"Rising Sun" Land is COLD!!

I'm back home in Japan, Nishio, and got back asthma too. Gosh, nothing like not being able to enjoy all the welcomings back, and not being able to talk up a storm. I've been sort of hiding from people.

Oh, and the COLD! Goodness, I TRY to think it's not that much colder than Santa Cruz, but I've become a sucker for heat now. No, Ih ae to admit, I'm a WIMP in the cold now. (God, I know- it comes with age!!) It's no longer like the days (at boarding school) when I would turn off the heater and OPEN my window a bit so I could smell the refreshing snowy winter air in the mornings!!!



But here at our school, and home things have pretty much managed well without me managing things!! See the beautiful sign Mr. Murakami-friend- has "renovated" and added a roof and light to for our school?!


Teacher Giselle has been a biggy "holding down the fort". And she was just able to get a three year visa! Which she just might be able to fully use with us? Or she'll be saving to have her - I think it's five dogs now- and at least seven chickens to fly anywhere away with her. Giselle and her husband came with two dogs, and have a philosophy about how come they can't say no to having other animals join them. Perhaps buying an ark- boat to get back to Canada would be more reasonable price-wise? Especially considering that within three more years- how many more animals might find their way to their doorstep.

So, yes, otherwise I'm not too much out and about yet. I've taught a few classes...but it uses up my energy!! It gets difficult to breath, so I have to use those amazing inhalers that open your brochial tubes right up so I can breathe normally within seconds. However when you use them too much, which is what is happening, messes up my lungs and then I start to wheeze and cough, and get nasty breath. Oh, not just that,
I won't be able to laugh without coughing, and that coughing gets worse if I can't stop using the inhalers. I'll start to cough up the nastiest crap...so that's happened when I've put off going to the hospital after four or five days of this.

At the hospital they give me some steams-medicinal- to breath. Then an IV for a couple of hours. I leave there feeling better, and usually keep getting better from there. Last winter? I did have to go back to get a second dose of that routine within a couple days of the first. That worried me.

So, also I have to try to clean out my house of dust and try NOT to get too tired again, or breathe that dust while vacuuming. I'm not hesitant to wear face masks outside now- even on the planes I'm wearing them now.

Allergies to dust and the cat...and now too there's some pollen in the air that people are allergic to, me too likely. But the houses closed up to keep out the cold, and the kerosene heaters that "hurts" some of us more sensitive people!

But it is about hyperventilating. Too much air in the lungs, and the bronchial tubes start to close up to try to STOP more oxygen coming in and to get more CO2 build up in there. (that's why people used the paper bags it appears- and how I feel facemasks help, by keeping some of that CO2 ready to be breathed back in)

I did study with people from a group called KickAsthma (1 1/2 hrs for $100. They have a website thougy the one I found is for kids it looks like) and they use a Russian breathing technique in their hospitals to avoid taking drugs, for the last 50 or 60 years.

It totally works, I had one attack I had to work through without an inhaler and I did it using their technique. At a time like that- you feel SO close to dying.

I haven't practiced their techniques. So...with all the "triggers" (cat, dust, cold, weariness, hayfever, foods...) it can start. One thing I have mastered is to only breath through my nose. (Mouths are for eating and speaking, noses are for breathing- and takes in smaller amounts of oxygen, besides filters, and warms the air...it's job). I learned by taping my mouth shut at night so as not to breath through my mouth when sleeping (they recommended that! and even gave me the tape!!)

O.k., enough on that subject. I am using the drugs to help. What's this life without all the drugs everywhere eh?! My Grandmom is so cute, I ask her about some things I question the safety of her using, and she has said "Well, I'm 88 years old and it hasn't bothered me!" I have to admit- yes- certainly seems so (her mom lived till 94). My Grandmama is so WITH it!! She's so cute when she says things like "That's just NASTY".