You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October 2009.
Yup I caved and joined twitter. This is so I can log my runs and provide brief updates on my asthma symptoms. My username is wheezyrunner if you feel like following me but I doubt I’ll be that interesting! You can see my tweets on the left there.
As of Saturday morning, I am still healthy! I’m still being extra cautious, but my guess is that my previous flu infection is preventing me from getting sick. My roommate is getting over her flu symptoms but she really does have a bad cough.
I want to go running and I can’t decide whether to wait for the rain to stop. I probably won’t.
I was thinking the other day about all the things I’m impatient for, and there are quite a few of them:
-December 22nd, when I fly away home for Christmas
-for my hair to grow so I can leave it down without looking like a TRIANGLE HEAD
-for my police check to go through so I can start volunteering at the children’s hospital
-for my midterms to be over
While these are all worthwhile things to look forward to (ok, maybe not the hair thing), what I am getting at is that it’s important not to wish your life away. I am very happy right now, and having a great time going to school and being with my school friends. It’s really important that I don’t let these “I can’t wait for…” thoughts horn in on just *being*. Being home for 2 weeks at Christmas can’t be the sole object of my daydreams, that’s just absurd. So, I’m making an effort to recognize just how happy I am NOW and to take things one day at a time.
A breathing update: I have a harder time at night these days, but overall I’m breathing quite well. Actually I’m breathing better than I should today for such a wet day. I’d better take advantage! Have a great weekend!
EDIT: I’m SO happy I went running in the rain! It makes being cooped up for the rest of the day actually tolerable.
My roomie went to the doctor and was told she has swine flu and there’s nothing they can really do. That’s kind of what I expected but I feel really bad for her.
Going to class these days is a serious health hazard, everybody is coughing in those packed auditoriums. Nobody is willing to stay home because your life *will* end if you miss a molecular lecture. I’m only being mildly sarcastic -it’s pretty darn hard to catch up. It just feels like it’s all around and it’s enough to make my skin crawl. Taking microbiology at the same time as a pandemic is NOT helping my fears.
Everyone who knows me is pleading me -rather urgently – to “please, for the love of God Danielle, stay healthy”. I’m trying and so far it’s working, but I don’t know that there’s anything I can do other than wash my hands, carry hand sanitizer around and keep my distance.
My roommate asked her doctor, and she recommended that the both of us still get vaccinated even though we have both had H1N1 now. So, we will head out to do that as soon as she feels a bit better. My parents will be happy to hear this.
I wish, I wish, I had a bubble. I wanna go live in a bubble!
I’m a cougher. And I’ve had a lot of respiratory infections, viral and bacterial. I’ve often wondered how my parents can still love me after the nights I’ve subjected them to.
And yes, having coughing fits where you just can’t stop and where the phlegm is flying (or you wish it were) is pretty much unpleasant, especially when you’re sick and your ribs are on fire.
But my roommate is in this exact state right now, and I’ve learned that listening to someone cough like that is about 1000X worse than being the one who is coughing like that. I feel so terrible for her, and everytime she starts I think “is she ok, can she breathe, that must hurt etc”. It makes me really really nervous and uneasy.
In the midst of a real, true coughing fit, you really have no control over the reflex, yet it’s your body and something about that makes it feel like you are in control. When it’s someone else, it makes me worry, and I think that they can’t possibly be ok. It’s not that the noise bothers me, but I do find it very hard to listen to.
So, sorry all you people who have endured my coughing, I had no idea!
I had a phonecall from my maman and an email from my papa today, both urging me to get my H1N1 vaccine. It warmed my heart a little that they are thinking of me even though I’m out of sight. My question is this: should I go get the shot even though I’m as certain as you can be (without lab testing) that I already HAD H1N1 back in June?
I realized I completely forgot to mention what my time was! The official times are not up yet and so I’m not totally sure but I think I was around 1:05:00 give or take a few. I’m pretty happy with that!
That means… I did it!! I ran 10 km, I ran the whole way!! That in itself is enough to make me feel GREAT, but of course there were bumps along the way. I woke up this morning excited and breathing better than I had all week. Excellent!
The first 5 km were comfortable, I was battling with my own mind more than anything. I should have just taken the time to appreciate the beautiful day but instead I let myself get bored. The trees were gorgeous, the whole neighbourhood was a glowing gold colour.
