seemed as though it was working. I mean I pumped it and there was that misty gas thing flowing from the mouthpiece. But after two nights of being out of breath, I could no longer keep from going to get checked. I thought I might’ve needed to get on the nebulizer again. My muscles were getting tight from lack of oxygen. I kept choking from my airpipe being constricted, I was in hell.

Finally, after waiting for Meg to return from work, we went to the doctor’s office. When I told him the albuterol wasn’t working he said he had already checked the computer to get some background information on me and found that the albuterol was prescribed last year so he sure the cannister was empty of the medicine even though it puffed out that misty gas thing. He taught me the way to check for albuterol in a cannister is to see if the cannister floats on water; if it does, there is no more medicine, just the gas that propells the medicine. If it sinks, then it still has medicine in the cannister. Okay, got it.

Then he asks if I smoke. I’m sure that’s in the computer but maybe he was hoping by now I’d have quit. I told him I’m still smoking half a pack a day, which had been cut down from 2 packs many years ago. He wasn’t impressed. I told him I had tried, but haven’t succeeded yet. He gave me another referral to the wellness center at the gym to get back on the smoking cessation course. Okay, got it.

Meanwhile, back in the office . . my muscles are still tight because I’m still unable to take deep breaths of air without choking my butt off. I’m wishing he’d just pull out a sample cannister and administer the medication right there while we play 20 questions. Then he moves on to weight loss programs and what I’ve been doing recently to work on that, I reply very softly that I haven’t been doing anything recently. Feeling terribly guilty. Now I’m not sure if the tightness in my chest is from him pointing out that Kamalani will miss me if I die of a heart attack or if it’s still because I NEED ALBUTEROL. He makes suggestions and I nod in agreement, right then I was willing to sell my soul for albuterol. Anyway, I agreed to whatever he suggested, took his referral and folded it neatly in quarters, put it in my purse then hurried to wait at pharmacy for my albuterol, robutussin DM, tylenol and motrin.

Have I had any cigarettes since then? Yes, I had a total of 3 cigarettes in 48 hours.