Recovering from last Friday's outing into the blowing sand but not as much as I would like. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the worst) I'd say today is a 3.5, maybe 4. The general heaviness is waning, and I'm left with a spot on the right side that aches and the occasional urge to cough (which I fight, never produces anything so I figure it's just irritating whatever's going on in there).
Healing is just not this gradual and steady increase, it goes in spurts. I know this. So I've got to get a grip on my emotions when it happens that way. Stress doesn't help anything. I'm eager to feel normal again, but stressing over that not happening isn't useful.
I discovered over the weekend that deep breathing helps. I put on my new meditation CD, Theta Meditation System by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson, and forced myself to get past the fear of taking a deep breath. I didn't even realize that fear was there. When I started to pay attention to my breath I realized I was breathing shallowly, into my chest. When I tried to take a deep breath I hesitated. Fear. I pushed past it and found that when I try to breath into my back it feels the best (pilates breathing). Deep abdominal breathing didn't hurt really, but doesn't feel as good as trying to pull it into my back or into the side of my ribs. After half an hour of focusing on relaxing and using more of my lungs my discomfort level went from a 7 to a 4. That's pretty remarkable.
Today is Pilates lesson day, which always makes me feel better and perks up my mood. Thank god for Pilates!
Here I am, the health nut, and whammo! Suddenly my lungs don't work. WTF? This is a chronicle of my drug-free recovery from whatever the hell this is...my ups and downs, my search for answers, my battles with the traditional medical biz. If you suffer from asthma or other breathing issues, I hope you'll find some information and inspiration in these postings. There can be recovery without steroids and bronchodialators!
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