A sinus revelation- brought to you by Mom

I was mentioning to my mom that I keep getting these mini-colds. It seems like I’ve had a million lately! And, how I constantly feel like I’m on the verge of getting a cold. I’ve complained multiple times about the fact that my right ear has been blocked for the better part of a month, and that my nose bleeds daily. (Gee, sounds like I do a lot of complaining. I’m sorry Mommy)

Anywho, all of these things are pretty annoying but really nothing more than that. As my mom was piecing it together, she says “Honey, that’s no cold you’ve got there. Either your allergies are worse than you thought, or your sinuses are otherwise messed up” And then I kind of though, oh duh of course. I had been sort of thinking of the stuffed nose and the nose bleeds and the ear blockage as separate annoyances but I guess maybe I need to get on top of my allergies a little better? And I thought I was too smart to get caught in the cold/allergies conundrum.

I am predictable

I think I mentioned before that it’s practically impossible for me to go home after exams and not get sick. It’s like my brain tells my immune system “It’s OK, you’re at home now, your maman is right here to take care of you, you can take a break”. And this year has been no exception. I woke up yesterday with a sniffely cold, which means I decided not to go skiing. It was -25 C anyway so my dad decided not to go either. Oh well, nothing has been ruined, I stayed home yesterday and jammed with my brother ALL DAY. It was so good.

Today is the tourtiere cook-a-thon, then a skate (wooot!) then visiting then midnight mass then TOURTIERE feast yummmmmm.

Merry Christmas to you and yours, I very much hope you are sharing it with special people.

SHAMELESS BLOG FOOD THEFT

So Amy gave Kerri some Blog Food, and now I am stealing this Blog Food and writing about it. It’s a good topic, and hopefully it will be helping Amy out (and any others parenting little lungers). The topic in question is:

what you find hardest about taking care of your own lung health, what’s most challenging as a hs student? College? What your parents still help with/what you wish they’d help with more—can you sense my ulterior motive here

I’ll tackle these systematically.

Hardest about taking care of my lung health: deciding which step in my action plan to step to. It’s not that I don’t have a well-defined action plan, or that I haven’t discussed this endlessly with my doctors, it’s just that I have a hard time perceiving whether or not I’m “bad enough” to take a certain action.

In high school the hardest part was: seeming normal and cool. I kid you not. I went to an extremely small high school, where teachers knew everything about you and you knew everything about them. My class (14 kids) was extremely tight. I felt pretty self-conscious that every last person in the school could recognize me by my cough alone, although I dealt with this by laughing it off and letting a joke be made of it. I didn’t like slipping in late to class after my 10th appointment in a row, or explaining why I had been absent for a week. Although it’s not rational, these things WILL bother a teenager. I think it’s important to validate the feeling a little if your kid is struggling with their asthma image.

In university the hardest part is: Getting enough study time when I’m flaring is a big one. I deal with this by allowing for more study time than I need so that I can afford to flare (wow that sounds sad). Like I mentioned above, just learning to perceive how I’m breathing, what I need to do, and then convincing myself to actually do it.

What do my parents still help me with: Well, I don’t live with my parents 8 months out of the year, so they don’t do a whole lot at this point. I know I can always call my mom if I’m worried about my breathing and need to discuss what to do. Usually she’ll just tell me that it’s OK to start pred/go to the clinic/hospital etc and this is just the nudge I need to take action. When I’m at home during breaks, my mom helps me out just by doing supportive things if I’m flaring (from getting me a glass of water, to picking me up from work, to driving me to the ER, you get the idea). Although my dad is a supportive guy and interested in my health, my mom got stuck on asthma duty at some point in time and it’s never changed.

What I wish they’d help me with more: Umm, I wouldn’t mind if they took care of my medication co-pay. Even with my student insurance, asthma meds can add up. Oh, adulthood… Other than that I’m at a point where I’m perfectly happy managing my own health. Not that I like it, but it makes me feel like responsible and I’d probably despise it if I had someone looking over my shoulder.

Another note: I acquired the responsibility of scheduling doctor’s appointments and noticing when I needed refills in about 10th grade. When I learned to drive, I was allowed to go to my “minor” appointments alone. I think this is a perfect time to start doing these things as you’ve still got your parents around as a backup.

Soooo, as another young adult, I think Elisheva should tackle this one next!!

Warming up to winter running

Hello! C’est moi! I thought I’d post a little running update for those interested. Recently, it became winter, which has meant I’ve done some adjusting.

First of all, I’d say I run about three days a week now, as opposed to the five days I did during the fall. This kind of sucks and I should try and get myself out more, despite the lack of sunlight and the colder temperatures.

The cold air is an issue. I’ve discovered that around -10 C is about the coldest I can run at. I have an awesome lycra neckwarmer thing that I pull up to my eyeballs and it really helps. It does get a little hot and moist in there though. I’ve been running 3 km at a time, which considerably less than I had worked up to in the fall, but is about as far as I can go without my lungs protesting and burning.

The snow is not an issue. The sidewalks are either plowed or salted and so far there’s rarely ice on them. I do need to pay a little more attention to my footing these days though.

Rather than being disappointed with my reduced running frequency and distance, I’m just happy that I’m getting outside and exercising rather than staying inside in my pyjamas all day (which is quite easy to do during winter exam period). Also, I’m super stoked that my lungs have actually been extremely cooperative lately. So yay for running.

