Dr. Mike's Healing Regimen

Man, I really picked the scab, so the speak, with this lung thing. The slightest exertion is stressful. Sometimes just sitting up feels like it's too much. Doesn't help that I don't know what the fuck this is and I'm just plain scared. If I don't feel better in a couple of days I'm heading back to the doctor's (wow, I must be feeling bad!).

So toward that end here's Dr. Mike's healing regimen (with one thing thrown in by me). Designed for me and my current lung injury/irritation/whatever-the-hell-this-is, but also good for whenever you're "feelin' punky" as my dear Dad used to say. No, Dr. Mike isn't really a doctor, doesn't even play one on TV, but he's the smartest person I've ever met (by miles), very into the natural ways to help your body heal itself, and he loves me so he's always lookin' out for me.

• Bed Rest. Couch rest really. No exertion. Period.
• Clean, humidified air. HEPA air filter big enough for the whole place, a room humidifier in the bedroom, and a steam vaporizer (remember those, from when you were a kid?) next to me most of the time.
• Early to bed. Nothing helps you heal more than a good night's sleep.
• Garlic. Two cloves a day. Raw. Cut it up and take it like a pill or put it in your salad dressing, guacamole, whatever you can hide it in. But it should be raw.
• Anti-inflammatory diet.

NO:

• processed foods (easy one, don't eat them anyway)
• red meat (also easy, usually only eat on vacation)
• sugar (not much of that around here either)
• empty white carbs (breads, pastas. again, not usually in my house)
• partially hydrogenated oils (never, ever)

LOTS OF:

• brightly colored whole fruits. Berries especially.
• apples. contains quercetin, a strong anti-inflammatory
• green and brightly colored veggies.
• Omega 3's. Flax seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts.
• Fish. That omega 3 thing again.
• Protein (non-red meat sources). poultry, soy, nuts, seeds, legumes. good thing I have lots of chicken chili in the freezer!
• Oatmeal
• Water
• Meditation (my addition).

I downloaded "Healing Meditation" by Kelly Howell on iTunes. I loaded it into my iPod so I can listen to it anywhere. There are two tracks. One is a 30-min guided healing meditation. The other is a 30 min. track called "Music and Delta Brain Wave Therapy", which is soft background music and ambient noises, allegedly helping my brain unplug. Hey, whatever, it's working for me. I've never been one to sit still long enough to meditate. But this CD zones me out. Lots of positive focus your body healing itself. I love it. I'm doing the 30 min healing meditation during the day and doing the 30 min ambient music one at night.

So far so good. Laying around on the couch, playing some Sims2, watching Project Runway and some relatively bad movies on HBO thanks to Tivo. Eating some of my favorite foods (oatmeal and berries with some flax for breakfast, yum), snacking on lots of fruit and veggies. Getting a good night's sleep. A little meditation. Ahhhh.

But wait. This afternoon Mike walks in from his trip to Whole Foods with...wait for it...a bottle of Carlson's Cod Liver Oil. Yes, Cod Liver Oil. And I'm going to have to take it. It's SO good for you. Omega 3's up the ass. Vitamin A. Vitamin D. Dr. Mercola says 1 tsp per 50 pounds of body weight every day. So that means a little over a tsp with breakfast or lunch, and another tsp or so with dinner. I can do this...right? I'm managing two cloves of raw garlic every day... inhale, insert spoon with chopped garlic, big drink of water, breathe through mouth, eat something that tastes good! I mean I like garlic, but straight up? that's a little rough. Same ritual for cod liver oil, wouldn't you think?

[update] I was being unfair to the cod liver oil. No bad taste whatsoever. Didn't even taste fishy. Oily, to be sure, but the only taste was a hint of lemon (whew!). Turns out the bad rep for cod liver oil comes from the old days when it was rancid and not properly processed. And I can't believe I didn't mention the supplements I'm taking. In addition to our daily vitamins, I'm taking echinacea, extra ester Vitamin C, "Clear Lungs" (chinese herbs for lung health), and MSM (methylsulfonylmethane, good for your liver and respiratory health, among other things).

Another Setback

Arggghhh. This is SO frustrating.

