In a nutshell, I spent my holiday in the emergency room of my local hospital. Luckily (?) I have spent so much time in this very place that I knew where the washrooms, blankets and drinks are to be found. When the nurse registering me asked if I had been to this hospital before I snickered and said "Yes. Plenty of times". I counted at least 3, maybe 4 surgeries in this hospital not to mention the countless other scans, x-rays and ultrasounds.. Good times.

Anyway, my normally dormant and mild asthma decided today was the day it was going to rear it's head to enough an extent that I would be forced to seek greater measures than my usual inhaler in order to catch a breath. This did not exactly thrill me since, though the healthcare is free in this country, it means spending hours upon hours waiting around in the hospital to see a doctor. Not appealing when all I want to do is sleep because I'm not getting enough air to keep me awake.

Part of the fun of this trip was that there was no one around to go with me to keep me company. My parents are out of town and my beau lives nowhere near here. I was on my own, but hey... not my first time alone in emerg. *shrug*

When a nurse finally came in to take my vitals and check my breathing it went a little like this:
(places stethoscope to my back)
"Ok, take a deep breath"
(I attempted to breath)
"Are you breathing??"
"Yes, I'm breathing!!"
"Ok, take a DEEP breath then"
"Look, that's as good as it gets, that's why I'm here"
"Oh. Well that's not good, we better get something for that."

What I got was 5 hours of sitting in a hospital, a dose of prednisone (a steroid), and many hauls from two separate inhalers, one of which tasted so vile I wretched and coughed for 3 minutes straight after each puff. I also got some chest x-rays and three prescriptions to go home with (more prednisone! lucky me! *ugh*).

Anyway, now I gotta take this nasty-ass inhaler every 4 hours and if I feel like I can't make it the 4 hours in between the doses I need to go back to the hospital. *snore* What fun is that? I FINALLY get a long weekend off from working my ass off all week and this is my reward??
*pout*

When I get my breathing back under control I'm going to post some pictures and stories from my trip out to the east coast last week. Stay tuned and have a great weekend.

oh and... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CANADA!!!