Longest 6 weeks ever.

It's not been a super-fun Fall, I'll be honest.
On October 5th, as we went to bed, I told Nate,
"I think I feel a cold coming on.  Bummer."

Within 48 hours, that little cold had settled down into my chest and made itself right comfortable.  It set up house and unpacked and just put its little feet up.  And lemme tell ya, it stuck around for the long haul.  Like a really bad houseguest, only LOTS more phlegm.

Morphed into a really nasty case of bronchitis, it did.  And fast.

The following Saturday I spent a rockin' night in the ER.  Do you know how embarrassing it is to be in public and hack til you vomit into a styrofoam cup?  You know it's bad when the nurses all do double-takes and stick their heads in on you and ask, "Are you OK???"

Nine hours, 6 breathing treatments, and one chest X-ray later, I went home with an inhaler, some souped-up cough syrup, and a little bit of Prednisone because my breathing was quite tight.

I slept a little better over the weekend and on Monday I said,
"Hey, I think the worst is over!  Hallelujah!"

Do I need to tell you that the worst was definitely NOT over?

Long story short because, well, I do want you to keep coming back here and all...

3 inhalers in 3 weeks.
Sleepless nights hacking on the couch.
Medicines, both pharmaceutical and natural, tinctures, showers/baths, rubs, humidifiers, nebulizers, herbs, probiotics.
Inability to recline in the slightest.
Inability to speak.
Inability to laugh.
You can just forget about singing.

My in-laws came down and swept the girls off for the week.  Big rewards in heaven.  BIG.

Insurance problems and ignored voicemails and "let me redirect you to another person who neither knows nor cares," and FINALLY (Bless God!), a full week later I had an appointment with a REAL LIVE INSURANCE PERSON, HOW 'BOUT THAT.

2 days later, I'm in the doc's office.  She believes the bigger problem is not bronchitis, but a bad flare-up of my asthma, which has lain dormant for more than ten years.  What???  Even then, attacks never came out of the blue.  They were brought on by exercise or some other trigger I could pinpoint.

They are exacerbating one another, apparently.  Bronchitis is aggravating the asthma.  One reaction to asthma attacks is increased mucous.  (I'm so sorry.)  This makes you cough.  Just like bronchitis.  I leave with another inhaler, a stronger and longer course of Prednisone (12 days) to help my poor lungs calm down, and some more souped-up cough syrup.  And hope.

A week later, bronchitis is gone.  Thank you, Jesus.

HOWEVER.
Nearly 6 weeks from the first sniffle?  I am still having a terrible time with my asthma.  I've gone through two more inhalers.  I do sleep in my bed, but the attacks awaken me at least twice every night, with no warning.  Often it takes 7 or 8 inhaler puffs and half an hour or more to breathe normally again, and when I finally do, there's so much coughing that I just give up and get outta bed to do laundry or whatever.  Plus the inhaler makes ya jittery.  AWESOME for 3 a.m.

Still can't laugh without bringing on an attack.
Singing must be done at half-volume.
The really bad attacks still make me throw up, and they leave me grabbing my chest, which burns and aches and throbs.

And poor, poor Nate.  He has never said one solitary word about all of the coughing.  BIG rewards.

If you have asthma, please...would you advise?  What on earth is happening to my lungs???  I'm hoping not to have to take more medication, but I have to get some decent sleep.  I'm SO ready to bid the fall farewell.  Not such a big fan this year.