Was feeling great last week. Still not doing cardio, but spiking my heart rate a little while doing weight training. Felt SO good to be sore from lifting! Friday night we got a tour of our condo building which is being built. It was VERY windy walking up to the jobsite, lots and lots of sand blowing right into our faces. Hmmm, that's probably not good for my lungs, huh? Even walking around inside was dusty and dirty, as you'd expect. Felt fine Friday night though.

Saturday I felt more congested than usual, and working seemed to tire me out more easily than usual. Spent Sunday resting on the couch with my vaporizer and my homeopathic cough syrup.

Monday. I was able to do weight training last week, so thought I'd try it again. Did an easy warm up on the treadmill. Heart rate never got over 90, but that chest tightness came back after about 7 mins. Not a lot, but enough that I noticed. So I got off. Headed to the weight room. Did some squats with a medicine ball. Second set I got that punched in the chest feeling. Shit! Moving On. Did some lunges. Got punched in the chest again. Ok, forget it, clearly I'm overdoing it. My heart rate did spike into the 130's, so I guess I was asking for it. Spent the rest of my workout time doing Pilates and stretching.

Got a little freaked out that that little bit of lifting had such an effect on me. Clearly the tour of the condo was more stressful to my lungs than I'd thought. I'm done fucking around with this. Taking the rest of this week off, and through the holiday weekend. No pilates, no workouts, not leaving the house. Looking through my recovery journal, it's crystal clear. I get better when I rest. Then I think I'm better than I am and I overdo it (or go on a tour of a sandy job site) and re-aggravate it. So...resting, resting, resting. Next Tuesday I'll start up again with my private Pilates lessons again. And I have a pilates class on Thursdays. That's all I'm doing that week. Just might kill me to be that sedentary. But the writing's on the wall. I need to fucking rest.

We're planning to go to San Diego at the end of the month. Until then I'm only doing Pilates. Everything else just gets my heart rate too high. Elevated heart rate and bad air quality are the two things that 'pick the scab', so I've got to stay away from them. Hopefully by the end of September I can go strolling on the beaches of San Diego!

This has been a very humbling experience. I really thought I was invincible. I eat right. I work out. Then a forest fire throws a curve my way and I'm sidelined. You can't control everything, huh?

Minor Setback

Mike and I stayed down on the Strip for a couple of days. Spent Wednesday shopping and did a little partying, but got to bed at a reasonable hour. All in all a good day.

I had a massage scheduled and always like to work out before if possible. Mike was on the elliptical when I came into the gym. He commented on how smooth the elliptical was, that I'd probably really like it. I had no intention of a killer cardio, but it looked like a fun machine and seemed a good option for a nice warm up before lifting. 9 minutes in and it felt like someone was pressing their fist right in the middle of my sternum. Oh shit. My heart rate WAS elevated, it was getting into the high 120's, but I wasn't sweating and didn't feel like I was breathing heavy or exerting myself. But my lungs thought otherwise. That's what I used to love about the elliptical, actually, you could get your heart rate really elevated, burn tons of calories, but not feel like you were killing yourself. Well, in this case, that very thing bit me right in the ass. Chest actually. Mike also brought up later that the air in the gym was pretty cold. That couldn't have helped either.

The tightness lingered, but I did some light lifting, Pilates, and stretching. Hung out in the steam room before my massage, which seemed to help. My nice long massage turned into a gab fest with the massage therapist. Jesus, he would NOT shut the fuck up! And he kept asking me direct questions. How can you ignore someone who's asking you direct questions? My two word answer would send him off on some new riff about something else. I know WAY too much about the therapist I had. I know, I should speak up. Next time.

Was wiped when I got back to the room. Just wanted to nap. So we did for a while. Rousted myself up for dinner. Looked great. Felt wiped. As the evening wore on, and we kept walking in and out of all the 2nd hand smoke, my chest continued to feel like someone punched me. We headed back to the room early, no partying, and Mike asked if we shouldn't just go home to our nice clean air. That's my sweetie, always looking out for me. Yes, let's go home!

