Saturday, June 19, 2010

Health and rest

I got out of the hospital a week ago today and I can't believe how tired I still am. I went into the hospital for iv steroids to build my lungs back up. I had acute bronchitis, acute ash ma and acute sinusitis. I have been sick off and on, (mostly on) since March with these same things and finally saw an allergist for them. By my 3rd visit in a week to her I was in the hospital. I do feel better than I have in months. I can take a deep breath without coughing. I am not wheezing when I walk, move, etc. I found out by the time you are wheezing your airways are already 80-90% abstructed. So it was no wonder I was tired, I had so little oxygen. I have had 7 rounds of antibiotics and 7 rounds of steroids before this and it got a little better and then worse again. So into the hospital I went on iv steroids and I feel so much better. But there are a lot of lifestyle, environment changes that need to be done too. We have to keep our house at 71 or less. We needed to get 2 dehumidifiers to keep the humidity level at 40% or less. We needed a HEPA air filter for the bedroom. Thankfully, we already had all hard floors downstairs so we didn't have to pull up carpeting. We had to enclose our mattress in an allergy mattress cover. We had to move all books and papers and shoes out of our bedroom. That was a huge job as we had an 8 ft long floor to ceiling bookcase in our room. And dust more, sweep more, etc. And I could not help with any of it. I still can't. I am not to do housework for a month. Now my daughter told me she would be doing a happy dance if she was told not to do housework. I just feel guiltily about everyone doing my work. Right now my job I was told is to rest. My dr told me if medicine would cure everyone drs would never be sick and live to a 100. Rest is the best medicine. This morning I straightened my room, made the bed, cleared off the top of the microwave and put a turkey on to cook and I was so tired I laid down to take a nap after that. That's not much. And I couldn't believe that was all it took to tire me out. So I will rest and try to return to health.