good things that happened: one, i did not get squashed by a semi-truck. although one did try. my usual reaction when i see one of these things coming up the entrance ramp is to check for escape routes, because you never know. i wasn’t too happy with the space in the next lane, mercedes even with my back bumper, and by then mr. truck is weaving, no, veering into my lane. so i punched it and got well ahead of the shiny black mercedes in the next lane, no problem. the only weird thing was the total lack of panic. not even a flutter, in spite how close a call that was. but then, i love to drive, and this is why – i’m damn good at it.
so that was on the way to good thing #2, my real doctor. nice guy, really. i told him what i wanted (well, made the shape of a disk-type inhaler with my hands and he said, ‘Advair’ and i said, ‘ok, sure!’). and it came to pass that there is a study, and i’m now i’m in it! it doesn’t pay for the medicine (one hundred thirty six bucks a month, but with insurance, twenty-five, woohoo!), but it will pay me to fill out a form every three months.
and i will have wonderful things to say about this stuff. last night, though i woke up about the usual number of times, i did not have to use an inhaler once. this is like one puff every twelve hours and breathing the whole time. easy breathing. this is an amazing thing, really, if you haven’t been, then you are. i love my pretty purple new inhaler. adore it. cherish it. it rocks.
and dinner! i cooked, and it was … not bad! nothing caught fire, no one got sick, and we had a lovely evening. took my dad a few hours to get all the spam cleaned out of his hotmail account since he’s been away from the internet (over 900 of them) but i showed him how to ‘block’ the bad ones, that will help.
and look, they brought kurtwood a buzz lightyear blaster, which he then pointed at his grampa, much to his own, and his gramma’s delight.
their first and really only remark about my house: got enough computers? and i’m all, well, nooooo… but these will do. or something like that. it was kind of a geeky evening, really, with the kid showing off his video game prowess, my dad checking his email, and me surreptitiously commenting on my own blog (which i did show them! they were most interested in how i posted their pictures and a bunch of people made nice comments about them! maybe someday they’ll start reading this thing!)
mmm-hmm. it was a good day.
this is a study comparing the effectiveness to the other new medicine that comes in pill form (you would know the name better than i?) that is supposed to have the same effect. they have groups doing each kind of medicine and will be comparing how much it improves the symptoms.
and as far as that’s concerned, it’s night and day. and i’m on the lower dose, btw. all have the same salmeterol but the level of steroid, i think, is the 50.
i’m on my second puff (doing it at 9PM and 9AM) and it has completely freed me of my occasional need, during the day, to puff on the albuterol inhaler. i mean, completely. no chest tightening. no wheezing. just breathing. god i love this stuff.
Interesting…sorry to be so nosy! GSK is working on an enhanced version of the inhaler which hopefully only requires one dose a day, according to their R&D product pipeline. Pill form would reduce inconvenience to the patient by eliminating the need for carrying around the device. Huh.
Off to see photologs!
it’s pretty convenient to me, in that i keep it in my bathroom — 9AM and 9PM, i’m generally at home. wouldn’t want to carry it around, that medicine is more valuable by weight than gold.
I LOVE that the dinner went well, and I even LOVE that you’ll really miss them, and I extra extra LOVE that you are breathing.
Sounds like it went well. No terrible incidents. That’s good. The picture is a hoot (that sounds real cool, I know). With the Buzzgun and g’ma like “uh, no thanks…” Great pics. Thanks for sharing them!!
wow, i’m so glad you got in that study… and your new inhaler works so well for you… and you had such a good day. Yay you!
Glad it all went well, especially the inhaler!
the inhaler is making me very, very, very happy. there’s just nothing like breathing, just breathing, and not worrying about breathing. for 12 hours at a time. waking up in the morning, just breathing.
Ok, now I’ll ask the question I didn’t earlier…the thing was approved by the FDA in August of 2000, so how come you’re in a “study?” Is it a different dosage than the 50mg, 100mg or 150mg they already got passed? (Compulsive pharma researcher at work, that’s me…;)
Ah, I’m glad to hear that you can breathe a sigh of relief, always great to have a happy patient!:-)