Packed our bags and left about 11pm. So didn't have to worry about temptation at the buffet Friday morning, I was home having oatmeal and blueberries! Fired up all the air cleaning equipment and took it easy. Still feels like someone punched me in the sternum, but clean air and rest does make it feel better. Armed with what I learned from the doctor and more internet research here's what I think. It's an injury, not a virus. I think I sucked in some particulate matter when the forest fire smoke was sitting over the valley back in July. My resistance was down because I'd been overtraining, my lungs were probably already stressed for the same reason. And now it just needs to heal. Elevated heart rates stress it out, and second hand smoke irritate it. So I'm back to Mike's original plan of NO cardio for the next month at least. And no hanging out in casinos. Won't THAT cramp my style a bit?!

I've got a pretty killer immune system, all this clean living, so I'm not worried. Just need to eat especially good, and take it easy!! Not gonna let this get me down!!

Nice Little Workout

So now that I know it's not asthma I'm dealing with, I'm not afraid any longer that a little cardio is gonna make me DIE or set me back too far.

Did a nice little 10 minute warm up before doing legs today. Nothing crazy, but I did get my heart rate up to about 115. I know, I was going to lay off cardio completely for a month, but thinking about doing lunges without warming up first just felt a little...well, stupid! Had a nice little "combo legs" session. Several kinds of lunges, some one-legged squats and one-legged bridges using the Bosu Ball. Resting between legs if my heart rate go up too high and always letting it get back into the 80's before doing the next exercise. Finished with 20 minutes of stretching and my morning qi gong routine. On the way out we started up the steam room in the gym and stood in there in our workout clothes breathing in steam for 5 minutes or so.

Don't know how I'll feel later, but right now I feel great. Yes, I still have a little chest congestion, but it feels better for having had a little bit of work.

Take Control of Your Doctor

Today was my follow up with my doctor about my continuing lung irritation.

All my labs, fine. Chest xray. Fine. Test for clot in my lung. fine. Allergy test. Fine, not allergic to anything.

So...is it exercise induced asthma? No, she said. That doesn't explain the lingering congestion, if it was asthma I'd go back to feeling normal. She said the next step was a full pulmonary function test. When did you quit smoking? Like 25 years ago. Well, it could be the first signs of COPD, but I really don't think that's it, hmmm. ok, hold on a minute, let's back up. So, not asthma. What about the particulate pollution from the forest fires? Oh, yeah, that could have kick started the whole thing. She said the forest fires could have irritated my lungs, and a virus could have gotten hold in there but my good immune system kept me from getting full blown sick (part of my confusion about this whole thing, chest congestion without any fever, body aches, run down feeling). Mike had to interject that he came down with his first real cold in the last 10 years about the same time I started struggling with this. Well, there you go, she said. You're fighting off the same thing he was, and you're just a little more sensitive to the bad air quality, probably from overtraining, and it settled in your lungs. If you've been feeling better, just keep doing what you're doing and come see me if it gets worse or comes back and we can do the full pulmonary function test.

You can tell how much they really want you to take a test when you say "no". Full pulmonary test? No. Okay, in all likelihood it was the irritation from the forest fires that knocked you down a little...you say you're feeling better now so just keep doing what you're doing. They just need to put it in the chart. Patient denied recommended pulmonary function test. Ass covered. Next.

So, where does that leave me? I don't have asthma. That's good to know. So when this heals I can go back to doing cardio without having to worry about using inhalers. Which isn't to say I'm going to go back to killing myself with interval training 4 days a week like I was before. When the weather gets nicer we've decided we're going to go for at least one long walk out in our old neighborhood like we used to (the air over there is incredibly clean, the one thing we really liked about that part of town). In the meantime I'm going to treat this like a virus. Keep up with my garlic twice a day. Keep up with the extra vitamin C. Keep up with the vaporizer to help break up what's going on in there. Will probably pick up some echinacea on the way home. No cardio until several weeks after this is cleared up. Pilates. Some weight training but not heavy. Basically taking it easy!

Don't even want to think about how much this whole fiasco is going to cost me...sigh...stupidity tax...

I've got the cleanest air in town!

Air purifiers everywhere!

We've got a HEGA filter in the living/dining room and just got our new Venta Air Washer humidifier/purifier for the bedroom. Also just ordered new cabin air filters for our cars.

After taking it easy all weekend I was feeling great. I've been doing all the right things since seeing the doctor last Wednesday. Garlic twice a day. Lots of Vitamin C. Sitting next to a steam humidifier most of the time. Resting. Getting a little caffeine.