At about 6 km, the wind picked up and we got out onto a main road. At this point I felt my breathing change and it got harder and harder to blow my air out. I really had to concentrate and focus hard to breathe properly, which, on the plus side, occupied my brain. The 6-8 km stretch was the worst, dyspnea-wise.
At about 7km I developed blisters and my shins got crampy. It seemed agonizing at the time, but now that I’m sitting here I can hardly remember what it felt like! I bet THAT is why people keep registering for races over and over again.
At 8km I felt sure I could do it. 2 more kilometers felt entirely do-able and I knew I could just bear down and run to the end. Then at 9km, I started to feel GREAT, I was flying! As I got to see the finish, with under half a km to go, I started running strong. I wouldn’t say I sprinted to the finish, but it was a pretty rockin’ pace! As soon as we got to the finish line, they fed us bagels and vegetarian beans!! Yummmm.
The only thing that really hurts right now is the arches of my feet, but I’m sure they will loosen up soon. My chest has gotten tighter since finishing the race, but I still feel pretty good! I’m perched on the couch at my aunt’s house right now, and I’m going to settle down with some studying soon. If I don’t move for the next few hours, that is fine with me!!
YAAAHOOOOOOOO!!!
I just completed my last training run for Sunday’s race. Seeing as deciding to run the 10k distance was a rushed deal, I haven’t put in the amount of training as I might have if I had had 6 weeks notice. Nevertheless, I’ve been running solidly for over a month and I hope it will be enough. Thanks to all for your encouragement! Here’s a brief look at this week’s training:
Saturday: 6 km
Sunday: 6 km
Monday: 15 minute swim (was cut short due to SOB)
Tuesday: rest day, too SOB for running
Wednesday: 7.5 km
Thursday: 3 km at tempo pace
Friday: 7.5 km
Now it’s rest time until Sunday morning!!
To be completely honest with you (as I try to always be) this week has not been optimal breathing-wise. I had 2 days where I felt too short of breath to exert myself too much and I’ve been pretty tight all week. To say I’m approaching this race with a little trepidation would be accurate. But, today I’m finally feeling better and I’m hoping that this will hold until after the race (and beyond!!). Also, the fact that I was able to train through most of it has given me a huge confidence boost.
I will of course give you a full race report sometime on Sunday. Wish me luck!! 
This girl has not yet gone to medical school, and she fully appreciates that her doctors have.
But sometimes, sitting at the patient end of things, I notice a couple of subtle things that my doctors could maybe do a little bit better. I’ve seen a LOT of doctors in my career as an asthmatic -walk-in docs, emergency room docs, family doctors, pulmonologists and anesthesiologists -and most of the time I worship the ground they walk on because they help me breathe and treat me well. Still, here is a list of things I occasionally notice:
1. For Pete’s sake, please introduce yourself to me when you walk in the room. First off, it would be nice of you to let me know that you’re the doctor taking care of me. Also, you get to know *every last detail* about me, can I at least know your name??
2. Please do not talk to me as if I am a baby. I know that you see a ton of patients over the course of a day, all of them having varying degrees of comprehension of their state of health, and you’ve got to find a “one-size-fits-all” patient jargon. But when I come to you as a 20-year-old who gives you a clear and concise description of her symptoms and who shows you that she is informed about asthma and asthma treatments, I would really appreciate it if you would tell it to me as it is. More specifically, if you could use the real name of medications/class of medications and tell me what you plan on giving me and WHY, that would be awesome. It really helps when your doctor shows that they view you as an integral part in attaining optimal health.
3. Please, please, please, do not tell me that since I’m not wheezing that everything is OK, or that maybe it’s not asthma. First of all, it is now well established that not all asthmatics wheeze, that wheezing is not present in every exacerbation, and that absence of wheezing after wheezing was originally heard can be a sign of a worsening attack. My pulmo told me so himself. That aside, when you say this, and I know that I am using my accessory muscles to breathe and speaking in 3 word sentences, it makes me feel like you are not paying attention WHATSOEVER to how my asthma is presenting, and it scares me. It also makes me feel like you think I came in for nothing.
I think that’s it. If every doctor did all these things, I’d be the happiest patient ever. That being said, most doctors do 
and I’m grateful for it.
