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February 24, 2007

COPD

I have Chronic Obstructive Pumlonary Disease because I smoked Marlboros for 30-some years. (I promise this will not be a lecture, just some background about how I got here. I still love cigars and kissing smokers!) Here’s how it works: When your lungs reach their full size they have lots more capacity than you need. As you age they slowly deteriorate and, hopefully, by the time you die you’ve still got more than you need. Smoking damages your lungs in ways that accelerate this process and lungs don’t repair themselves, so, by the time you notice a problem, it’s too late. You already have less capacity than you need and, even if you stop smoking, your lungs continue their natural decline and things get progressively worse. Then you die. Slowly. It’s a pretty fucked up way to die. I watched my mom do it.

I stopped smoking a long, long time after I started having problems, even severe problems. I quit about 4 years ago, then started again a year ago and quit again a month ago.

So. I take a bunch of medicines every day in order for me to be able to breathe: one pill, one inhaler, one inhaled powder, and two liquids in a nebulizer that take about 20 minutes twice a day. It turns out the meds are more of a precarious balance than I thought.

I didn’t know this but the State of Louisiana has been paying my Medicare premiums for the last two years even though I’ve been living in Pennsylvania. They stopped paying at the end of December and PA took two months worth out of my SSDI this month without informing me in advance. Ouch. Between that and my yearly Medicare Part D (Thanks, George!!) deductible, I was screwed. I couldn’t afford two of my meds.

I chose carefully. I decided not to buy the Singulair pill because I figured it’s specifically for Asthma and thats not really my problem, although some of the treatments are the same. I also nixed the Albuterol inhaler, since I use it several times a day and my Doctor said I should really only use it a few times a week. I figured I’d feel relatively normal—or, at least, how I’m supposed to feel. Wrong.

I was in agony. It was pretty cold this week and that’s a real problem for people with COPD. Whenever I was outside I had to keep a scarf over my mouth and nose (I don't know why it works but it does), and even then I had to stop at least once every block and catch my breath, leaning on something, palms down to enlarge my chest cavity. I must have looked like I was in trouble because several people stopped to ask if they could help. (None of them were Penn students, by the way.)

I called my Dr. and asked if he would prescribe some prednisone which is cheap. (Prednisone is like a miracle drug. When I take it, I feel 20 years younger, no lie. I can breathe normally and have seemingly boundless energy. Of course, continued use has real nasty side effects so it can only be used very sparingly, dammit.) The Dr. Said NO! and told me to go to the Emergency Room. Fuck that. The last time I went to the Penn ER with a COPD exacerbation, they treated me for a heart attack. A Dr. finally came in the second morning and said, "This is stupid. This has nothing to do with your heart. What are they doing to you?" They still call like clockwork every three months to follow up on my heart attack. I tell them I'm doing fine, thanks for calling.

I decided to wait it out overnight because a friend of mine said she’d pay for the medications in the morning. I didn’t feel great but I made it though the night without any major incidents. She drove me to the Pharmacy in the morning, dropped me off and continued on her way to Connecticut. I took one puff of Albuterol and all of my symptoms disappeared within a minute. I swear, it was like smoking crystal meth or something. (More on this idea later.)

I spent the rest of the day running around Center City doing errands without having a single problem. Amazing. I can’t wait until I’m 60 and I feel this crappy every day!

I’m listening to Little Hitler from “Pure Pop For Now People” (US) or “Jesus of Cool” (UK) by The Basher, Nick Lowe.

Posted by HighStrungLoner in Health at 11:00 AM

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