I was feeling so good I started to feel stupid for panicking and seeing a doctor. So I decided to venture out on Monday with Mike to tour the empire (visit our four stores). I'd had a nice easy weight training workout that morning and was feeling great, no chest tightness or coughing at all. Spent all afternoon going from the car (A/C blowing in my face) to outside (110) to A/C in the shop office (72) back outside (110) back to the hot car that had been sitting in the sun (275) to having the A/C blowing at me again, over and over and over again. By 5 o'clock I'd had it. Cough? Back. That feeling of someone sitting on my chest? Back. Crap!

Yesterday was Pilates, which always makes me feel great. Even worked up a nice little sweat. And today I'm taking off. We're heading down to the Strip later to do some shopping for Mike at the Fashion Show Mall, so hopefully the second hand smoke won't be too bad. The air quality down by the Strip is never great, though, because of all the traffic. So, we'll see how it goes.

Follow up doctor's visit is tomorrow morning. She said if my xray and blood work come back clean (which I'm confident they will) that she'd run the exercise induced asthma test. Oh yeah, and maybe get an ultrasound of my heart...no, don't think I'll be paying for that... doctors, jesus...

Heal Thyself

I have to say that's something that really bugs the shit out of me about doctors.

She didn't mention one single thing that I should do to help me heal between my visit last week and my follow up to review my test results.

Didn't advise me not to do cardio, or get a vaporizer, or take lots of vitamin C, or drink lots of fluids, nothin'.

Now I know she wasn't sure what I've, but none of those things are harmful no matter what it is, in fact all of those things could be helpful no matter what it is.

This is why you've got to learn to take care of yourself, because doctors aren't healers, they're just not. I'm resting and feeling better. I suspect by the time I have my follow up visit on Thursday this will be mostly over (here's hoping!)

Calmer States

After having a day to reflect on yesterday's doctor visit, here are my thoughts.

First, to recap, my visit was inconculsive. She tested me for asthma, which came back negative. Today I went in for blood work (complete allergy profile, thyroid, who knows what else, I filled lots of vials today) and a chest x-ray. Follow up visit next Thursday.

Now that I'm not so freaked out that she brought up possibilities like a f'ing blood clot in my lung, I'm calmer today. Since this whole thing started I've been repeatedly stressing my poor little lungs, just at lower levels so I never reached the full blown "attack" stage, but not giving them a chance to recover fully either. I never rested more than 3 days in a row...and, for the record, when I rest I feel better. I'd feel better so I would just go back to doing too much too soon and it would kick back up again. No wonder I still have a little fluid in my lungs 4 weeks later.

Wow, now that I just summed it up like that, pretty fucking stupid of me to keep doing cardio, huh? Seems pretty OBVIOUS. But when you're IN it, you just don't have clarity. That's my excuse anyway. Or...I could just be fucking stubborn (nawww).

Mike's problem with me seeing a doctor is that I haven't been really taking good care of myself. Not giving my body a chance to heal itself. And he's right (again! you'd think I'd learn after 19+ years!).

So...step 1, talked it through with Mike, my unofficial trainer, and we came up with a new exercise prescription. No cardio. None. For 4 weeks. Strength training and Pilates only. I've never felt worse after doing either of those, just after doing cardio. Doc, it hurts when I do this. Well, don't DO that! Pilates makes me feel better (lots of deep breathing), so more Pilates. I'm adding a weekly class onto my private session each week and my teacher recommended a book so I could do it the rest of the week on my own.

Step 2, garlic. A clove of raw garlic twice a day (kills about everything).

Step 3, air quality. I've order a room humidified/air cleaner for the bedroom (recommendation from my Pilates teacher). We ordered a new HEGA air cleaner for the rest of the place. And I picked up a warm mist humidifier this afternoon. It's cranking away next to my bed right now and I'll have it next to me whenever I'm sitting on the couch vegging to TiVo. Will also be avoiding all exposure to second hand smoke for two weeks at least (doesn't THAT cut into my social life a bit!).

Step 4, supplements. Extra C. My multi has 2000 mg, and I'm adding 2000 to that. Also just received a special Sinus Health supplement that I'd ordered, will be taking that twice a day.

Step 5, rest. No late nights. Like now, time to get to sleep!

