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Wow, what a difference 5 degrees makes. Running in 13 C weather? smooth sailing. Running in 6 C weather? HURTS. Now I remember why I quit cross-country ski racing and speed skating. But seriously, I was not prepared for the amount of lungular pain of today’s run. The phlegminess was also quite unpleasant. I went for my 5 km loop but I’d estimate I walked about 2 km out of that, which is a little disappointing. Still, I’ll find away around this chilly air. Hopefully it doesn’t involve pulling out the balaclava this early on in the season 
.
As a side note: I KNOW that we do not actually have pain receptors in the lungs. But it still feels like my lungs hurt.
My doctor’s appointment was wonderful. I’ve told you all how much I respect and appreciate this guy before, but he never ceases to amaze me. It’s just the way he asks me the most pertinent questions, looks me right in the eye as I’m answering, and never lets me go until he’s sure he has a full picture of what’s going on. I was really excited to tell him about my running, which he approves of. He thinks I should be asymptomatic after running (which I’m not), but he agrees that I know what I’m doing. At the end he said “well everything sounds pretty good!”. I smiled and said “I thought so too”. Yaaaaaay. The thing I appreciate the most is that at the end of each appointment, he asks if I’m happy with everything else, giving me pretty much the perfect opportunity to voice any other concern I may have. Only once, in a moment of sheer desperation, did I say that I wasn’t, but I sure do appreciate the gesture.
You probably could guess that I’m warming up my popsi-lungs with a cup of tea right now! It’s back to the studying very soon!
I’m having a hard time assessing how I feel. I know that I’m exhausted, but I have no idea why, I’m chalking it up to allergies and maybe staying out too late on the weekend. The lungs are certainly not optimal, but they’ve been worse. I just wish I had a bit more energy today.
I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon with my perfect family doctor. It’s just a check-up, as he likes to have these every so often, plus I’ll need some refills soon. I’m sure it will go well, I can’t wait to tell him I started running; I think that will speak volumes about how my asthma control is 
Then I have a running date with a friend, which I am still fully up for. It’s getting ccccold here, I’m busting out the gloves next time I go out.
How is everyone surviving??
My roommate has some sort of agreement with the landlord that he paints to subsidize his rent or something. What I didn’t know is that he is painting OUR APPARTMENT, TODAY. Thanks, I’m gone to the library. Also, this said roommate also inexplicably sprayed himself with Axe last night and then went to bed (?) I opened the door to my study cave only to be hit with this wall of disgustingness which wasted no time in tightening up my airways in a big way. So, I had to tame that beast before I could go to bed, meaning I got to bed pretty late.
But, in less complaining news, the microbio exam is done!! I was kind of nervous but when I was handed my exam I was like “oh yeah, I’m a science student, midterms are what I *do*” And I just did it and it was no problem. So in that regard, I think I have re-found my groove.
After class I will go back to my place just long enough to get changed into my running stuff and go for an easy jog. Happy Tuesday!
PS, my other roomie (the girl) and I still get along really well. The living situation is still all good, despite these 2 recent blips.
Gahhh longest day ever!
I can’t decide whether I have a cold after all, or if it’s strictly allergies. I’m leaning toward allergies seeing as I have extreme itchiness inside my person. That sounds weird, but maybe you know what I mean? Inside my ears all the way to under my clavicles, and my brain even feels itchy. The reason I thought I had a cold was because I’m so darn tired. Anyways, I am fine. Just a little weary, and itchy.
My lab took 7 hours today, on top of 3 hours of lecture. We didn’t get the results we were hoping for so I’m hoping we can salvage them next week. I just want to hop into bed but I’ve still gotta study for my exam tomorrow morning. If I can get through that, I’ll be golden. Ploughing on forward!!
