Followup at the Lakeshore general hospital

Saw the lung specialist at the Lakeshore hospital yesterday.So the sputum test was negative. No bacteria fuelling me to be sick

However they did a plethora of blood tests before I left hospital last month. One of them shows elevated IGE's.  That means I show signs of being highly allergic.  Now I know I already have allergies, like grass, ragweed, trees, feathers, kapok, wool, tobacco, dust & dust mites, mould, and cats. That's what I can remember, there might be more. Could be I show signs of being highly allergic because I sleep with my cat and a feathered comforter and pillows. Could be that I show signs of being highly allergic because of the fungus. Who knows.

Now have to schedule an appointment with an allergist to get a skin test for Aspergillus, because he suspects I have allergic bronchopulmunary Aspergillosis

He's also having me do breathing tests and lung capacity tests to check the level of my asthma.

If I have ABPA, then I will need to take steroid asthma meds for life.  This isn't so bad except for the fact that I have osteoporosis and steroids are bad for my bones.

I did tell him about the 20 km 4 hour hike I did in Mauricie park and the 2km 1 hour down a mountain hike I took in August in Cape breton, to point out, that I was stunned my lungs were bleeding. I quit cigarettes back in 2006 and didn't appreciate that the doctor/nurses at the lakeshore gave me a lecture on my bad lungs, and telling me I had signs of heavy tobacco use for  20-30 years. That I am in good shape.  To his credit he never said a thing about my smoking and is actually looking beyond to understand why I landed in the hospital with an infection that caused my lungs to bleed.

Yay Asthma.

Soon winter vacation will be upon us. It won't be too soon. Toronto left a bitter taste in my mouth and I was sick for some time afterwards. I'm still clearing my lungs of mucus. It's weird because I hardly have a cough, but I'm still taking two swings of Buckleys "Coughs and Congestion" two to three times a day.

What I've found is it helps with the lung congestion a great deal, and instead of coughing unproductively forever, with the Buckleys I'm coughing productively very infrequently.  Of course not used to this so I skip taking a dose of Buckleys and then I end up with mild asthma attacks later on.

With this series of infections I've had coming back from Toronto I've almost emptied 3 x 100ml of Buckleys. I have 2 bottles that probably have 2-3 more doses left and one I finished already. Good thing I stocked up on Buckleys in Toronto before I got sick and then again at Walmart the first week I was back home.

Yes I *hate* Walmart for everything it stands for. Making poor people poorer. But I have to say, the meds that I can't find anywhere else I can often find in the Pharmacy at Walmart. Like Buckleys Coughs and Congestion when it was hardest to find, and Rougiers "Strawberry Extract", which keeps my tummy happy when it's unhappy.

I can't believe I fell asleep on my couch around 8ish last night up until midnight where I got up, migrated to bed and went right  back to sleep, even Toby crashed quickly.  I didn't wake up till 3:45 and then fell back asleep until the alarm around 6ish. I know I needed the sleep, I had one night this week-end I didn't sleep, though I took nap both Saturday late afternoon and Sunday late afternoon.  Finally catching up on the sleep I hadn't gotten since Toronto.

What's with the stinking perfume?

I've always hated walking into huge department stores that have their entire perfume section in front of an entrance and you have to go through the section if you walk in through that door. This is the case with The Bay, Sears and whatever Eaton's might still be opened.  The thing is, you can  go in via another door, which is what I usually do to not set off my asthma.

However what brilliant moron decided it was a good idea to do this at a pharmacy? If I go into many Pharmaprix' you need to walk through their perfume section to get anywhere near the prescriptions. I tend to hold my breath and make a production of it, to make people realize that it's really not cool to set people's allergies like that. The thing about Pharmaprix is that there is NO OTHER entrance that I can use to get to the prescriptions counter. I MUST go through the perfume.

Main reason I get my prescriptions at Loblaws, where I need not walk through perfume and set off my asthma.