spring revival

I had considered just starting to post again, and pretending like there had not been an almost one month gap between posts, but that seemed wrong somehow. So, here is the short rundown:

At the very end of February, I finally got the respiratory flu that everyone else in the family ( and the local universe) had been fighting. I knew it was just a virus and would eventually resolve itself, so I attempted to push through it. Lack of respect for the strength of our microscopic foes then resulted in me getting progressively worse. I had to travel for work at the beginning of March, and went- sickness, fever and all. It was a sort of non negotiable training/workshop that would have resulted in BIG political problems if I had just blown it off. I had griped about having to go to my boss enough that I knew I could not just call him up and tell him I was sick and staying home. They needed to see in the flesh that I was sick. So, I went, participated and infected them all. I also got worse. By now I was progressed to full blown bronchitis, but was stubbornly resisting admitting it. ( plus, my ex's dad had died, I had all the kids and there just was not a good way to lay down and be sick) After another week my breathing was bad enough that I finally went to the doctor. He diagnosed a severe bronchitis that had also triggered my asthma. The last part pissed me off. It had been over 3 years since I had needed any meds or treatment for my ( normally mild) asthma. I did not even own an inhaler any more. He debated the hospital briefly, he debated some shots to get meds in me fast, then finally was able to be settled on serious antibiotics, prednisone and albuterol via nebulizer. At this point I was still remaining active ( and probably a little whiny) on twitter. Most days, without enough oxygen and energy, 140 characters was often all I could put together coherently. I would have two or three good blog post thoughts a day, but by the time I got through work and kids, I would sit and thoughts would flee, scattered by low oxygen levels.

The Bronchitis was vanquished by the powers of Levaquin, and for a brief time while the Prednisone levels were high in my blood, my breathing improved slightly. It was just enough to get me through Easter weekend and all the festivities and family gatherings. As the steroid levels ramped back down, my asthma lingered on. I used Albuterol in the nebulizer several times per day each time resulting in shakes, tremors, racing heart and exhaustion. My oxygen levels started to drop again. I tried to ignore it and push through. I even had a kid free weekend where Ogre and I went out dancing. That ended with me having to make trips outside, needing air more than the electric feeling of being alive dancing in the club gave me. Finally, after 5 more days of crashing hard, needing naps and not being able to do much more than claw my way through my days, I called the Doctor back.

He switched me off of Albuterol and onto Xanopex (which makes me tremor less, but it NOT tremor free as he promised), another ( slightly longer) round of Prednisone and Advair. The Advair still makes me nervous and I am feeling uncomfortable about taking it, but three doses of Prednisone has opened up my lungs enough that the Oxygen is once again racing to my neurons. I could feel it after the first dose- my Tweets started running out of room, and I found that I often had more than 140 ( or even 160) characters to say. That is when I knew I needed to get back to blogging.

So today, I am still on the nebulizer, still coughing and hacking a bit, but breathing all the same. My brain is active, my sex drive is back and I am airing out the house as well as my lungs. It is good to be back.

Now, I am going to switch around some laundry and then we will return to your regularly scheduled channel.