Allergies, Asthma and Ambivalence

Okay, so looking back I never should have started smoking, but I probably would still have some of the symptoms I am experiencing today even if I hadn’t. For the past few years my respiratory problems have slowly worsened and the past two winters I have had great deal of difficulty dealing with asthma and related symptoms.

My problems with my lungs began when I was a pre-schooler. First, both my mom and dad were smokers and the air in our house was often filled with a bluish-colored haze, especially if my mom and one her friends were having a gabfest. Now, I don’t blame them because nearly half of all adults smoked in the 50s long before the government mobilized against cigarette smoking in the 60s.  It was a part of their culture. Just look at movies or TV shows from the 50s and see how often of the characters light up on screen.

Smoking as a Sign of the Times

When the movie “Good Night and Good Luck”—the story of the confrontation between TV journalist Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy—came out a few years ago, a younger co-worker was stunned at how many of the characters smoked. I explained to him that that’s how it was back then. My parents sometimes hosted another couple for drinks and bridge. My older brothers would often sneak down the stairway that was partly enclosed to eavesdrop. Once when the adults were discussing the health effects of smoking, a woman guest exclaimed, “When I die, I’ll die with a cigarette in my hand.”

Also, when I was four years old I contracted Pertussis a.k.a. Whooping Cough. When I was an infant my parents had me vaccinated for the childhood diseases, but I later read that the Pertussis vaccine then was only 60-70% effective. So, when another kid next to me in the swimming pool threw up, I was exposed to the disease and caught it. I spent four weeks that summer in quarantine not allowed to go outside or have contact with anyone other than my immediate family. Even after I was released from quarantine, I still remember having violent coughing fits in the evening and night time hours for a few months.

In the fourth or fifth grade, a bunch of us began having smoking parties in a wooded area near the local grade school. Since nearly all of our parents smoked, it was easy to grab a few cigs from a pack laying around the house and head for the woods. I remember coughing at times but I also remember the buzz I got from inhaling cigarette smoke. Also, there was the cachet of danger in having these gatherings because our parents would have killed us if they found out.

And if that wasn’t enough, my lungs were also exposed to a lot of DDT when I was a child. The biggest public health scourge of the 50s was polio, a crippling and disfiguring disease virus that was thought to be spread by the common housefly.  Every couple of weeks or so during the warm weather months, a city truck with an insecticide spreading machine would cruise down our street spread a white, oily fog in its wake. And, that truck would usually  be followed by a crowd of kids on bicycles including me zigzagging in and out of the smoke.

When I Began to Smoke

I didn’t really smoke much during high school, but I did drink a lot during my senior year. But that’s a story for another time. During my freshman year in college, I took up smoking to relieve boredom while studying and help me stay awake during late night cramming sessions before an exam. By then I was 18, so it was all legal and I even smoked at home during breaks and vacations.  Another activity that encouraged smoking was frequent visits to bars and nightclubs. At that time, 18-year-olds in Ohio were allowed to drink low-powered beer and most bars, especially near college campuses eagerly admitted us. And drinking and smoking were joined at the hip and bars probably had the highest concentration of second-hand smoke anywhere.

I continued to smoke after graduation and getting married. The first serious sign that I was developing serious allergy problems occurred a couple of years after graduation when we unexpectedly met some acquaintances at the 1972 Kentucky Derby.  We planned to return to Lexington after the race and we arrived at their apartment  in Lexington around 8PM. We had a marvelous time, steaks on the grill, lots of bourbon and a very good time. Our hosts had two pet Siamese cats who generally stayed away from us while we partied. As we prepared to leave, I used the bathroom and noticed red blotches on my neck and face. As the bourbon wore off, I noticed these blotches were making me itch. I put a wash cloth soaked in cold water on them when we got home and by the next morning they were gone.

And Now Here Comes Asthma

Later that summer, we went to the wedding of one of my wife’s college roommates. The bride’s parents invited us to stay with them. They had a couple of pet cats and, voila, I woke up in the middle of the night with itchy face and neck and having trouble breathing. After that episode, I vowed to avoid cats and started using over-the-counter inhalers like Primatine and Bronc-Aid. That seemed to work pretty well for a couple of years. I thought I had things well in hand until one night in Indianapolis. I had been out drinking after work with friends. Pam was still living in Lexington to finish our lease and some job assignments. I awoke in the middle of the night and was having breathing problems, but I didn’t have an inhaler. At five in the morning, I drove to a 24-hour drugstore and bought an inhaler. I took a couple of hits from it in the parking lot and drove home and got a couple of hours sleep before I went to work.

About six years later, I contracted pneumonia for the first time. We had moved to Akron and then Cuyahoga Falls. I got sick in September on a very hot weekend. My doctor put me on antibiotics and Tylenol for the fever and told me not to go to work for a week. I got pneumonia two more times in the 1980s and several other severe bronchial infections. Once we adopted our son and I changed jobs, I finally quit smoking in 1996.

Treatment and Consequences

Now, 20 years later, it has caught up with me. I take four different medications for asthma and allergies and spend about $100 a month trying to control the damage that’s been done. I’m fortunate to have avoided heart problems and lung cancer so far, but as I sit here typing and wheezing with the latest sinus infection and bronchial distress, I wish I had never smoked or quit much sooner. 

Yesterday, I watched the first episode of the “Mad Men” again—one of my all-time favorite TV shows—and Don Draper was trying to save his firm’s best client Lucky Strike cigarettes from the damage caused by a government ruling that cigarette companies could no longer say their product had any health benefits. Now we know that cigarettes are linked to lung cancer, heart disease and numerous other health problems. Now cigarette advertising in mass media is virtually nonexistent because of government pressure. And the number of adults who now smoke is down to about 17 percent according to the Centers for Disease Control.

I’ve been to allergy specialists, pulmonary specialists and my primary care doctors. Each of them have given their best efforts to make me feel better, but with uneven results. Earlier this week I talked with my current doctor about my latest sinus infection and bronchial congestion. As he prescribed another round of antibiotics, he said the mix of drugs I was taking was about all they could do for my condition. 

It is a sobering thought that I may not have too many quality years left. I will likely end carrying an oxygen tank or air compressor to assist my breathing. I think it may be time to begin making up a bucket list. I’ll start as soon as I can find that Marlboro pen I got years ago.