Hello to all my wonderful friends and new members...
Sorry I havent been around as much.....read over a few posts but the health has had better days...
I went in today to see my asthma/allergy/immunologist doc. Needless to say I was hoping to come out with the answers for my allergies and not lung disease.
The nurse stuck some long swabs up my honker for the allergy testing. Then the fun began....not.
This doctor was so wonderful. He knew all about AS. You see I kept failing miserably with the spirometer [breathing] test. I finally passed. He was shocked. I felt like a little scientific experiment. He said normal breathing is at about 100-109%. Mine was at 155 and the last one which is usually much less was at 165%.
He believes I have not been treated properly and have Ankylosing Spondylitis lung disease. He said with a regular person you expand your lungs and ribs easily..with a person with AS our ribs push out faster so we can hurry up and get the breath out. So my breathing is much stronger but it does not sustain. I could barely get it past 3 1/2 seconds. I finally made it after 5 tries to 6 seconds!
Of course I was the bizarre one. I thought surely he'd find my allergy. They pricked my arm about 60 times...and I am not allergic to ONE single thing. Not cats, dog, cedar, ...not even HAMSTERS! AND I only had one cell that was an infectious one. I forgot what he called it. He was showing me under the microscope.
Remarkably my sinus xrays came out normal he said. He was so stunned he had the nurses come in so he could explain my disease and they were shocked. I thought "cant I just get a better allergy med or something?" So he is upping my protonix to 80 mg...I take it 1 hr before breakfast and 1 hr before dinner. He wants to keep me on the advair and singulaire. He thinks the singulaire is masking my asthma right now. I told him I had gone to see a pulmonologist. Well he had a degree that said I THINK immunology rheumatology. He said he did his internship in it so he knew all about AS.
I see him in 2 months. He wishes I had been sent his way much sooner. I wish I had too. Does anyone here suffer from lung disease due to the AS monster? I have a knot in my throat. I have had so many problems breathing and it scares the heck out of me. I want to be around for my children and not breathing right is something I just cant ignore like my other AS joint pains.
Any input would be appreciated...I am trying to keep my chin up but I never thought at 38 I'd have the AS monster on my back so much...
Buggy
