Truffle in the front yard on New Year's Day 2019
Welcome the New Year
Wishing us all joyful peace
And prosperity.
This was supposed to have been my New Year's Day post, but life intervened, as it often does.
Like many, I am SO ready to leave 2018 behind me. This has been a good year in many ways, but also a tough year, and not one I'd care to repeat.
And it ended on a sad note, as within a short time we lost our papa Guinea pig, a duck, a hen and our original dove, GIR. Yes, they are "only" animals, but they were my friends, and I miss them. Especially GIR.
It has also been an especially hard holiday season for me because I've really been missing my sister Carol, my parents, and Ted, and I've been processing a lot of the stuff that I mistakenly thought I'd already processed.
But, as I've said many times, grief isn't something we finish; it remains an ongoing process.
And then, out of the blue, came confirmation of my ongoing gratitude to simply be alive and drawing breath.
It started innocently enough. Our vacuum cleaner jammed, and after removing what he thought were all the clogs, Marek discovered the mother of all clogs in a nearly inaccessible hose at the base. And, once the clog was removed, he started up the vacuum as I was bending over it assisting him, with its base about two feet from my face. Gee, thanks.
I was concerned that it would trigger my asthma, which has been making itself felt more than usual of late, but no, an hour later and I was still okay. I thought I'd dodged a bullet.
Then I decided to tackle some boxes of books, with the intention of weeding out those I'll never read again, making more room in my life for the things I really care about. Many came from my mother, others pertained to others I've known and lost, and sorting through them all was an emotional journey.
And a dusty one.
In all, I went through four boxes, and by the fourth box I was wheezing and had heavy, labored breathing.
I wasn't too worried, having had asthma for most of my life, went and grabbed some essential oils, and prepared to feel better fast.
Except that this time, although there was nothing unusual in the asthma triggers, the usual remedies failed to work. At all.
And then the coughing started. And I couldn't stop. And this is the worst part of any bronchial issue, because the constant coughing wears you out, makes it ever harder to draw a decent breath, and eventually makes you so tired that you just don't care.
In the end I did yoga breathing, as well as I could with the wheezing, rubbed respiratory essential oils into my sleep mask, and that allowed me to finally get some sleep, some four hours after I went to bed.
Obviously I'm still here, but that night, the night before New Year's Eve, scared us both. I felt helpless, because all the things I'd known to do for years suddenly no longer worked, and Marek felt helpless, as he really had no idea what to do to help me.
The irony of all of this was that, because I had had a couple of earlier asthma attacks, I had just found a portable nebulizer online that works with OTC epinephrine doses the week before, but had put off ordering it until we got paid. Big mistake. Huge.
Needless to say, New Year's Day found me exhausted, and pretty much useless. I got Lolo and the cats fed, but that was pretty much it, and I was really grateful to Marek for feeding everyone else, and grateful that he was home to do so.
I was unable to find the nebulizer and OTC epinephrine locally, but when I checked online with Walgreens, they listed Primatene Mist . . . and, according to the website, they had it in stock.
Primatene Mist? The OTC savior of asthmatics for decades, the one that just worked, right now, every time . . . the one they took off the market in 2011? It's back???
I should note here that, although my asthma was often debilitating when I was a child, and occasionally life-threatening, I largely grew out of it by my teens, and as an adult I may have had one or two attacks annually on average . . . until the past month.
I should also note that I didn't even know that Primatene had been taken off the market until last year, because that is when my last Primatene Mist inhaler finally gave up the ghost.
You read that right. My last Primatene mist inhaler, purchased before they were removed from the shelves in 2011, lasted me - and worked well - until well into 2017.
Not recommended, but there it is.
And I was incensed when I realized that it had been removed from the market, and even more irate when I realized that my only alternative, according to the medical professionals I consulted at the time, was inhaled steroids.
I was briefly given Advair, a form of inhaled steroids for asthma, by a well-meaning nurse practitioner that I had consulted after I was injured in a fall in late 2009.
Then I read the precautions, which included the lovely and heart-warming warning that, among the known side effects, was the well-documented possibility that using it might make it more likely that I would die during an asthma attack.
WHAT??? Are you freaking kidding me??? By taking this prescription medication, which is supposedly designed to control my asthma and keep me healthy and breathing, it may actually make it more likely that I'll die from an asthma attack???
Nope. Not with my body, thank you very much. I am not going to shorten my lifespan because some allopathic health care provider tells me that I have no choice.
Not just no, but HELL NO. There is always a choice.
Needless to say, I informed the nurse practitioner that I would no longer be using the Advair, tossed the damned thing, and as Marek's dad was on the same medication, we set about looking for alternatives for him as well.
One thing I've consistently read is that black seed, aka Nigella sativa, is effective in preventing and curing asthma, but thus far I've not found any references in exactly how to use it for that purpose.
I'm not sure if it is the seed, an infusion of the seed, the oil or the extract that is used, not to mention dosages and protocols, so if anyone is aware of the specifics, please drop it in the comments, and I thank you in advance.
Another thing I've run across several times is using a nebulizer to inhale H2O2 mist, aka hydrogen peroxide, but not the kind you buy at the drug store, which contains chemicals you do not want to inhale.
To nebulize hydrogen peroxide, you must use food grade H2O2 diluted to 3%, which according to the sources I've read helps to oxygenate the cilia, which line the interior of the lungs, to wash away toxins and mucus, and to improve lung function, with improvements sometimes seen immediately, and nearly always within a few days.
The proportions I've been given are one teaspoon of 35% food grade H2O2 to eleven teaspoons of distilled water. Nebulize as you would any other solution.
This was my original reason for wanting a nebulizer, as I always keep food grade H2O2 on hand anyway, and it seemed logical that it should work quite well, as one of the things that helped me in Florida was to take a few breaths from my Nitrox tank, which is aSCUBA tank filled with compressed air, with roughly double the usual amount of oxygen. Unfortunately, I hadn't purchased the nebulizer yet.
The nebulizer is now on order, as are a couple of different homeopathic remedies reputed to control asthma, which I have a whole lot more faith in than inhaled steroids, thank you very much.
I was interested, when I asked the pharmacist at Walgreens whether they carried any of the homeopathic remedies for asthma, and he did everything but roll his eyes, while muttering something borderline sarcastic, to the effect that they had no science backing them up.
I almost made a comment that he clearly needed to educate himself further, as there is a LOT of science backing up homeopathy, but he'd actually have to seek out studies from reputable sources, primarily in Europe, and not just American pharmaceutical company-sponsored pseudo-studies.
I resisted the impulse. I'm learning to choose my battles, I felt in this case that it would be wasted energy, and I was still too tired for that. I will, however, bring him a list of relevant abstracts at a later date. The rest is up to him.
I bought my Primatene Mist and went home, very grateful to have it once more, and entirely grateful to still be alive and breathing.
So how did I spend New Year's Day? Reading, watching videos on tiny homes, and pulling purple sweet potato slips off the sweet potato in question, and putting them in their own glasses in the window. Photos to follow.
The following day, I went to check the plants in the studio, to see if they needed water during our warm spell, and was quite pleased to see that our purple tree collard cuttings have mostly sprouted and are growing quite nicely.
Life is good, and getting better, better and better. ;-)
I am dedicating this post to #naturalmedicine, and to further this project, half the liquid proceeds earned from my post will be transferred into its account.
The photos above were taken by me within the past few days with my Samsung Note 8 smartphone.
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