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Since the end of June I haven’t been doing much dancing. If you haven’t been reading this for long, highland dance is my favourite asthma unfriendly hobby. Classes resume tonight and I’m really excited! I’ve been feeling really good this week, but I’m sure my lungs (and the rest of my body, of geez) have de-conditioned so I will probably find tonight tough. Nevertheless, it shall be wonderful.
Well, I think I overdid it on the physical activity front yesterday. I biked to work, which would not have been so bad if it hadn’t been uphill on the way back with a headwind to boot. It took me nearly an hour to recover! 30 minutes after I started feeling better I headed out to highland dance. The new dance class, by the way, is awesome. The only thing is that it’s a championship-level class and I haven’t danced at that level for two whole years! I was so wrecked when I came home. And now I am tight and wheezy. I didn’t sleep well and I am sooooo sore on top of it. Thankfully, my mom offered to give me a ride to work today.
So, that was overdoing it. It’s only the beginning of the summer and I haven’t been all that active in the past month. BUT, by the end of the summer, maybe I will be able to do that without feeling so rotten after. Lung conditioning all the way!
While yesterday’s post was important to me, I also want to get a happier one to the top of the page. I just got back from dance practice, and even though I’m coughing up weird stuff and my legs are jelloid, I feel so so SO good. Endorphins. Yes, I feel very good and I had a nice day despite the SNOW and RAIN 
My very favourite fiddler, Oliver Schroer, is a real Canadian gem. I just got myself one of his older CDs today. He very sadly died of leukemia last year. I promise you, this is some of the most stirring music ever created, just listen for a bit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZ72p9lxq5s
I just had my very last Monday of 2nd year. Woah, we are cooking along, maybe even a little too quickly for my taste? Ah, time.
The new dance class was AWESOME. I loved it and an totally switching over to this from the team. We worked soooo hard. I wasn’t sure how I would do with the lungies but since I was dancing for a new teacher and all I felt the need to show off a bit so danced hard until my body was screaming louder than my lungs. This morning both are complaining but I feel so happy! Yay!
It is my last lab rat Tuesday today. I can’t say I’m too sad, although the labs haven’t been as terrible as I thought they would be this semester. Tomorrow I have 2 midterms and then Thursday I have another. THEN I can take a breather. The end of the semester is coming up so fast, this is craziness! The lab final is next Tuesday from 8:30-10:00 PM, definitely not my prime time for test-taking. Oh well.
Gastroenteritis seems to be quietly slipping out the door without having descended upon me. I cannot tell you how thankful I am for this. phew! Must. get. ready.
First and foremost – the lungs are absolutely fine, no need to dip in to my bag of goodies last night.
The show was not that fun. It was probably the most dull and unappreciative crowd I have ever danced for. So I decided right off the bat I wasn’t going to torture my lungs in exchange for their blank stares. I danced nicely and correctly, but not outstandingly. Maybe that sounds awful the way I’m saying it, but I just didn’t want to feel terrible all night long. It would have been totally different if they had been engaging and excited to see us. As an aside: who in the world hires a pipe band and highland dancers (decidedly Scottish novelties) on the IRISH national holiday? Those are some excellent event-planning skills right there, not.
Important news flash: my job for the summer has been secured! It is the same job I had last year, which is working as a research assistant in a molecular biology lab. BTW molecular bio = genetics (for our purposes). This on the same day as the front page of the newspaper announces “Outlook grim for science research” and goes on to say that funding has been majorly cut in all areas. Somehow my boss managed to grab some of that funding and was able to hire me. I am really really happy.
OK quote of the night from last night:
We are sitting in a Timmie’s in this aforementioned small town. I am halfway done my hot chocolate.
DANIELLE: Hey, look at that, it’s Roll up the Rim time!
KENDRA: OMG where have you BEEN? In a CAVE or something?
Apparently it’s been Roll up time for a long time and I just failed to notice. I’m not a coffee person nor a Tim’s person really and I don’t watch TV so didn’t see the ads. But it did make me feel like a hermit. Which I am.
