{Ugh} Mention that you’re having a bout with bronchitis, look up the prescription meds online before blithely swallowing any damnfool thing your doctor shoves at you, and you’re blitzed with ads for prescription cold nostrums and asthma treatments!
Damn, but I hate that! Am I the only neurotic who gets the galloping creeps by having Google peering over her shoulder all the time?
This is the worst bug I’ve ever had. My whole torso hurts from hacking. Last night I coughed until I couldn’t breathe, coughed until I was spitting up blood. Even standing in the shower til the hot water ran out didn’t help.
Finally gave up and used the albuterol inhaler she prescribed. It’s tricky to learn to use…but it did help. Was finally able to get to sleep around one or two ayem.
But I’m not takin’ that prednisone, dammit. It has some nasty side effects. One of my peculiarities is that if a drug has a weird side effect, I am going to get it.
She also gave me an antibiotic in the same class as a drug I’m allergic to and that, like prednisone, is given to tearing up your gut. She did recommend not taking it for several days, until we see if this thing starts to clear up. Despite an elevated white cell count, she still thinks it’s probably viral, which would mean there’s no point in making myself sicker with antibiotics.
Saw a study last night that showed albuterol is more effective than antibiotics in causing the cough of bronchitis to subside within seven days. Sure hope it works. This is the pits!
I’ve had so many prescription drugs make me sick that I’m very careful about what I’ll take. Doctors, in my experience, often don’t know what these things can do—they clearly don’t know or don’t appreciate the discomfort of the potential side effects, or they don’t care. In some cases, I’ve thought a doctor dissembled to trick me into taking something that made me sicker than the ailment. They’re heavily lobbied by drug lobbyists who come to their door to sell them on this, that, and the other expensive new concoction, and they don’t really have time to look up and understand what the stuff does. So they believe what the manufacturers’ reps tell them.
But to the subject at hand: I’d just as soon not have Google watching me try to figure out which prescription drugs I’ll take and which I won’t.
I understand they’re going to ramp up this strategy by linking virtually every device you use and tracking your every move. Makes me glad I refuse to carry a cell phone.
Cut choir last night—it’ll be a long time before I’m able to sing again. May be out for the rest of the season. Cutting the business group meeting this morning. Can’t cut class today, because I won’t get paid if I don’t show up, and I really need the money…especially with a new passel of medical bills headed my way. Fortunately, part of this semester’s scheme involves lots of videos. Tuesday the librarian kept them busy for both periods…thank god! No way could I have talked three hours straight. And amazingly, I had actually scheduled a video for today. So that’s decidedly what they’re getting.
Ugh ugh ugh! It’s after 7 and now I’ve got to run to get Cassie fed before M’hijito shows up with Charley.
If the cough is that bad maybe you need a breathing treatment in the doc’s office. I used to get pretty bad bronchitis bouts years ago and the breathing treatments helped calm down the twitchy bronchii. I felt like I could bounce off the walls afterwards, but I was breathing better, at least. Medications are always a trade off (sickness or side effects….hmmmm) it seems. Hope you get some rest and feel better!
Sounds Terrible! Feel better. My boy and Wife had a stomach bug today I am hoping I don’t get it too lol.
I feel the same you do about Doctors – it is like they just completely bypass the side effects, its nuts.
@ Linda & Evan: Thanks!
I spent six hours in the Mayo’s ER (that was jolly fun!). That’s where I got the albuterol. And it does seem to be turning this around. Still have a cough, but it sounds less like a rhino snorting and more like a normal cold. The stuff calms the hacking for three or four hours at a time. I’m going to back off on the amount of it tonight, since it seems to have beat back the worst of the misery and since it causes intense thirst and heart palpitations.
Hope the family feels better soon, Evan…and you manage to evade their bug!