Good News and Not So Good News

So the good news is that I'm continuing to feel SOOOO much better thanks to the Buteyko breathing exercises.

A weight has been lifted off my chest in the last few weeks, literally and figuratively. Man, being sick is exhausting! And a definite blow to my super-woman-ego. I really thought I was invincible with all these years of healthy living under my belt.

The Not So Good News is that Reactive Airways Dysfunction Syndrome isn't an illness, it's an injury, and it's healing like one. I continue to get sucked into the "illness recovery" mentality. Oh, I'm feeling better, let's go. But life continues to remind me that no, no, no, this is an injury.

Tried to go for a walk on Saturday. Last Saturday's walk was great, but between then and now fall fell. It was only in the mid 50's and cloudy. Previously that would have been my favorite kind of day, perfect for walking. But once I stepped outside my lungs started to shut down. I thought they would relax and get into the groove once we got moving. Wrong-o! For the first time I got to experience what they talk about in my Buteyko method book, forcing yourself to breathe shallower when you want to breathe deeper, in order to stop an "attack". Try doing THAT sometime. Feeling not you're not getting enough air, and breathe less. Our walk lasted about 10 minutes. Clearly I'm not ready for cold air yet! Drat!

Good news is that by Sunday I was recovered. So my recovery time is much improved, which is great news. Since I didn't get in a walk on Saturday I walked a bit with Mike in the gym this morning. Haven't done that in forever. g-r-a-d-u-a-l-l-y upped the speed until I was walking at 3 mph, which had my heart rate at about 90. I used to not consider myself warmed up unless I was in the 120's...now I'm working out in the 90's...and feeling like I accomplished something! Wow, perspective is an interesting thing...

Intruiging...

Been trying to take it easy this past week. Cancelled Pilates last Thursday and yesterday. Cancelled my pampering day last Friday of facial and manicure/pedicure because talking is such a struggle and my girls and I love to chat. Couldn't see going and not talking, that's half the fun!

Despite resting for the past week I must say I don't feel that much better. I'm trying hard not to get depressed about my little setback, keep my head in a good place so I don't stress out and make myself feel even worse. I've definitely learned that stressing about it makes it worse. So trying to RELAX. Going to my private pilates lesson today, so hopefully that'll stimulate some healing. So that's the current state of affairs.

Here's what's got me intrigued...a new book I ordered called "Asthma-Free Naturally" by Patrick McKeown, on the Buteyko Breathing Method. The theory of the book is that asthma is caused by inadequate levels of carbon dioxide. I've been having trouble talking for the last couple of months and it clearly explained why talking is an stressor, it depletes your carbon dioxide! A light bulb moment. You'd think that an asthma breathing method would involve DEEPER breathing, wouldn't you? Wrong! The Buteyko method is to train yourself to breath LESS. Less breathing increases your levels of carbon dioxide. The more carbon dioxide you have in your body the longer you can hold your breath. According to the book, after exhaling easily (don't expel all the air in your lungs, just naturally breath out) you should be able to hold your breath for 40 seconds (if you're healthy and asthma free). Mind you, that's not 40 seconds and then gasping for air, that's 40 seconds until your first "hunger for air". After that 40 seconds you aren't gasping for air, but only need a breath like the one you took before you held your breath. I can go 15. After doing the breathing exercises in the book I can go 20. The book makes a pretty compelling case I must say.

I've got nothing to lose and everything to gain, so I'm going to do the exercises as prescribed...20-30 minutes 3 times a day. I'm keeping track of my controlled pause (how long you can comfortably hold your breath) in a spreadsheet, so I'll be tracking my progress. Should be interesting!

That's it! Reactive Airways Dysfunction Syndrome

Dr. Mike has found the answer to what's been going on with my lungs since July 5th.

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 a
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.

Yes! 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.

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!

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.