ER Visit

Yuck. Double yuck.

Spent half the day at the ER today. Been having a hard time breathing the last week or so. Last night was reeallly bad, so this morning Doug took me to the ER in Kalamazoo. Took blood, did a chest x-ray. They said I had asthma, probably from 9 years of breathing crap in my trach. Plus, the same day the breathing trouble started (hindsight being 20/20 and all), I used a cleaner that I made from bleach and water. Apparently you aren't suuposed to spray it. How the heck did I know?? I use bleach in the laundry. I've used buckets of bleach water to mop. I clean the toilet with bleach. What the heck difference is spraying it?

Well, according to the chemist, my husband, chlorine molecules are heavier than air, so you can breathe in water and bleach, and blow air out...the water either absorbs or exits, but the bleach (chlorine molecules) stay in your lungs, causing inflamation. So that, combined with the asthma, combined with having MG....well, it wasn't pretty. They gave me a huge extra strong breathing treatment, and I'm on oxygen, which is helping a LOT.

But they also gave me 60 mgs of Prednisone. SIXTY!!! It has taken me since JUNE to get down from 40 to 5, 7.5 every other day. My goal (maintenance dose) is 5, 2.5 every other day. I was so close. If I have to wean down that slow again.....ooooh. I can't even THINK about it without cursing.

Dirty Bastages. (100 points if you can name the movie).

So....the verdict is, I'm going to live. Oh, and don't use bleach water as a spray.