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Hola! I don’t have a whole lot to say, because I’m feeling really good! I expected the opposite in my first week here. I was flaring my first day here and upped the symbicort and have hardly had a problem since Tuesday. That’s quite something, it’s even been pretty hot, though not oppressively humid. Rock on!
Someone give me some blog food, as Kerri says! I’m outta topics!
Ooooh Update: I’m going for a hike today with my aunt! HA -it’s not the Rocky Mountains, but these hills will do!!
It’s the weekend, the sun has come back out to abolish my crabbiness and all of a sudden the dyspnea is much more manageable. There is a lot to be said for a sunny day.
My dad, my brother and I did an 18 km river canoe trip today. It was really nice and my dad was so cute, teaching us how to read the current and making us practice every manoeuver imaginable. This despite the fact that my brother and I have been able to handle a canoe since we were wee gaffers.
If all is good (mostly meaning my lungs), we will do a two-nighter the week after next. I spent the afternoon planning our route and drooling over the MEC catalogue. Tomorrow I start my last week at work and after this I will have some time for some adventure.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!
Today was a grey, rainy and miserable day in the city, but in the mountains where we hiked it was gorgeous. 20 C and sunny, perfect for hiking. We hiked up to this cirque, then scrambled around on the rockface without doing any actual roped climbing. It’s hard to explain what a cirque is exactly, just that bit of scree at the base of the rock when you get above treeline. I guess it’s called that because it’s round (ish?) like a circus tent. They are formed by glaciers. ANYWHO, it was a good day, but I would have liked to have tackled more of that mountain face.
Maybe it’s the weather, or just the amount of activity I’ve been doing lately (I went on a big river canoe trip with my dad yesterday as well), but my lungs are SPENT and not tolerating much of anything tonight. I promise to take it easy now. Oh look, and now it’s thundering, boo.
I didn’t take this picture, as the sister is in Switzerland with our one and only camera. Photo credit goes here: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/7009473
Sunday my mom and her friend and I hiked up to an alpine meadow. The hike wasn’t too arduous but I’ll admit I had a tough time breathing on the ascent. The view was spectacular though and it was a great day.
Me and my mom at the first lake we came to. Mom, your hat is nerdy hehe!
The view was totally beautiful, and the weather started out the same.
It was a true Maria Moment. (Maria from Sound of Music of course)
The real draw to do this hike for my mom and her friend was the wildflowers. Apparently this is the best week in the year to see the alpine flowers. Thank goodness I had lots of opportunities to stop and catch my breath while they took pictures.
This is a pink Indian paintbrush
Up until lunch, our day was going swimmingly. Then the weather turned and we got a thunderstorm. We got a bit lost on the way down (it was a loop) because we foolishly forgot our trailguide and the rather bad signs suddenly stopped mentioning the place we actually wanted to end up. Then we met some French tourists coming up who assured us that we were heading in the right direction so it was all good.
My mom and I taking a picture of our dirty calves, no idea why. Please note that my calf does not always look this manly, it is simply an illusion created by my hiking boot covering up my ankle.
The rain stopped by the end of the hike, thank goodness.
The clouds were pretty low down, or maybe we were high up?
A great great weekend!! My lungs have been reminding me of their existence yesterday and today. Not really giving me any grief, just grumbling enough to let me know that they are there. Back to work now, I’m pretty busy as I’m wrapping up my project!
We had a lovely brunch this morning to celebrate father’s day. My sister made some delicious pancakes. Tonight we are celebrating with family friends: dinner to be followed by jamming.
My dad is my adventure mate. He’s the one I ski down crazy pitches with, discover the mountains with, climb with, canoe with etc etc etc. He’s one heck of a woodsman and fit as any person I know. I love doing these things with him and I try so hard to keep up with him. He tells everyone how strong and fit I am, which is true if you don’t count the lungs. We’ve been having some awesome times so far this summer and I can’t wait for this to resume.
