Struggles with Asthma

I am concerned about Michael's older sister, Anna. She had not been feeling well, went to the doctor last Tuesday, they prescribed 20 mgs. of prednisone and some antibiotics as well as a breathing treatment before sending her home. She has struggled with asthma all of her life. This year is worse than usual. She messaged yesterday morning that she was even sicker and heading to the emergency room. Apparently, she had been awake coughing all night and feeling worse than ever. Hmmmm, sounds familiar. My guess? Pneumonia.

After I got home from my day with mom, I phoned her home expecting her not to answer. My expectation was that she would have been admitted to the hospital. She answered. She was now on an increase to 40 mgs. of prednisone, a full run of azithromycin, was given a breathing treatment while she was in the ER, they took an xray and sent her home. I was rather shocked that they didn't process the xray right away and admit her. They told her they would call her today with the results.

The other clue that she has pneumonia is that she had lost eight pounds in six days. With prednisone on board, she should have had an insatiable appetite, yet she lost weight. She said the same words I kept saying when I had pneumonia, "I just can't eat."

Anna is two years older than I am and is considered by all her siblings to be the head of the family now. She is the person in charge of their mom. She is highly involved in taking care of her grandchildren and often has all three of them for the weekend. I have noticed that her health had disintegrated this past year. No one else seems to notice that this could be a very serious situation. We laughed together yesterday about the two of us being very strong women and our husbands so used to us being exceptionally active, even though we are not well. She laughed when she told me her husband asked her to cut the lawn last weekend. At least she laughed, which is more than I would have done! This was after the first round of doctors. And no, she didn't cut the lawn.