Dogs, Asthma and Kitchen Renovating...

Quote for the Day:

"Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong"

~Murphy's Law

Last weekend, I finally decided that I really wanted another dog.  In fact, I decided that I wanted another Boston Terrier now that Lady is no longer with us.  Yes...even if it means that I'm trying to "replace" Lady...I still want a Boston Terrier.  I decided that if we loved the new dog half as much as we loved Lady, the dog would be well-loved.  :)

So last weekend I started looking at www.petfinders.com to try to find a BT to adopt.

In the meantime, I had an appointment with my doctor on Monday morning regarding some shortness of breath, wheezing and coughing that had been going on since I had a cold the last week of December, 2011.  She scheduled me for a pulmonary function test, which I went to this past Friday.

Well, after the pulmonary function test we now know why I've been coughing and wheezing for 8.5 months...adult on-set asthma!  According to the respiratory technician doing the test, she said she could tell the asthma was very out of control by the way I responded to the breathing treatment she gave me half-way through the test!  And all along I thought the shortness of breath was because I was old and out of shape!  :(

My doctor started me on a combination inhaler and a rescue inhaler, and lo and behold...I can BREATHE again!  For the most part, I'm no longer short of breath and have only had a few short incidences of wheezing over the last couple of days since starting the combination inhaler.  So it wasn't just my being out of shape!  Who knew???

I am still coughing a little, but today even that is much less than it was yesterday!  Woohoo!  

Unfortunately, even with insurance, our monthy out-of-pocket expense for the combination inhaler is quite expensive, so I don't think we should take on the expense of a pet right now.  :(   That makes me sad.  But, "it is what it is".  

In the meantime, I'm reading all I can find online to learn more about asthma and how to keep it under control, triggers, treatment, etc.

It will be interesting this coming week to see how much easier work is when I can actually breathe!  I've been so short of breath for so many months now, that it had just become a way of life for me...like my back pain...it's just something that I was living with...dealing with it the best that I knew how.

Now, before anybody gets after me for not going to the doctor sooner...in my defense, the symptoms started off very light and intermittent and very gradually got worse.  I did seek medical attention at an urgent care in mid-February and got some treatment.  But once the meds wore off, the symptoms started coming back again.  The wheezing was only at night until about the beginning of July, when I started having it during the day, too...usually with activity.  With intermittent symptoms, it's hard to go to the doctor because you don't know if you'll be having the symptoms when you are actually there.  And frankly, even on Monday, the doctor didn't hear any wheezing but went strictly on what I told her, since the only symptom I had while in her office that day was coughing.  A chest x-ray taken the week before in the emergency room was clear, too.

And besides...I just hate going to doctors, anyway!  :(  


A couple of weeks ago, I was reading a blog by a lady who refaced her fireplace using AirStone wall treatment.  I had shown the pictures to Andy and we both said we wished that we had known about AirStone when we were trying to figure out what to cover the chimney in the kitchen with.

Since finally covering the chimney with plywood and bead board, we had come to another standstill on the kitchen remodel because we were not exactly sure what to do with the area/alcove where the stove sits.  

Cue the "tada" music...
We've decided to use the AirStone in that area!  

On the AirStone website it says that you can purchase it at Lowe's.  But after calling our local Lowe's (who didn't even know what I was talking about and it wasn't in their computer or on Lowes.com) I found a list of Lowe's on the AirStone website that DID carry it.  However, the closest one to us was in Uniontown, PA...about 1.25 hours away from us.

So today Andy & I took a Sunday drive to Uniontown and picked up the product so that the next time I have a couple days off (Labor Day weekend) I can get that alcove done and we can move on with the renovation!  YAY!

I'll be sure to take before, during, and after pictures so you can see the project and do the proper amount of "ohhhing" and "ahhhing"!  LOL  

Loretta