Allergies are BAD!

So luckily—knock on wood—My fever hasn’t come back. Probably because my doctor called me in a Zithromax Z-pak antibiotic that I started the following day. So my allergies have been bad for about 2 months, in the summer its high cedar, and right now we are at record highs for ragweed. But, in the past week or so, my secretions have gotten very thick and have began to have “tickling” in my throat. My throat has been on and off irritated/sore.

I went to my internal medicine doc yesterday for a followup, and to try and get prescribed Marinol… which thank God, I am finally able to start on Sunday when the pharmacy gets it in and I hope it works ok on me. But anyway, while I was there I asked for some prescription allergy meds too. He gave me Allegra.

Well last night, all was fine, and then I was rolled over one time and started coughing. Well it made me sick and had to call for mom and dad. I threw up some and then you would not believe the amount of secretions I coughed up, especially after using my cough assist machine. They worked on me for 30 minutes! Luckily it didn’t look infected, but there was a LOT of it, and it was very thick. Not to be gross, but this is life when you have SMA. I couldn’t believe that all of that was in my lungs and I didn’t even realize it. So I guess that when I spiked the fever it was probably the beginning of infection in my lungs. Thank God I got on the antibiotic!!! So now, at least until the allergy levels go down, I take my daily Rhinocort Aqua nose spray, Allegra, and Mucinex… and have started albuterol and Mucomyst nebulizer treatments.

While I was at the doc I got him to sign all my paperwork to get my new wheelchair, now I just need to get the physical therapy evaluation done which is tentatively scheduled for the 21st. Then everything can be ordered.

I start my internship on the 18th, but am still awaiting more details.

My great news is… I have gained 3 pounds since September 1. Which is ironically when that endocrinologist pissed me off. Guess subconsciously I went in to full throttle of showing her that I do not have an eating disorder! I have been very diligent on counting my calories through www.livestrong.com and set a daily calorie goal. I try every night around 10:30 p.m. to drink an Ensure plus to top off whatever I ate, and sleep on the calories and fat from that. I have been eating things like peanut butter, and cashews which in small doses are still very high in calories. Whatever I am doing is working, it is very hard though and I still have “bad” days. I am hoping once I add the Marinol to my regimen that that will help me even MORE! At least maybe not make it feel like such an overwhelming task. Hopefully it agrees with me and doesn’t give me any undesired side effects.