My dad and I are looking forward to running together when I go home, but the weather there is extremely cold and dry out there (think -35 C) so we’re just going to have to see.

LWTL is one year old today!

Yep, it’s my one year blogoversary! I remember starting this blog last year during exams, I was in much the same position and frame of mind I am in now. I have no idea why I just decided to start it up one day but I’m glad I did. I can’t believe I kept it up for a year, that I was able to write about breathing for a whole year! Thanks to everyone one who reads and to those who faithfully comment and offer advice!

You know one thing I like about asthma blogging? It makes me accountable, and makes me take better care of myself. I stopped doing really dumb stuff that might cause me to have an asthma attack because I think about how embarrassed I’d be to have to say “oh yeah, I just got back from the hospital because I decided to go to my friend’s horse show”. (Ok, I never was so dumb as to go to a horse show, but you get the picture). 

In other news, it’s only six sleeps until home! Two more exams to go, Saturday and Monday. I’m feeling pretty good about these exams but have lots of studying to do yet. It’s verrry snowy here but when the sun shines I take a break to go running. Running in snow is like running on the beach: although the snow is packed down on the sidewalks, I still feel like I’m going at half speed but getting twice the workout!!

Breathing is still VERY good. I think I mentioned that I increased my inhaled corticosteroids so I’m at two puffs of symbicort and two of pulmicort twice a day. It’s really doing the trick, I think. I feel way less twitchy these days. Whenever I up my inhaled steroids, I get a sore throat. After the last time this happened I improved my routine so that I always brush my teeth after I take my puffers and I’m doing a good job of rinsing, but it’s still happening. Any other suggestions to minimize this? Anyway, I’ll take this scratchy throat over unpredictable breathing any day.

Oh yeah, and it’s six sleeps until home!!

Great run!

The sun is shining today and I needed a study break so I headed out on my 3 km loop. I’m a teeny tiny bit sick and a little congested and I honestly expected to have to stop and walk… but I did not! If anything I feel better now than before I went out.

Other than that, nothing is new. I studied cellular physiology and genomics this morning and this afternoon/evening is devoted to microbiology. At some point I have to make a run to the grocery store because a girl’s gotta eat after all. This study break is now officially over, but I just thought I’d share some endorphin love!

Classes = done!

Classes are done for the semester, my last lab report is handed in, now all I have to get through is finals. Piece of cake right? NOT, but I’m sure I’ll be fine with some mad studyness.

Despite my best efforts, I can feel a cold coming on. I can tell because my throat is fuzzy and my cough actually hurts. I’m still breathing pretty good, I bet there’s still time to salvage the situation! A little orange juice, a few pots of tea, a few power naps here and there and I should be golden.

I have a doctor’s appt later today and I’m actually nervous about it. It’s funny because when I am well controlled and have good news to report, I look forward to seeing my doctor(s). When I have to tell them that things aren’t working and that I haven’t been well, I get nervous and I find it really hard. To be honest, I would say that my asthma control has declined in the past 6 weeks or so and that’s what we’ll be discussing today. I promised myself I would be honest and not sugar-coat anything but I’m getting butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it! Bah, I should be over this type of thing by now, I’ve been communicating with doctors for years! Well, wish me luck. I hope my favourite nurse is in the clinic at least.

Oh yes, and it is finally snowing and this makes me happy. I know that snow is a hassle but it warms my heart. <3

Mini update

Hi! I’m still around, just studying a lot and trying to avoid my computer although sometimes it doesn’t work. My first final exam is in 5 days,  and I’m plugging away, trying to get through everything and know it like the back of my hand.

I’ve been breathing well since I last posted, which is great. But to be completely honest with you, I have not run all week. I guess the last attack I had has made me nervous, and the cold air is making me nervous as well. But all I can do it try, right? So I promised myself that I will try later, all bundled up of course, and see how it goes. If it works then it’ll be a confidence boost, if it doesn’t I’ll know I need to change something.

Asthma tip from a polar bear -part II

For some reason this evening has not been a fun breathing time. I had one of those asthma attacks that seem to come out of the blue and hit you hard. I really hate those, and when I have a few in a row I start to lose my confidence, you know? Anywho I am out of trouble now obviously and am contently sitting propped up in my bed surrounded by study notes.

The only reason I can think of for this flare is that I might have been slightly chilled. I know when I sit still for a long time I can start to get chilly if I’m not wearing slippers and a sweater. All this to say that as I was feeling my chest lock up today, I remembered a very special item that was under my bed: an electric heating pad. I grabbed it and sat myself in my chair with my ventolin and spacer. I stuck the heating pad on my upper back and waited it to heat up, and I daresay it helped tremendously. The heat relaxes the tight and sore muscles in my upper back that I use to breathe, and I wouldn’t doubt it if it had a similar effect on the smooth muscles in my lungs (don’t quote me on this, I’m just speculating).

As you can probably gather from my two posts today, I’m learning that heat (or removal from cold at the very least) can actually play a rather large part in relieving my asthma symptoms and making me feel better : )

Asthma tip from a polar bear

So maaaaaybe I’m just trying to justify my tea addiction, but I find that some ventolin along with a hot cup of tea works wonders to relax my tight airways after coming in from the cold. I think the two work together nicely

Thing is, it’s not even that cold out yet! Can’t wait to see what kind of spasm my bronchioles will get up to in 3 weeks.

Just a note: clear tea is usually better than milky tea for us asthmatics.