multi-tasking

Hard to believe I started this posting a week ago (Wed 5/14/08). Sorry, been busy with lots of stuff. So, here it is...

I'm back at the allergists office. It's pretty cool, they have wi-fi so I brought my 'puter along. So this entry is coming 'real' time! Wahoo! (edit: it seems the wi-fi signal doesn't make it back into the exam room, this would have been posted much sooner otherwise).

It seems all the different inhaled meds that are super awesome for controlling asthma long term seem to actually make my breathing worse! Go figure. The doc wanted to try a new oral med which seems to have a side effect of possible liver damage. Uh, no thanks, especially since I have this nifty little thing called a focal nodular hyperplasia, it's basically a non-cancerous liver mass. I spent a bunch of time and anguish learning that they are typically found when looking at/for something else, oh hey, you got this thang in yer tummy, btw. One doc wanted to remove it, I went with option B, leaving it in place and keep an eye on it. Anything changes, it gets bigger, starts hurting, and we'll revisit it. Anyway, I'm feeling disinclined to take any meds that may adversely effect the liver especially when I don't take anything at all I'm feeling pretty ok. I still have to suck on the albuterol before and after I exercise, but that's just an as needed med. The meeting with the doc is to discuss this and see where we go from here. I'll let you know how it goes.

And now for something completely different:
Here's a link to something I saw on the J-walk blog the other day. It's a list of 20 Word Geography Facts That May Surprise You. I thought it was kind of interesting. And on today's J-Walk Blog I learned that yesterday (May 13) was the 50 year anniversary of the invention of VELCRO! How cool is that! I love velcro, the name comes from the combination of the words velour and crochet. Pretty cool.

ok, the doc really wants me to be on a long term anti-inflammitory. He gave me another new inhaler and another drug in pill form. I'm trying the inhaler first. So far, it's been a week now, things are working pretty ok. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Death & Taxes

A question just popped into my head: Do you have to pay taxes for the year in which you have died? Not you personally, but rather, your estate? I wasn't the excecutor for the mother's estate, I suppose I could ask my brother. After all, there were earnings prior to her passing. If you file a tax return for the decedent do you (the estate) get all the taxes you've paid back?

I received an annuity payment from the mother's retirement fund and hoped/planned that her house would sell before now, so I did the foolish thing and didn't have any taxes withheld. D'oh! I'm generally the one who files their taxes within days of receiving my W-2. Ever notice how you file early when you expect a return and late when you owe? Monday night I went online to file for an extension. Imagine my surprise when I learned they want to know what your taxes are in order to file for the extension! Well, if I knew that I'd just file, now wouldn't I ?!? Piffle, I might as well just do the whole thing now.

I had gotten my hands on the tax papers shortly before looking for the extension info so I was already a step ahead of the game. There are plenty of online services for those of us with relatively uncomplicated lives (fiscally uncomplicated, that is!). I happened to choose the H&R Block link for no particular reason. It held my hand and stepped me through the process quite nicely. At the end I learned that I had too much income to get the preparation for free. Well, $15 isn't so very much, fine, let's get on with it. My bottom line: I owe a few thousand bucks! Bummer! The online thing can get you set up with a nice payment plan with that automatic sucking sound that comes from your bank account. I think the government is more amenable to payments than an outright refusal to pay, so I opted for this route. The online thingy is all set up with the necessary forms for all this and then they electronically submit the whole she-bang for you. I got an email this afternoon stating that my tax return had been accepted.

Not so bad for having cut it so close to the wire for the first time in my life. Now if we can only sell the house, I can pay those pesky taxes off in full.

And now for something completely different:



I was avoiding work for a while today and came across this video and thought it was hilarious and felt compelled to share it with you all. It's entitled 'An Engineer's Guide to Cats'. You may want to avoid taking a drink of your beverage while viewing and I know of one person who laughed so hard it induced an asthma attack, just so you know it's just that funny.

perhaps breathing isn't highly overrated

Do you recall a time not so very long ago when I said breathing was overrated and had had an allergic reaction to my allergy shots? That event started the ball rolling to try to determine the cause of the cough keeping me awake at night. Last Wednesday, a week ago, I went in for a test to determine whether or not I have asthma. It was loads of fun.

I got to do the spirometry or spiro test many, many times; that's the test to determine the volume of air your lungs are able to move during inhale and exhale. It involves taking a very deep breath in and then exhaling until you cough and/or fall over, then you exhale a little more just to make sure they got it all, at least that's what happens every time I do it. I generally have really good lung function. Between each spiro I had a nebulizer treatment of something designed to effect my breathing and lung capacity if I did indeed have asthma. By the third treatment my volume had dropped by 20%, indicating that I do, in fact, have asthma. I didn't have to do any more of the negative nebulizer treatments, the doctor had all the information he needed.

Then off to a different room. A new nebulizer chemical, this one to reverse the effects of the last. In addition to restoring my ability to breath normally it had the unpleasant side effect of making me jittery. Followed by yet another spiro test and some hurry up and wait for the doctor to come in. He's worth the wait; he listens really well and is very compassionate. His attention to details generally causes him to fall behind schedule and subsequently they book him with fewer patients throughout the day. He's put me on a low dose steriod inhaler as a long(er) term treatment and albuterol for when things become exiting and I need help breathing now.

I think it's too soon to tell if there is any improvement, but I am hopeful. You can believe I'll keep you posted.