The state of the allergies

I started on my allergy injections right after the first of the year.  I knew it was going to take a few months to see any real improvement, but when I was still coughing my head off a few weeks in, I begged for mercy, and they gave me steroids, which worked like magic.  No more coughing!

And the thing that was most amazing to me was how much more ENERGY I had.  Turns out that spending half of every night awake bc coughing tends to be draining!  Who'd a thunk it?  I've been off the steroids for a couple of weeks now, and while I do have the occasional coughing spell, it's only a few times a day now instead of a bunch.  AND now I know that if the coughing worsens, I can always go on the Prednisone again, so THAT's a relief.

There was one little complication with the injections - my clothes.  See, they give you the shots in your upper arms, and I kept forgetting and wearing long-sleeved sweaters or tops on shot day, and it was a pain in the a** to try and get those sleeves rolled up high enough for the needles.  So now I keep a "shot shirt" at work - a plain black short-sleeved t-shirt.  If I forget and wear something long-sleeved to work, before I head over to my allergist's for my shots, I just change into the shot shirt and I'm good to go.

I'll have to have once-weekly double injections for another few months as they ramp up the dose, and then they'll start lengthening the time between injections.  From what I understand, how long I'll have to have the injections depends on how well I respond, so we'll just have to wait and see.

It's okay.  I don't mind.  I'll be the one over here, not coughing.

A Shot in the Arm

Literally.  I'm going to be heading over to my allergist's office shortly, to begin allergy injections.

Many, many months of allergy injections.

I've developed some pretty debilitating allergies over the past few years, to the point where I'm TIRED of coughing and sneezing and coughing and wheezing and blowing my nose and wiping my eyes and coughing coughing COUGHING all the damn time.  The standard OTC treatments have failed, so the allergist is bringing out the big guns.

Shots.

Two shots, once a week, for the next several months.  This is supposed to, I guess, build up my immunity to the allergens, though I'm a bit cloudy on how it all actually works, and how the injections will work when Flonase, Zyrtec and Delsym (my Holy Trinity) have failed.

Whatever.  I've got to believe.  I have GOT to get some relief, here, even if it's going to take a long, long time.

Here's my arm, doc!  Hit me up.

UPDATED TO ADD:  Well, THAT was a letdown!  Turns out I need some special super snowflake combination injection that the office hadn't had a chance to get formulated yet, so I can't start my shots until NEXT week.  And now I feel like Shirley MacLaine in that movie, except Shirley was yelling for somebody to give Debra Winger HER injection, and I'm screaming for ME.  "Give me my shot!  Give me my shot!  GIVE ME MY SHOTTTTTTTTTT!"

haha *sob*

Old and Random

Does anyone besides me remember typing correspondence on a typewriter?  Remember when fax machines first became available, and they seemed like a flippin' MIRACLE?  "Waaaaait a minute, you mean I just feed the document in here, dial a number, and it SHOWS UP SOMEPLACE ELSE?!"  Remember when printers used tractor feed paper?  Yes, I am old.

There's an old City DPW garage around the corner from where I work which is about to be demolished.  I wanted to get a picture of the Sign Shop door before it's gone, because it makes me smile:

Two reality TV shows I can highly recommend:  "Alone" just started its second season, Thursdays on the History channel.  This show takes a bunch of outdoorsy people and drops them, one by one, into remote Alaska locations where they have to survive on their own.  They are equipped with video cameras and have to transmit videos every day to the people running the show.  Some of the people crack and give up right away, some last for a few weeks, and last season's winner lasted for something like sixty-three days before he was the last one standing.  Watching the people start their downhill slides is absolutely fascinating; I probably shouldn't like this show as much as I do, but man, it's some pretty compelling watching.

On that same track, "The Last Alaskans" has started a new season, Tuesdays on the Discovery channel.  I've written about this show before; it chronicles the last people allowed to homestead on a remote Alaskan wildlife refuge.  Very, very good.

Riverdance is apparently coming to this area, because ads for it have been all over local media.  Riverdance is one of those events that I can say with confidence I would not attend even if it were free.  See also:  Any type of Renaissance Festival.  *shudder*

I've had a sore thumb joint for a few days, and I couldn't figure out what I'd done to it, until I went to take my Celexa this morning.  The package the pills come in is this funky thing where you have to press down on one end and then pull the pill card out from the other end, except I always get it wrong and have to wrestle with it (relaxing!  not at all stressful!), and this morning I realized that the reason my thumb was sore was from struggling with pulling the pills out of the package.  I have a brand-new medical condition, heretofore unknown to science!  "Celexa Thumb".  Ha.

There was a panhandler in front of the Dollar Store where I went on my lunch break this morning, and I always tell those dudes "nope, sorry", and then I feel bad about it.  I mean, I KNOW they're just going to use the money for drugs and/or alcohol, so I don't know WHY exactly I feel bad, just that I don't feel bad enough to give them any drug money.

I dropped a makeup pencil down the bathroom sink this morning.  I guess I'm going to learn how to take a sink trap apart tonight. *sigh*

 And finally, a ticklish kitten:

What's old and/or random with you?

Update! (Believe me, I'm as tired of going through this as you are reading about it)

  So, I started taking the Celexa (10 mg, if anyone is interested in details, and what the doc told me is a very small dose) daily on Saturday.  The doctor had told me that it might take several weeks for it to "kick in", which is why she had given me the Zanax (.25 mg) to take if I got overwhelmed in the meantime.

On Sunday, I woke up with the old brain just a-churning, so I thought I'd take a Zanax, just to see if  it would calm me down.  It calmed me so far down, in fact, that I just wanted to sleep all day, but I had a lot of stuff to get done and managed to stay awake.  I got no type of "high" whatever; just felt kind of peaceful.  And sleepy.  And it did "turn down" my thoughts.

Went to work today, and blahblahblah drama, so an hour before the boss was scheduled to call, I took half a Zanax.  (yeah, a regular pill-popper, that's me.)  It was enough to calm me down, but not enough to knock me out, and I was able to handle a conversation with the boss (about the Project from Hell, don't even get me started) without panicking or wanting to pass out.  I was able to perform competently and without the overwhelming dread that has dogged my recent days.

So!  Waiting for the Celexa to kick in, taking the Zanax as a stop-gap (and yes, I know that both are habit-forming drugs which iare in no way, shape or form to be taken long-term or in excess), and hoping for the best.

I'll keep you posted!  And thank you for your patience as I continue on my quest for equilibrium.

Medication FTW!

Well, despite those of you who seemed determined to label me a hormonal, post-menopausal whack job (AHEM) (Seriously, guys, the only way it could've been worse would have been if you'd suggested I was upset because I was "on my period", so to speak) (JAYSUS CHRIST), the doctor thinks it's a problem with my brain chemistry, which got knocked right the eff out of whack when I was repeatedly exposed to an unmanageable situation.

She wants me to start taking Celexa (sp?) daily, immediately, and Zanax (sp?  I haven't picked up the prescriptions yet) on an as-needed basis when I start to panic out.

And I sure hope I start feeling better, because I'm getting tired of feeling like I'm about to be run over by a train.

HORMONES MY ASS.


(Sorry.  I know hormonal imbalances can and do wreak havoc.  But for me, hearing someone being called "hormonal" seems to imply disdain, like that person can't handle something because they're a woman.  See Donald Trump and his "She had blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her ... wherever" bon mots.  Just ... don't.)