I am busy packing up my stuff to go to the dance show tonight. It’s only an hour away in another small town. However, when putting together my bag of asthma stuff, I feel that I need no less than:
1. A google map to the nearest hospital
2. An extra copy of my MedicAlert card (has info about my asthma, meds, allergies and my parent’s and doctors’ phone numbers)
3. A card with my aunt and uncle’s phone numbers (I live with them when I am at uni)
4. An extra ventolin and spacer (in case my first one explodes again! Or in case I lose one)
5. Benadryl for allergic emergencies, Reactine for allergic annoyances.
6. The rest of my daily meds, just in case I get stranded (unlikely).
The whole lot barely fits into a giant ziploc freezer bag. If I go somewhere and am completely fine, all this stuff seems like overkill. If something happens and I am completely not fine, then forgetting any one of these items could be dangerous. So, I pack it all up anyway. It’s not really any different whether I go away for an evening or for a week, but if I am going to be away from my usual surroundings/resources, then I need to be prepared. I am really hoping the lungies hold up! Woot woot go lungs! (please!)
Happy St. Patrick’s day everyone! Also, happy birthday to my uncle Patrick! (No, I am not kidding)
So, the lungs are so-so this morning. I didn’t get to sleep much last night but I seriously think I’m doing better. So, I will dance tonight and likely pay for it, but I think it should be fine. I think we will have fuuun tonight! We have to drive about an hour to get to where we’re dancing so it should be good times on the road.
In other news, well there is no other news. Except that it’s supposed to be 11 degrees today!! Woot woot! Can’t wait to get outside!
The lungs totally flipped on me last night. To be fair, I had some warning but the attack part of it came on really quickly and I hate that. I’m breathing better this morning but I’m totally zonked so I hope I survive my day. As usual, I don’t really have any idea what in the world might have set it off, which is annoying. My weekend was good. I spent lots of time outdoors walking around and spent lots of time with various family members.
The dance show is tomorrow! I had better be breathing well because I don’t want to have to make any tough decisions.
That is all, I must try and start my day now. I’ve got child psych very soon and I must force myself to go. It’s pretty much the easiest and most self-evident class in the history of the world (except intro psych). So. Off I go.
I thought I would write a little bit about how I manage highland dancing in terms of breathing. HD is something that I really love and refuse to give up, unlike running, despite the kind suggestions of my paeds pulmonologist back in the good old days. I posted a video of some highland dancers -I’m not in it, I think it’s a regional championship in the US -to give you an appreciation for what an aerobic and demanding sport it is. Yes I said sport! It’s not particularly lung-friendly but hey ho who cares.
I’ve developed a strategy of sorts to help me maximize the amount of time I can spend dancing at practice and minimize the amount of time I spend sitting by the mirror. Actually, my teacher had some great suggestions in this regard. Highland kind of has two components. Obviously there is the mega-elevation and sharp leg movements, which are pretty demanding in themselves. The second part is the presentation part, which involves keeping the back straight, shoulders back, arms and head correctly positioned. This is harder than it looks! When I’m dancing at practice, I alternate what I concentrate on. If I feel up to it, I can go for the powerhouse legs but don’t concentrate on my upper body at all. Alternatively, I can keep low to the ground and give my legs a break but really focus on my presentation. This allows me to dance more, improve my technique and all the rest while still being nice(ish) to my lungs. While I’m doing this, my teacher is yelling at the rest of the team to “pull the whole package together for goodness sake” hee hee. I usually require a decent break in between dances to recover my breathing. When we dance in shows, I do 2 dances back-to-back dancing full full-out and do it smiling. Most of the time I get right off the stage and collapse right into a chair and stay hunched over it for an hour, but it’s worth it to me! Even the other girls are breathing hard after we finish though.
Other than that, there are no real ways to make it easier on my lungs while still dancing to the level I want to. Many days there is no way I could dance at all, but on good days I manage it fairly well. Last night’s practice felt really good and I was able to get through several dances. Hooray for that!
