Solving the Mystery of the Aluminum Lungs

I went to the doctor yesterday.  Seeing the doc is always an ‘interesting’ experience in this part of Korea.  First off the doctors are generally not too comfortable using English.  So you’re often sent off with a prescription and little in way of explanation or advice.   I’ve been pretty much on my arse since March.  Going into ‘guy mode’  I put off seeing a doctor until my co-workers set up an appointment for me with a ear/throat/nose doctor nearby city hall.

I saw this particular doc three times.  Each time the diagnosis was laryngitis.  Each time the cure was three days of meds.  It wasn’t really working for me, and though I was able to communicate my symptoms, I was frustrated that the treatment wasn’t working.  My breathing was actually getting worse.  I’d get 3-4 hours sleep, wake up with tightened chest, cough it out for about 20 min and get two more hours of sleep before getting up for work.  I took preventative measures in the meantime, On a daily basis the apartment got cleaner.  I bought an ‘air washer’ to keep the apartment air cleaner.  Nothing helped.  Yesterday I went to another doctor, one partially raised in the states to explain my symptoms.

The doctor checked my breathing.  ‘Breath in’  I inhaled.  ‘Breath out.’  I exhaled.  ‘You’ve got asthma’.  The news wasn’t a surprise.  I come from a rural place in Canada blessed with clean air and water.  He told me the dust pollen and pollution was causing an asthmatic reaction in my lungs.  I got a prescription for a puffer and I was on my way.

The puffer isn’t so bad.  I take a hit in the morning and I’m covered for the day.  I still have a bit of a cough but after two days I can already notice a difference.  K had a hard time believing it until she went to Wikipedia, which states:

• Symptoms occur or worsen in the presence of:
  • Exercise  (No problem here  – but the last two months I’ve been shelved – can’t breathe, can’t exercise)
  • Viral infection (all this started with the flu back in March)
  • Animals with fur or hair (Gizmo!)
  • House-dust mites (in mattresses, pillows – yeah, I brought scary old feather pillows from Canada – soon to be destined for the trash bin)
  • Mold (We’ve had that in the apartment)
  • Smoke (tobacco, wood – at $2.50/ pack it’s not hard to find smokers in Korea – everywhere!)
  • Pollen (Pine pollen season – thanks spring)
  • Changes in weather (winter to spring)
  • Strong emotional expression (laughing or crying hard – K always accused me of using the coughing defense to get out of getting tickled)
  • Airborne chemicals or dusts (Yellow dust from China – Google it)
  • Menstrual cycles (mmm… no.)

We figure given my symptoms and my environment, asthma explains a lot.   I never really had any of the above problems back in Newfoundland,  for me this is a reminder that we are inextricably tied to the environment in which we live, and that maybe if we started treating it better, we’d start feeling better, emotionally and physically.   Anyways with the aid of my disc-shaped puffer I’m looking forward to feeling like myself again.