A recap for anyone not following along: I had what I thought was an asthma attack for the first time on July 5th while I was working out. The air quality that day was horrible, as forest fire smoke had settled over the Las Vegas Valley. The forest fire smoke cleared up several days later, but I didn't. Ever since then when my heart rate gets too high, or I'm exposed to bad air quality like second hand smoke, it kicks right back up, and in between 'episodes' the chest tightness continues. No body aches or other signs of a virus or infection, just a feeling like someone's sitting on my chest and occasionally an unproductive cough. A trip to the doctor's office and a battery of tests found nothing. I tested negative for asthma. Chest xray and blood work came back negative for allergies or any signs of infection. With rest I get better and then I'll overdo it, or walk into a smoky environment and it starts all over again, and it's been getting progressively worse with each re-irritation.
I just wanted to know what the hell was going on! I couldn't help but start thinking terrible thoughts...was it my heart? was there something seriously wrong with me? lung cancer? COPD from smoking 20 years ago? What??! It all just didn't make sense. Clearly the whole thing started with the forest fire smoke. But the air quality here had cleared up, why was I still having breathing problems? All my internet research made it sound like exercise induced asthma, but I failed the asthma test and my doctor said that didn't explain why the irritation continued when I wasn't working out. She was puzzled. I was scared. My unshakable husband, Mike, was firm in his belief that it was nothing to worry about, whatever it was it would resolve itself, I just had to take it easy, I was a healthy girl and my body knows how to heal itself, I just needed to support it with good nutrition and *relax*. My intuition told me he was right, but god it's scary when you can't breathe and you don't know WHY.
This morning he sent me a link to a respiratory disorder forum. In it a nurse describes how lung and bronchial irritation can continue even after the original irritant is no longer present. The irritation can linger for weeks, even months, and will eventually resolve itself. It's called reactive airway disease. I had a phrase. Time to Google! Here's the most succinct definition I found:
"reactive airways dysfunction syndrome" (RADS) denotes the development of aYes! That's me! Thank you Michael! I'd given up finding answers, I just kept finding scary things that didn't fit my symptoms, but he persisted until he found it. Everything I've read on it fits me to a T. What a relief, I can't tell you.
persistent asthma-like condition with airway hyper-responsiveness developing in a previously healthy asymptomatic individual within 24 hours of a single exposure to concentrated respiratory irritants.
So good. A diagnosis. Now what? Well, my google search returned lots of sites that don't differentiate between RADS and asthma, including treatment, which means steroid inhalants, although a single dose won't help, you have to use it every day for up to a month before seeing results. Yeah right. But RADS is different and while some research says steroids speed healing, some says it doesn't and all agree the condition resolves itself sooner or later. And if you know me at all, you know I'm not about to inhale steroids, even if they would speed the healing process.
My plan is to continue what I've been doing this past week. Good nutrition. Good supplements. Rest. Clean air. Mike says he'll work up a plan for me to get back to working out. Might end up being pilates in our condo where I have total control over air quality and temperature (cold kicks it up too), but I'll take anything that has me getting my ass off this couch!
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