Funnily enough, my dad is not an asthma dad. That’s my fault because I do my best not to show him when I’m sick so that he will still think I’m strong and able to do cool things with him. My mom always does asthma duty and I like it that way. I just hope he doesn’t feel bad about it.
I really hope you are all enjoying your father’s day and giving your fathers appropriate amounts of love and affection.
PS Did I mention my dad rocks out on the electric bass? Yeah!
Oh darn it all. Prescribed forest fires are burning in the mountains and will be for the remainder of spring. These fires are important to prevent the spread of pine beetle and also to reduce the risk of massive natural wildfires. However, this means that going into the mountains is a very bad idea for me right now and I’ll likely have to stay away. Even exercising outdoors in the city will be sketchy since it’s windy and we are so close. I have a feeling that would be hard for most peoples’ lungs, not just us lung-compromised people. So while this is part of forest maintenance and it’s important, I am very very sad because I wanna go hiking! Waaaah!
Did it!!!!
As promised, here is a picture of last weekend’s hike. I’m the one in the green shorts, my sister is the one sitting down.
It was pretty windy at the summit!!
Since returning to my home province, I certainly seem to have a renewed hunger for being active outdoors. If you knew how much of a natural playground this place was, you probably would too! I will post pictures later from my awesome hike today.
We all know that exercise-induced asthma can be tricky. The quality of the air we breathe as we exercise can make a huge difference. So, while it’s fantastic to want to enjoy the great outdoors, there are days when it’s just better to hit the gym instead. Be extra careful when heading out on these types of days:
-Days with a high pollen count if pollen is a trigger for you. A pretty good pollen forecast can be found for most Canadian cities on The Weather Network’s website.
-Days when the air is particularly cold and dry. Obviously -40 C weather is a huuuge no-no. But, I find that even more subtly cold temperatures (even 5-7 C) really affect my breathing. IF you are heading out skiing or something like that and you know it will be cold, be sure to wear a scarf or neckwarmer around your mouth and nose to warm up the air before it reaches your airways.
-Days when the humidity is really high, especially if it’s also hot. This means pretty much the whole summer in Ontario and Quebec. Does anyone know why it’s so hard to breathe when it’s humid outside? I find I have trouble even walking in this type of weather, so I would never try anything strenuous.
-Days when the air quality is particularly low and there is a lot of smog. This can trigger asthma if you’re exercising outdoors and you may not even notice it until later. Again, check out The Weather Network’s air quality forecast if you live in Canada. If you are getting out of the city, you likely won’t have to worry about this one!
-Windy days. I guess the wind must carry a lot of allergens with it, that’s the only explanation I can think of for why my asthma is so bad when it gets windy!
These are mostly based on my personal experience, and everyone has different triggers! Not all of these might trigger your asthma, but it’s always good to be cautious with respect to air quality when you are exercise. Also, this list may seem prohibitive, but there ARE good days in between, I promise! Happy trails!
EDIT: Please check out Kerri’s comment on this post for even more information on how to assess the air quality!
There was A LOT of snow in the mountains. So, we didn’t get to do the ridge we had picked but instead hiked up an old trail to an awesome ancient dried up riverbed. Of course my dad the geologist was full of facts. It was hard on the lungulars in that I was wheezing and huffing, but I still made it the whole way so I’m actually very happy.
Tomorrow I start work. I haven’t talked about it much yet, but I’ll be working in a molecular biology clinical/research lab for the summer. I will be taking up a research project, but I still have no idea about what it will entail. I have a feeling it will take my boss a few days to get it together anyway. I worked there last summer and I loved the atmosphere as everyone there was so intelligent and really generous with their time when it came to helping me out. I’m really looking forward to it. Still, there is the side of being tied to a nine-to-five job which I kind of resent. But for me to have a job where I will actively be using my knowledge learned at school while not having the stress of school AND while being paid is pretty close to a miracle. Yay!
