auntbijou: (Blessed Bee)
Well, this is a milestone of sorts.

This is the first time in years that I've made it through the entire month of November without getting pneumonia

"is chuffed*

Really, this is quite an achievement for me! Seriously. I've been wrestling with the Asthma Monster for well over twenty years now, and the last ten have sucked majorly. Seeing the gastroenterologist last year was the best thing that ever happened to me. Seriously.

Well, second best. The best thing that ever happened to me is meeting the Husbandly One. Period.

Anyhow, it wasn't like I was having major heartburn all the time. Just... every once in a while. Though there were foods I couldn't eat without getting major heartburn, like ... spaghetti. So, I never considered acid reflux an issue connected with my asthma, even after my dad was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. That's why, when I had the major stomach pain last year and had to see a surgeon, I thought he was kind of nuts for suggesting that acid reflux was causing the majority of my severe asthma problems. But I took the medication he prescribed, because I was in serious pain and figured it couldn't hurt.

By the time I got to see the gastroenterologist three weeks later, it was as if I didn't have asthma any more at all.

It was the weirdest feeling, too. Not feeling like everything in my chest was too tight. Being able to draw in a deep breath and it didn't hurt. Coughing, and actually being able to clear my airway!

And it's still that way. Still. That's why I was throwing such a hissy fit about the Dexilant, the medication I take for acid reflux, because it feels like it's given me my life back, you know? I mean, THO and I finally decided to just skip the insurance and pay for it ourselves, and the drug company sent us a discount card that means it only costs $60 to refill it, instead of $150, which is a win in my book any day!

So, this year, I admit, when November rolled around, I was still kind of resigned to first getting bronchitis, and I did get a mild case of it, which would lead into pneumonia by the middle of the month. Usually just before Thanksgiving. Or immediately after, because driving into Houston is just asking for trouble on my part, as many of you very well know.

And... that didn't happen this year. If it's not the pollen and crap blowing around on the strong cold fronts that start in November here, it's turning on our heater that does it. But... not this year. And trust me, I'm not questioning it, I'm deliriously happy about it! This is a good thing!

So... I'm going to sit here and just... enjoy the breathing regularly without discomfort thing. Because that's just... totally awesome.
auntbijou: made by <lj comm=lvlwings_icons> (Delicious Hot Schmoes!)
It's been a very interesting weekend.

First of all... our air conditioner stopped working. There we were, the Husbandly One and I, sitting in our bedroom chatting when... the fan sitting on a nearby crate just... stopped. I looked up at the ceiling fan and... it was still going. Never slowed down, just... kept going. Concerned that the elderly fan had at last gasped out its last wheeze, THO turned it off, and that's when we noticed that the clock was no longer working. And the computer wasn't asleep, it was off.

But... the light in the kitchen was still on.

THO thought it was a bad circuit breaker, because when we turned it back on, and turned stuff in the bedroom back on... it promptly shut off again. So, we called an electrician, but THO was suspicious that it might be something more and after investigating the A/C, he realized it wasn't working, wouldn't come on, nothing.

It was the A/C that was broken.

This was on Sunday.

Did I mention we're in the middle of a triple digit heatwave?

So, the electrician didn't call us back, but that turned out to be a good thing. We didn't need an electrician; we needed an A/C repair guy.

Who couldn't come out until Monday morning.

So, we had a very hot night. THO went and bought extra fans, I had the kids taking cool showers before bed, and we were all restless and hot. I opened all the windows, but since Muta and Calcifer have discovered they can bust out the screens to get outside, I could only open them about three inches. Still, with the ceiling fans and the box fans, it was a bearable 84 degrees (28 C) in the house by about midnight.

One odd thing we all noticed by the next day. My cough had disappeared.

I have asthma, as you all know. And it's been getting worse and worse. I've had pneumonia three times since we moved to this house, mostly over the summer. We had already noticed that when we're not using the central air or heating, my asthma calms down, but when we start using it again, it flares back up. We had suspected mold and such in the ductwork perhaps was causing my problems. And this seemed to confirm it.

Well, the A/C guys arrived as promised and found that the fan motor had burned out, as well as a capacitor thingummy, so, they replaced all of that, cleaned it all out, added freon, and started it up again. I waited for my asthma to start flaring up again... and it didn't.

It still hasn't.

Funny thing is, over the last two years or so, I've been noticing this... smell, every time our system would come on. It was almost, but not quite, like smoke, and it would burn the back of my throat, and then, the Asthma Monster would start acting up. But... nobody else could really smell it. Well, the Impertinent One could, but it didn't bother her like it did me.

That smell is totally gone.

So, something good came of it after all. And I am very happy about that, indeed!

May 2020

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