KAYE'S TRAVAILS

I thought I'd get a little punny today. It's been that kind of week. My kids, husband, even relative strangers, have all urged me to visit the doctor, so I did. I called when they opened at 8 and got a 9:30 appointment. Which meant I saw the doctor at 10:15. But I had Sarah Atwell's new glassblower mystery for company, so that was OK and, frankly, only to be expected.

I've had a nasty, brutish, but not short cough for at least two weeks now. My old trusty asthma inhaler was taken off the market and the new one nearly sent me to the emergency room one night last week. I saw shimmers before my eyes, my skin tingled, and I started attempted to bring up a lung, or maybe my stomach. Each breath, each violent cough, felt like it would be my last--I didn't see how I was going to get one more breath. My throat was not gushing blood, which surprised me. I finally calmed my spasms with over the counter Wal-Tussin, but slept sitting up every night.

A day or so later, I remembered there was a bottle of cough syrup I'd been saving, mainly because it was such effective stuff, I wanted to be able to have the name of it in case I ever needed it again. I reached into the back of the medicine cabinet, dusted off the bottle, and read the date. 3/22/2001. Hm. I called son and daughter-in-law (both doctors) and asked them if I should take it. The answer was, "Yes." Their bottle is four years old, DIL said. It may not be as strong as it was when it was new, but it'll beat the over-the-counter stuff. The problem is, there were about four doses in the bottle. It got me through the weekend, with one dose to spare.

So, today, off to the doc.

After listening and looking, the good doctor started writing prescriptions. I asked him what I have and he shrugged. He's a very honest doctor. He wrote me scrips for my old inhaler (although the propellant is still different, so I'm not sure what that will bring--more shimmers and tingles?), cough syrup (a new bottle of the good stuff), steroids, PLUS an antibiotic. He threw the pharmacy at me. Which is FINE with me.

Anybody wanna arm wrestle? After just one dose of those roids, I'm feeling great!