So the night before the Remembering Tom Dundee tribute concert, I was having a pre-temple-karaoke dinner at B'way Cellars and suddenly realized I did not want dessert. This was a bad sign (as all who know their desserts can attest). Head home and find I am having trouble holding notes singing along with the radio. Decided that singing in one corner of a social hall full of kids also playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero would not be good for my voice (nor for said kids). So I took the usual early-cold precautions and turned in early.
Next day was just about able to get through the three songs Steve & I did in the postlude, and tried to spice my cold into submission with a Southern dinner at Big Jones. Felt lousier & lousier till Tues. I called the family doc--who told me to come in STAT. I was wheezing & gasping so hard I even stuffed a toothbrush into my purse just in case I got admitted. It didn't come to that--but it turned out an allergic postnasal drip had combined with a cold (which I probably caught at a beauty treatment on Thurs.), turned bacterial and occupied my lungs. This bronchitis in turn triggered asthma--which had been impervious to even my nebulizer.
Now, whenever there's a flu or cold outbreak going around, health reporters do stories admonishing sufferers not to pester their doctors for an antibiotic 'scrip, since colds & flu are viral and antibiotics don't work on viruses. I had a standing scrip for a Z-Pack I never filled, for that reason (I was also spooked at the prospect of abusing antibiotics), as well as Flonase and a Medrol (prednisone) Dosepak in reserve for a sudden laryngitis attack before a big gig; I skipped the steroids because I thought that they depress the immune system and shouldn't be used during an infection. But it turns out that anyone with chronic sinusitis and especially asthma should have an emergency supply of both, according to my doc. The pollen mixed with the viruses, awakened a colony of strep or mycoplasma in my sinuses and sent the whole stew slithering down into my lungs. Yuck.
Also learned a better way to use an inhaler, more effective than even a nebulizer--exhale, shake inhaler, insert into mouth (closed around inhaler), inhale SLOWLY and during inhalation depress the canister for 2 short puffs. Count to 5, relax & exhale. For the first time, I actually felt and tasted the medicine in my throat, not just the propellant in my mouth.
Breathing much easier now, not fully recovered, but enough of my range is back to handle two sets next Fri. night at Wild Hog. So don't feel like a doofus or hypochondriac if you feel a cold coming on and you have allergies or asthma--especially if you sing! You still might not need any more than chicken soup, steam, saline spray and hot tea.......but let that be your doctor's call, not yours.
Now if poor Ruby (my '02 Taurus SEL) would just get discharged from her "hospital;" did the math and the repairs are still less than low blue book value, but regardless of that, I don't want a new car.....nor a new loan. 3 motor mounts, 2 shocks, oil pan/steering/trans. fluid leak, new side view mirror and oil change....coulda been a lot worse. Gone through a few batteries, a set and a half of tires and a set of brakes, about par for the course over eight years (and all of the latest ones of those are new). Come home, Ruby--I'd rather drive you than that crummy little rental car to Madison!