Life As A Medical Anomaly Part 5

It’s been a long time since I have gotten to share my life as a medical anomaly with holidays and then a three week sickness that turned into the worst case of bronchitis with a touch of pneumonia.  Dealing with constant coughing and nebulizer treatments for several days was rough on my husband and myself.  It was rough that my husband had to see me in the type of pain I was in due to all the issues I was having.  Having asthma affects every part of my life even ones that seem like nothing to most, including spending time with family or not spending time with family, due to being concerned of one’s health.

One positive news is that after quite a few years I finally got what I been waiting for, for quite some time which is the date for my hearing for the disability.  I still have a few months but hopefully come May this hearing will go well and I will get a favorable decision.  I already know that I will be having to wait some time before hearing anything, but it is nice to finally come to this point.  In this part of Life as a Medical Anomaly I want to share more of the personal experiences that I go through when handling the health issues I deal with on a day to day basis.  Life is a constant change and dealing with the changing environment around you can affect how you handle this changing environment.

Even though there are laws in place to protect us from certain things it does not protect us all the time.  Smokers, even though they cannot smoke inside buildings or restaurants, still can smoke within various areas including outside of apartment buildings, which can cause someone with asthma or COPD breathing issues.  One thing most people don’t always understand is that there are many people with asthma that don’t always have attacks right away, they will happen several minutes or even hours after the exposure to the trigger, which is a common case in my situation with asthma.  This goes with both cigarette smoke and pot smoke, even though there are many that don’t have the sensitivities to pot smoke many asthmatics and COPD people have it with the cigarette smoke.  Many people with asthma or COPD have either what is called sensitivities which is being sensitive to certain smells and fragrances, or allergies where they have an allergic reaction to a vast number of possibilities.  Those with allergies can get tests done for regular and food related allergies, but those with sensitivities there isn’t a test on what may cause our issues, it is something we have to learn over time.

For someone with asthma it can be hard to explain the daily hardships and how asthma can be different from one day to another.  Dealing with chronic pain through different means can be a difficult thing to explain completely especially if you have various ones and they seem to be different levels day to day.  Personally, I deal with chronic pain with my hands and arms, migraines, and my feet.  Most of the time when I deal with the pain it is both my hands and arms or it is my migraines.  My migraines can come from having asthma attacks or just from random times with no meaning.  My hands and arms come from first my motor skill problem, which after many years of handling it in my own way has given me carpel tunnel and tendinitis, even with the braces I still get pain after a while from constant use most of the time it isn’t severe enough to bother me, but now and then I do have to take breaks from things.  My feet normally don’t give me too many issues unless I do a lot of walking and/or standing for long periods of time.

This just touches the surface of the personal experiences I deal with on having the variety of health issues that I face on a daily basis.  There are many good days, but there are negative days as well, no matter what type of day it is though I am grateful for God’s grace and strength as it gets me through each day no matter what it is health wise, and through that it is always a good day.  For those with health issues or if you know someone with health issues, be sensitive to not only their health, but their emotions.  Dealing with health issues even after long periods of time can be frustrating, annoying, and many other emotions and sometimes we just need someone to be there for us without the negativity.  For those with health issues never feel guilty for having to do or not do certain things in your life because of your health, it is important that you take care of yourself if you are to help others, and sometimes that means saying no to things you might enjoy or people you love in order to keep going.