When I got home today, I was a little overtired and I’ll admit a wee bit discouraged, and in my inbox was a birthday card emailed to me by my dad. He had obviously done it himself on the computer. It pictured a little girl on a scooter, with a nerdy physics vector going from 0 to 20 (my age). It said happy birthday Danielle and he signed it Love, Dad in his own signature, that he must have done on paint of something. And I started to bawl. Like seriously seriously cry. Sometimes the nice things people do just push me over the edge. Must get self together.
Hope you are all surviving the most terrible week known to asthmatics (there is a very real spike in hospital admissions this exact week out of the year) I promise to post again when I am a little less stressed!!
So I slyly mentioned my recent attempts at running and I promised I would write about them soon. Well today’s the day! Let me start from the very beginning.
While I was filling out the invisible illness questionnaire I realized that a lot of my answers hinted at my disappointment at not being able to run.
19. It was really hard to have to give up: Running in general
21. If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would: RUN
And then I sort of said to myself that if I really wanted to start running then I probably could. In the early days of this blog I wrote about my trials and tribulations with running (here) It’s not without good reason that I stopped running as a teenager, I was getting frustrated with having major asthma attacks and ending up in the ER after going for a jog. Needless to say, my mom wasn’t so keen on it either. BUT, I realized that I am older, I have better strategies for managing my asthma now, and most importantly there is no longer anybody to tell me which activities not to engage in. So, I deactivated my moratorium on running.
A few days after I posted said invisible illness week questionnaire I woke up and went for a run. I knew that I had to start slow. I went way slower than I felt I could manage, so as to properly ease myself into it. Really you would call it a walk-jog. I don’t think I covered much ground but the point is I had gone out running, used my common sense, and avoided making my asthma flare up. I felt so good that I went out the next morning, and the next. By the weekend I was doing real jogging, not wogging.
I guess it’s been about 10 days and I can say I might even be hooked. I feel better on days when I do go running, and I’m always thinking about scheduling my next run.
That’s not to say that I can ignore my asthma when I run. It requires lots of pre-ventolin (obviously) and I’ll often need to stop for a puff at the top of a hill or something. It takes a little over an hour for my lungs to feel as they did before the run, and often I’ll get a relapse of tightness an hour after that. But so far no major attacks and I intend on keeping it that way. I’ve been using a lot more ventolin lately, but it is for a very worthy cause.
Next big announcement: October 4th is the CIBC Run for the Cure, put on by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. My blog buddy Kerri is doing it in her city, and that got me thinking. My aunt mentioned she was thinking of running, which got me really excited so I signed up too. It is a 5Km run. I have recruited a friend to do a few training runs with me. I’m super excited! This is a really huge event in Canada, you can find one in most medium to large cities across the country and it raises millions for breast cancer.
My dad, of course, is absolutely tickled about all this. He runs half marathons. His advice? Don’t push yourself over the edge of your will get turned off of it again. Slow and steady does it.
There you have it, my secret revealed! I started to run again.
Guess who is a recipient of a 500$ merit scholarship?? ME!!! WHEEEEEEE! It just popped up in my inbox, I didn’t even have to do anything for it, except get good marks of course.
Admittedly, after my exercise extravaganza yesterday, the lungs were rough last night. It was worse than most nights and I didn’t get much sleep. Nighttime asthma symptoms are so much worse because a) they happen when you’re alone in the dark, usually disoriented from your half-sleep and b) you get so aggravated because you think you’ll never ever fall asleep.
I feel much better now that it’s morning but I know I’m tired because I boiled water for my tea this morning and then poured it over my cereal. Duuhhhhh.
Do I think it was a mistake though, to do a cardio workout yesterday? No, I’ll probably do it again next Wednesday. The endorphin high and the good I know I’m doing for my cardio-respiratory system were worth it.
Thursdays are my favourite day because I have genomics (my favourite class) and accordion lesson and highland dance! So yeah I may be dead on my feet but at least I have an enjoyable day ahead of me.
And did I mention my muscles hurt? Oooooww
