Breathing is not overrated

Apparently when I get a bad ass cold that's accompanied by a severe cough, my throat spasms and cuts off my air supply. This happened again a few days ago. And while this is not the first time this had happened to me; it is, however, the first time I have been utterly scared that I would not be able to recover my breath in time.

Fortunately for me I experienced an ugly episode just as I walked into the doctor's office. They were GREAT - immediately went into action, the doctor did not leave my side, kept speaking to me in soft reassuring tones telling me that it would all be ok ( kind of like the soothing and comforting sound of a calm airplane pilot during hard turbulence). In the US when I have been rushed to emergency due to labored breathing, the staff seemed perplexed and it usually takes them longer than I'd like for them to start any kind of treatment. Again, I was very lucky that his particular doctor, Dr. Brian, knew just what was happening to me and went into immediate action.

Once they got me breathing again, they suggested I go to a hospital to be examined by an ENT (ear, nose & throat) doctor and to be stabilized. I looked at Dr. Brian and asked him what other options did I have as I was terrified of going to a VN hospital (have heard way too many horror stories). He hesitated for a moment, before he told me he understood and said yes, you can stay here and we will have the ENT come after his shift. So the first thing was to xray my lungs to exclude pneumonia - once they knew my lungs were clear, they set me up in one of the emergency beds, started an IV ( apparently I was dehydrated too, although I don't know why, I drink lots of water), and gave me regular doses of codeine for the cough, intravenous antibiotics for the nasty infection causing my throat to inflame, a bit of valium to calm my throat muscles ( and me), and oxygen as the level in my blood was low.

Throughout the afternoon my episodes slowly lessened from 1 every 5 minutes to about 1 every 10 minutes then one every half hour and then blessedly to about 1 every hour. Around 5pm, the ENT arrived and gave me a through examination. He also concluded that the problem was throat centered and the treatment was to relax those muscles and to get rid of the infection. Dr. Brian and the ENT wanted me to stay the night so I could be monitored since I was far from episode free.

Even though I continued to improve with the episodes becoming less severe and less frequent, they were reluctant to allow me to come home until I was episode free so they kept me a second night.

Feeling much better. Still on a fair amount of meds, cannot talk for a few more days and feeling weak. Still, MUCH better.

Family Medical Practice is stellar. The staff was attentive, caring and professional...and they all speak English. Dr. Brian is from Canada...I'm a big fan now.

Peter has been more than wonderful: in addition to his own heavy workload, he taught my 15 hour class last week and taught 3 other classes from a new corporate client. Plus, he managed to visit me often and help me heal just by his presence. I am truly blessed with
such a wonderful man!