There's a lot of crazies in the ER

Tonight I decided to take a visit to the local ER for my asthma. I won't lie and say it wasn't scary and I wasn't having an anxiety attack the entire time because I totally was. To prove it my blood pressure was 149/92 when I first got there. Usually it 98-106/70-72 .. yeah, just a little whole lot higher than normal. It also doesn't help that there are always a lot of crazies in the ER and I always expect a whole lot of drama. Thank you television for that.

Today was pretty quiet in the ER though.

Anyways, so, the wind today was insanely cold and as you know from reading how I'm allergic to winter, the cold does not make for happy Liz lungs. Not at all. It actually makes my lungs revolt. Did you know that was possible? Well, I'm proof that it is.

Breathing the past couple days has been pretty miserable anyway, but today it just got 10 times worse as soon as I stepped outside. I managed to make it through the day with my inhaler, but it really wasn't getting any better. I made plans to go to the university library and take an exam that I need to make up before classes end tomorrow and then afterwards I was going to stop by the ER. But, as I was pulling out of my driveway I realized just how ludicrous that sounds and went straight to the ER instead.

See? I have a brain sometimes.

It really was a pretty quick trip and I only had to hang around for a few hours. I expected to be a lot longer, full of chest x-rays and what not. That way they make more money, ya know? But no- no chest x-rays needed, so I just hung out waiting.

That's me just hanging out waiting for one of my two nurses. Yes, I had two. One was just a nurse, and the other was a respiratory nurse. 

I was given a breathing treatment and quickly found breathing to be a little easier. And while it's suppose to last 6-8 hours, it did not as breathing once again is strained. Better, but still strained. 

After another hour or so of waiting (which by the way was still the quickest ER visit known to man) I was on my way home with 2 more prescriptions. This time I'm back on prednisone, again, which is enough to make me cry in and of itself and deserves it's own post; and also Qvar, which I've never taken let along heard of in my entire life, and is an inhaled corticosteroid that I begin taking after I'm done with the prednisone.

Here's to hoping this is the worst of it!

Oooh, the weather outside is...

Winter weather is absolutely frightful. Well usually anyway, the other day is pretty mild- but today's forecast calls for a little snow. And I would love to continue the song above by singing, "But the fire is so delightful," but we don't have a fireplace here, so I can't. And the line, "Let it snow, Let it snow, Let is snow?" Well, it really should just be banished on the bases of vulgarity and obscenity.

But, now that I've ripped apart one of the most loved Christmas songs, my day is complete. Have a good one!

Kidding! Honestly though, the weather in N.H. is horrible, especially for a California Transplant like myself. I can always find something bad about the weather, regardless of what season it is, but seeing as how I'm literally allergic to winter, it is by far the worst in my opinion. I extremely dislike most parts of the winter, including the snow, but I think the worst of it is the snapping wind. It looks much like this picture here, but there's not always the snow mixed in. There are days, like yesterday, where it's just the needle like wind and even though you can't see it, you sure can feel it going right through your clothes and into your bones.

(This isn't my picture by the way, and I have no idea who's it is since I couldn't find a credit listed. I'm definitely not about to take credit for it though, although, I do wish I could take pictures this lovely)

Some people don't mind the winter I guess, I personally detest it. Growing up where it's summer year round, I don't think I'll ever really adapt to winter here. I'm better at handling the cold than I first was 11 years ago and I finally don't consider 50 degrees freezing, but that's not really saying much. I still have long thermal underwear that I wear quite a bit in the colder months (usually Jan-Feb) and I just put my heated blanket on my bed the other day (I take it of around May-June).  However, there's not too much I can do to protect myself from the lapping wind when I need to go outside. 

The winter wind around here is extremely painful. The cold air coming down from Canada whips and snaps at you; it pierces through your clothes and feels much like I would imagine being slapped with a brush full of nails would feel like. It might only be 3 degrees outside, but the whirling wind makes it feel like it's 10 degrees colder than that- and that my friends, is cold. And if there's snow mixed in with it, you're now wet and have snow in places you never wanted it to be in to begin with- and that just makes the sting of the wind all that much worse. 

At least I know where all the bad New England attitudes come from though. It's hard to be cheerful when you're fighting against the winter six months out of the year.