TheNOLAMan

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You must have tons of money..... Plus you are making ZERO sense....

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No I just travel on the cheap. Plus that's why I've been so devastated. I want to be able to travel to a lot of these overseas and exotic places when I do get the money. I will say I have saved over $6,000 for my next overseas trip and yet I don't know if I will ever be able to do it.

I've mostly traveled domestically, to Canada and to the Caribbean. I've been to Europe twice. That's why it hurts me so much, there's so much more traveling I want to be able to do.

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does this only happen when you're on a plane?

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Yes for the most part.

Now I will say in hindsight something I didn't think about before, my asthma had been acting up on me a week or two before that flight. Enough to where I went to the ER for a breathing treatment. I think my asthma is in much better shape nowadays, especially through working out. Obviously my asthma acts up at times but nothing too serious. The plane situation was by far the most serious, probably because mentally I knew I was trapped and there was nothing I could do about it. I have no evidence that it would happen that severely again as long as I'm taking the proper precautions.

I don't doubt a big component of this is mental and it's obvious now that I need to see a therapist or psychiatrist.

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they took boats

bitch could take cruises and see all those places

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You do realize not all of us have indefinite time off right? I consider myself lucky in terms of time off and I only get 5 weeks off a year. Do you realize how unfeasible your plan is? It would take me 2 weeks just to go to/from the destination.

There's a reason people fly and don't take boats overseas anymore. It's beyond an outdated mode of transportation.

And I've never been one who could do one vacation a year. I like taking vacations every 3 - 4 months.

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I don’t understand the emphasis on flying. Just make a decision to never fly again and it sounds like instantly your life will improve.

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With all due respect that's a pretty arrogant thing to say. You have no problem flying. Truly think about it, what if you could never fly again? What if you could never visit some of the places you wanted to go to? What if you could hardly ever visit family again because you would have to drive and not fly?

Can you not see how limiting that would be? How small your world would become? It's not about the act of flying, it about the idea that without being able to fly my world becomes very very small. It's about what not being able to fly takes away from me.

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You come on here basically not thinking it’s worth it to be alive, yet all you seem to talk about is flying.... if you are flying all these places you must NOT be in that bad of help... sorry to ask but are you depressed about not being able to fly, or are you really as sick as you say?????

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I am depressed about both but the flying aspect is what really put my depression into overdrive the last few years. As in being at least somewhat depressed the majority of the time.

To recap I suffer from the following things:
High Blood Pressure (under control through medication)
Eosinophillic Asthma
Allergies
Depression
Anxiety
GERD
Hemorrhoids

So I think its both my physical ailments and what I think they mean for my life which is what causes me to be depressed. And I don't doubt the depression makes them worse. They get to essentially tag team me.

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you don't have anxiety of flying you have referred anxiety because that attack where your throat got too dry happened on a flight. You are actually anxious that the same thing may happen again. And you were on a plane when it happened. So your brain now associates flights with that same attack. If it would have happened on a train or on a bridge you would associate it with that.

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Interesting. Wish my therapist would've brought up that concept. She never did. So you think my brain has just screwed with me because it associates flying now with asthma and potential death? So how do I change it? How do I make my brain realize flying isn't going to kill me?

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Are they saying you're having panic attacks? I have anxiety and had a killer panic attack a couple of times, one of which lasted about 3 days. Felt like I couldn't breathe, but cardiovascular was working fine. I was basically hyperventilating trying to catch a breath perpetually.

Anxiety is not logical. That took me a long time to accept and understand. One of the things the docs did was measured my O2 saturation in my blood. If your blood is properly oxygenated, you are medically fine and you're having a panic attack. I don't and didn't have stressors in my life in particular. I learned some things that set it off. Caffeine sets it off and certain food groups do it. Flying does it and so does being in confined places that I can't control and being on a cruise ship does it too. Depression and anxiety are common to experience with each other.

I'm not dismissing the asthma aspect of it, but it is possible you're experiencing panic attacks and not able to differentiate between asthma and a panic attack. I won't pretend to know the asthmatic side of it, but I really thought I was going to die the times I had a panic attack. Even blacked out at one point because I was hyperventilating but didn't understand that is what was going on.

From my end, anxiety is a bitch. I am able to manage my anxiety without taking meds, but it's mentally defeating some days to where all I want to do is lay around but you can't do that.

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So what both my primary care doctor and pulmonologist (of course he doesn't take a lot of time to listen, I think he just tries to get through patients as quickly as possible) have told me is that they think it's a little bit of both.

I am someone who on an airplane loves to have the air blowing at maximum right in my face. I noticed that during the flight my throat dried out really bad. As in like it was hard to clear my throat bad. They think my throat drying out caused me to have an anxiety attack and that due to the anxiety attack the asthma reacted with physical symptoms. Luckily I made it but I was on the verge for a few minutes of doing the same no one ever wants to do. Going to a flight attendant to ask them if they could find out if there's a doctor on board.

So essentially they think it's the anxiety that actually causes the asthma and that if I keep the anxiety under control the asthma wouldn't act up. That's why the doctor told me to take 50mg of Prednisone before flying as well as 0.25mg of Xanax. Now given he wants me to eventually lower the doses of Prednisone as he says Prednisone at that strength isn't good over the long term. In the few flights since then I've take several bottles of water on board with me. I just try to constantly drink so that my throat doesn't dry out.

But why would this just happened? Until 2 1/2 years ago I never had any issues flying. I was never afraid of flying, in fact I enjoyed flying. So why would my body start rejecting it so immediately?

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I know this feel bro!

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It's definitely a disheartening feeling. Even though I will say ironically since COVID starting I've only had one period of around 5 days where I felt completely like crap. Honestly I've been doing okay.

I realize just how much my Asthma keeps me back when I do Orange Theory workouts. Everyone else in the gym can almost run at will without stopping on a treadmill and me after a few minutes I need to walk for a minute or so. I will say I've gotten my treadmill 30 second all out speed to 10.2 but it still seems like a hollow victory. I usually have to shut it down at that speed after 20 seconds whereas everyone else can keep going and make it look easy.

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Sounds like your attitude is making your pain feel far worse.


Try seeing a counselor or psychologist. Get around and be social, be around people as much as possible.

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I wish it was that simple, I really do. How am I supposed to get around and be social when COVID still has people afraid to leave their homes? Heck I'm one of the brave ones, I've tried not to let COVID cause me to live in fear.

I'm furloughed right now with no idea when my job is coming back. I did take the opportunity to drive a few places. But it's not like it's easy to meet people right now. And if I get one of my Asthma coughs everyone will just run away assuming I have COVID.

I honestly was trying before COVID. I was working out and even joined a social corn hole league. I think this year has just knocked me down that much more.

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I have a great life.

A year ago I had one hemorrhoid and it was painful, humiliating, and took over my life for two weeks.

Get that taken care of quickly. Even of surgery is needed again!!

2 Sugar free fiber gummies a day for the win.

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I'll admit, mine aren't even that bad. If it happens I use baby wipes for a few days and maybe a suppository and it calms it down. It's more embarrassing than anything. I tried the Hemorrhoids banding procedure, that didn't do anything.

But seriously, what freaking person in their mid 30s has hemorrhoids? That's supposed to be a 50 and up issue. That part gets me down.