And yes, I'll be going back to the doctor next Thursday. I hope I'm looking back on this in a month feeling stupid for not resting!

Wishing for Asthma

doc visit was inconclusive {sigh}

Funny - or not - to actually WISH she'd said "yup, you have asthma". EKG normal (good), and I'm getting plenty of oxygen (good) but the lung capacity test showed some limitation. So they did an asthma test where you breath in asthma meds for 10 minutes and they test your lung capacity again. If it got better, then the meds helped, and you have asthma. The meds did NOT make me feel better, so I was not surprised when the follow up lung capacity test showed no improvement.

So...fasting blood work tomorrow morning with a complete allergy profile, thyroid function, blah, blah, blah, and a chest x-ray. If that all comes back clean then she'll order an exercise induced asthma test where they have you on a treadmill while they do the asthma med test again (although she said exercise induced asthma doesn't explain why I have the tightness all the time) and maybe an ultrasound of my heart (jesus, that sounds bad!). I need to wait a week to know the results of the x-ray and the blood work, which sucks.

Two things worry me...I told her when my heart rate gets the slightest bit elevated, like over 100, that it kicks up she said "hmm, that's not normal" (shit) and she said they need to rule things out like a blood clot in my lung (blood clot?!! fuck!).

Mike says I'm in the medical triangle now, and that I should just keep doing low level cardio until it gets better. But it seems to kick up in the afternoons after doing cardio, even when I keep my heart rate below 95, and that is just not normal, which concerns me. Of course, today I don't know if it's from this morning's workout or from the stupid asthma meds! Tomorrow's a pilates class, which always seems to make me feel better, and Friday and Saturday I think I'm going to only do a short warm up and then lift. Until I know for sure what the fuck is going on with me (blood clot?! fuck!) I'm not going to risk aggravating it with any sort of cardio.

Mike's Rehab Routine, Workout #3

another day of low level cardio. Again, my instructions were not to exceed 95 bpm and only do 35 mins.Today was recumbant bike. Jacked into my favorite fitpod mix and kept the resistance at level 1 so I didn't spike my heart rate.

At the beginning when my heart rate would creep up towards 95 my chest and throat would tighten up just a bit, so I'd concentrate on relaxing and breathing deeper and slower. My heart rate would go down by about 5 bpm and the tightness would dissipate. By the end of the 35 mins, when it would get up towards 95 the tightness wasn't happening. I'm convinced that if this is asthma I'm dealing with that I'll be able to re-train my body that cardio is NOT going to kill me.

Did some abs and lots and lots of Pilates stretching. I'm amazed to see my flexibility actually increasing. And closed with a qi gong breathing exercise. Very cleansing and relaxing. Felt better after Pilates yesterday than I have in weeks, so I'm adding a class to my once a week personal session. I have visions of learning enough to get certified. What can I say? I'm hooked!

Doctor's appt in a couple of hours. My first time meeting her so I sure hope my friend is right and she knows what the hell she's talking about! She's a DO so I'm the *littlest* bit optimistic that she won't reach for her prescription pad first thing. Or at least won't argue with me when I tell her I won't take any drugs! Should be interesting!

Mike's Rehab Routine, Workout #2

Today was Pilates day.

Mike's instruction, not to exceed 95 heart rate. I LOVE my Pilates teacher Nina (isn't she gorgeous??! inside and out). She was off last week and I worked out with another teacher, and it just was not the same, so I was glad to have her back today.

Nina was a personal trainer before she got into Pilates, so her workouts have a more strength training emphasis than the yoga-ish girl I worked with last week. She's incredibly form focused and observant, knowing just what to say to keep me in proper form and mentally engaged. Today's workout was constant, we went from one exercise right into the next (as Pilates is meant to be done, as Nina keeps telling me). Worked out with my heart rate monitor and most of the time it stayed between 65-85. Only once did it spike to 100. Felt better after Pilates than I have in weeks! Must be all the breathing.

Doctor's visit tomorrow. After much internet research I'm thinking I've got asthma. We'll see what her diagnosis and treatment plan is (which'll be interesting since I won't take prescription drugs!). Nina said Joseph Pilates was an asthmatic, which is why Pilates involves so much breath work. So I might just be doing Pilates more than once a week soon!