Wow, your oxygen was 82 !! OMG...

My doc asked if I'd ever had asthma as a child.  I didn't, but I grew up with a lot of second hand smoke - and wasn't athletic either, so there wasn't that kind of stress, I was never very physically inclined.  The kind that could finish the race, but never win!

The funny thing is, for several years now, I would suddenly, out of the blue, be gagging on mucus, and not be sure where it came from, up (sinus) or down (reflux).  It didn't occur to me that it was from my LUNGS.  Back before that, before I first got the reflux diagnosis, I thought it was my LUNGS hurting - I am just not good a figuring out the location of my pain...

I had pneumonia back around 2002, and then the RA started to appear strongly  (as not just more body pain) during the winter of 2003-4.  I'm curious if there's a connection because of info I've read on the www.cpnhelp.org website.  But I had signs of immune problems before that.  I was diagnosed with lichen sclerosus back around 1995.  and the reflux a few years later... all downhill from there!  (Always was the wimpy one in my family! Physically I could never keep up, I was the one who got the music lessons while my sisters got dance lessons, or played baseball!  Hmmm I did mow the lawn, however!    :-) Thanks for writing, it's nice to know I'm not alone!

Thank you, I am doing well. I take Enbrel on a flexible schedule, and supplement with Celebrex, and an occasional Percocet on a REALLY BAD DAY.  

    I'm especially excited that, STARTING TODAY, I am counting down until retirement, 2 years away on September 30, 2013!   *(of course, I can always change my mind, but it's sure good to know it's not too far!

I don't have a rescue inhaler (yet) but have thought about requesting one.  Oh, yeah, and I'm probably watching my bone density go further into the tank - but if you can't breathe, think, move, what does the bone density matter.

I had an attach of SOMETHING over the weekend - was curled up in bed until 3 pm Sunday, after a wonderful day-trip to Syracuse with my husband on Saturday (did I overdo it? I really didn't think so ...)  Thought it was gall bladder, it was the right location etc. although i hadn't eaten anything to provoke it.  Then Monday before I got to the doctor, felt what was left of it move downward, though it must be another phantom kidney stone (been there, done that).  P.A. said, no, you'd be standing in agony over the toilet, clammy with sweat.  WEll, if "most pass with no symptoms" and some people have "agonzing pain" what is to say that some of us aren't something in between?  So, while I was there and she was going through all the past history (yeah, lots of tests, but very little to come up with), I mentioned my concern about the inhaler.  When I first started using it, once a day was enough, even though the directions said to use it twice.  If I forgot, I got VERY T-I-R-E-D.... like a clock winding down.  A month later, when I saw my doctor, he said, if it helps, use it twice a day.  So I did, and that seemed OK ... but NOW if I forget, I feel it within HOURS.  And if I go to bed without remembering, I have waken up crunched in my mid-section, like someone has kicked me in the stomach.  Well, the PA said, "That doesn't make any sense.  It's a pulmonary anti-inflammatory, not a rescue inhaler.'  to which I said, I Know, but that's what happens...maybe it's 'treating' something else, actually?  Or have I somehow come to depend on it in an unhealthy way?  (i.e., taking steroids can decrease your body's production of it?)  it's not supposed to be systemic, but I've been told that before, for a 'topical prescription/ that ended up having an unexpected side effect.  So - we are just waiting and watching.

Oh Gosh No! 

Actually, I 'd been thinkiing about asking him ... but it wasn't him I saw, and that particular P.A. is always talking herself out of prescribing anything...I always go with mixed feelings, but sometimes it's necessary to see SOMEBODY.