The Return To Innocence

*shrug*
both watson and myself (his asthma is chronic, mine is acute) use ventelin (sp?) which is an albuterol inhalor. two of my sisters do as well. i was on albuterol sulfate for a while, which was stronger, but it made me feel odd.
any stimulant will help in the short term, since they all act as bronchiodilators, but you must be very careful, since they can actually induce bad asthma attacks when they wear off. also, do you really want to be shaky and amped up all the time?
primetine doesn't work all that well, but it, along with coffee, is better than nothing. make sure someone shows you how to use an inhalor too--i didn't know and almost killed myself (the propellant is VERY BAD and you must give the thing a few minutes to re-equlibrated between puffs). if you have allergy-related asthma, you might want to go on zyrtec or allegra, something to prevent the attacks from happening. that's what i do, and i haven't had to use my inhalor in a long while. i always keep it aroound though because, well, duh...
oh yeah and make sure you are hydrated. sometimes swallowing a pinch of salt and then slowly drinking a full glass of water will be enough to curb the worst of an asthma attack.
take care, i love you!

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Funny you should mention salt...I do it instinctively most days when I'm excessively thirsty and dizzy. Drop a pinch or two into my 20 oz water bottle and sip slowly. It helps me breathe better, fancy that. The Primatene with the coffee did help, better than either would have alone. I have this instinctive mistrust of inhalers in general, so I'm glad you mentioned the allergy meds. For all we know, it could indeed be allergy related. I wonder if something OTC can help in the meantime--Claritn or Benadryl or something. I shall be keeping everyone posted. Love you too.

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try claratin, but get the 24 hour dose. the 12 hour stuff isn't strong enough.

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Yep! I'm on albuterol as a rescue inhaler...and it does work very nicely for me...the preventative meds I've been on (I REALLY wish I could remember the three the docs gave me when I was first diagnosed...I went through 'em right after the other 'cause they each gave me such bad side effects and then stopped working) have either worked, but the side effects were so much worse than the disease itself (anything that makes my heart race and makes me shake that badly isn't good...I was starting to wonder if I was gonna have a heart attack. BUT...each person is different...Primatene did absolutely nothing for me, but it works for my mom. *shrugs*

Research is always great to do...and if you do end up having asthma, find out your triggers as quickly as possible...the main gripe I have about how asthma is treated is that it the medical proffession tends to treat the symptoms with little to no reguard to the actual causes. GOod luck, m'friend!!

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isn't that awful? my boyfriend has had asthma his whole life, in the classic sense. mine developed over the last few years and is strictly allergy-related. but the doctors treat us the same.
*grinds teeth*

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Exactly. *shakes her head* They want to group everyone into the same mass and give the exact same treatment, reguardless of wether or not it helps. The system in this country is great for treating acute illnesses (like y'know...viral infections...and the knowlege of cancer and how to treat it has grown a lot over the past few years), and for emergencies (like injuries and the like), but when it comes to prevention and maintenance of chronic illnesses, they're terrible. I really think they focus too much on the symptoms and the one part of the body being affected, with little to no reguard to te rest of the body, much less their mind or emotions. Oh how I wish holistic care was covered through health insurance...

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My boss and I are in agreement there. I'm hoping my new doc will be open to the whole holistic alternative thing. I would not mind paying for a bottle of guarana myself if she said it would help...

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Very true...I want to see if a Chiropracter would help me...I still kinda shy away from acupuncture, even though I know the mechinisms and stuff behind it...something about the needles...even if they are tiny and don't hurt...*shudders*

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Acupuncture is awesome in my book. Yes, the little needles hurt at first but it is very worth it. It did save my legs from sciatica pain. My friend Danny is studying something called "psionic acupuncture" which is like doing it without needles, while giving the feeling of needle stimulation...he just presses with his fingertips and I get that little hot poke and then it's done. Maybe you could find someone up there who knows about it.

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I've heard of that...I know all about the meridians and how to sense the tsubos and stuff from Shiatsu, which is basically just a massage form of manipulating the chi and stuff...I think I just need to retrain my left brain a little into getting away from the "EEEEEEEEK NEEDLES!!" bit *G*

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Heh. Yeah. Needles bad! I think touch healing with color energy works for me, though, too. I tried some on my friend Andrew, who was a tad skeptical. He ain't skeptical now! I also tried it on my knee and I managed to dull most of the pain. I just imagined lots of white, blue, gray, yellow, a little red...it seemed to work.

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That's very cool, actually...I can feel auras...I've predicted when someone was gonna come down with a nasty flu because the aura around their chest shrank iin on itself and went cold...

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sometimes it is. mine (united) covers chairopractic and acupuncture. only up to a point, but still....

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Yep...mine covers chiropractic and acupuncture, but ONLY if reffered by the doctor...and the referral can be a REAL pain in the rear...

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ahhhh, i am blessedly referral-free. but i work in a hospital, so my coverage gets bumped up a notch.

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