Best Laid Plans...

I can't believe I've flown to Michigan to help out my daughter and the grands but I am quickly becoming the problem and not the solution.

That sucks, big time.

I got adult onset asthma in my middle thirties. Went through a whole winter of one bronchial infection after another; eventually the wheezing started. At first I thought of it as an interesting phenomenon because the sounds emanating from my lungs were so many and varied but the progression to , "Hey, I can't BREATHE here," came all too fast.

That lead me to an allergist who, after a series of skin tests, declared I was suddenly allergic to just about everything under the sun including almost all the food I thought of as... nourishment.

So, from age 34 to 60 I spent a good deal of time is various states of distress from allergies and asthma. At least five episodes were seriously life-threatening but I had a wonderful doctor, Jim Clinton, who actually drove me from his office to the hospital himself no less than twice!?

That's unheard of but it's true.

In 2004 Dr. Clinton put me on a combination of Singulair and Advair. Suddenly my symptoms lessened until they were really no longer a concern. It was a breakthrough and I appreciated every breath I took.

When I moved to Florida in August of 2005 a miracle happened. My asthma disappeared completely. Poof!!? I still continued taking Singulair and Advair but for two years I never once had an asthma episode of any kind.

Then, however, I developed a chronic sinus infection. Some sporadic wheezing eventually began to occur; that finally lead me to an ENT specialist and, through him, an allergist.

I've been taking shots for Florida allergens hoping to stave off the dramatic episodes I too often had in Michigan.

I had barely stepped off the plane at Detroit Metro last Thursday when I started losing my voice. By Friday wheezing came into the picture. It worsened and I had to see an urgent care physician on Monday. He gave me all the prescriptions I thought I might need and even a script for a new nebulizer, mine being in Florida.

I have it all: Singulair, Advair, a weeks worth of declining doses of Prednisone, albuterol for the nebulizer, a rescue inhaler, and my allergy medication - Allegra D.

I fear it may not be enough.

Beckie and Dan get home from the international wind energy conference in the south of France late Saturday afternoon; Gret has three, count 'em three state final Mite League ice hockey games in Fraser Friday and Saturday afternoon with Grandma supposedly playing the role of Head Cheerleader??

I've got the urgent care physician back on my agenda for tomorrow hoping he'll throw some bigger and better steroids at me. A shot of Prednisone, maybe, as well.

I was scheduled to be in Michigan 'till the 27th but now I'm thinking HOME is where the heart is - and maybe working lungs as well. I'll try and change my ticket for a Sunday departure and head back where the molds and mites and trees have been kinder than these upstart Michigan varieties.

Keep your fingers crossed I get there without a stay at St John's Hospital. At this point I wouldn't call it a lock.