Today the doctor said "the blood tests from your last visit confirm it... you've got asthma." Wow. What revelation. Nice to know that a battery of expensive scientific tests can tell me something I've known for decades.
Something called the "IgE" count should be 25 or less for normal people, whereas anything 30 or over is a marker for the presence of asthma. Mine is ... 640. Yep, six hundred and forty.
Plus, my eosinophillia number, which also should be less than 25, is over 900. Nine hundred.
Between these two, the doctor concludes: "you have asthma". He put me through a battery of physical tests, breathing into chambers, panting and coughing into meters, a phone-booth contraption with ultra-sensitive pressure meters to check for chest expansion, peak flow measurements, etc. All pointed to the same conclusion: I have asthma.
The formal diagnosis on the medical forms: "ABPA, but negative RAST for aspergillus a.b." Prognosis: "Checking for other mycoses sensitivity and Churg Strauss". He explained that the latter is a wild long shot, but he wants to completely rule out the really bad stuff. Here's the kicker: he said his gut feel was the tests seem to be indicating that I'm ... "suffering from allergies". Man, has medicine progressed a long way in the last 50 years or what? Then, to put the icing on the cake, he said (get this!) ... it might be the cat. Yes, Faraday.
Holy cow, these medical professionals never cease to amaze me. It appears that medical science, by conducting expensive complicated tests, is confirming exactly what I put down on the questionnaire I filled out when I walked in there a month ago! Amazing. Very impressive, don't you think? Anyway, I have to go back all the way over the mountain to U.Va. sometime in the next 2-3 weeks for more blood tests, and his office will call me for a future appointment. In the meantime, he doubled my medicine, which doesn't seem to be working. I guess two times zero might yield a bigger zero?
Keep in mind, I did indeed tell him today, that just 2 weeks ago I hiked 14 miles at the 10,000 foot elevation in the Rocky Mountain National Park wilderness. He smiled, and said, "I'll bet this humid heavy air down here is a change from the air up there, isn't it." Ummm, yes. So....?
Okay, well, now I know: I've got asthma. An expert says so. And there's conflict in the Middle East. Is there anything new?
Maybe. This just in: A real strong thunderstorm storm blew through Weyers Cave while I was out, and knocked over the apple tree in the back yard, just outside Dubby's office door. It's broken off at the base, so it must've really been a heavy wind gust. Of course, we still have four other bearing apple trees, so the groundhogs won't starve. But this was one of the bigger ones. I'll have to fire up the chainsaw tomorrow, I guess. Apple wood is heavy.
In other news: a set of baby birds just hatched today in the robin's nest on the ladder hanging on the wall of the carport beside my garage out back. These kiddo's are about six hours out of the eggshell.
Here's a nice picture of the hazy summer atmosphere with some nice mountains in the background. Daytime temperatures here are in the 70's, nighttime 50's. Dubby has the windows and doors open. We are enjoying the summer. Life is good. Even with asthma.
2 comments:
When you sand and inhale asbestos at age 18 a a summer job (and the incubation period for asbestos cancer is 30 years), and you have had severe asthma, tuberculosis, and several serious bouts with pneumonia, it really does make sense to be under the care of a lung doctor. Even if you do have a rather obvious disdain for doctors in general.
I make you go because I love you, you old goat.
I hate doctors too. They think they're smart because they can tell you what you already know, but when THEY say it, they use big words. And when you want to know something you DON'T already know, they "can't find anything wrong."
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