Who knew?

Last year I started hitting my Tri Training hard during the peak of allergy season.  While I had already been working on my labor breathing while working out in the gym, I really struggled outside.  There were times I could barely catch my breath.   I was a little puzzled by this, but thought it was related to pushing up my training.  After hitting a wall with my allergies I went to see an allergist to learn I have severer pollen allergies.  My severe allergies had lead to what the doctor believe to be I had allergy induced asthma.  He prescribe various medications which included an inhaler called ProAir and allergy shots.  The inhaler made a huge difference when pushing myself outside.

Fast forward to this year, my breathing is much less labored.  My allergies are seemingly better, yet in the past few weeks I've been experiencing "breathing issues".  I emailed my doctor in hopes of getting my inhaler renewed feeling disappointed that even with allergies being better, my breathing issues were worse.  When the doctor called to discuss it with me, he started asking me a few question about what was going on.  Turns out those coughing attacks, wheezing when laughing really hard, tightness in the chest while running, that's asthma.  Who knew?  I guess I just had a different imagine of asthma in my mind.  I attributed so many of the asthma symptoms with being overweight.  So many of my health issues have gotten better due to losing weight, blood pressure, aches and pains, etc.  I just figure this was another on that would get better as I lost weight.   Now I'm trying a new inhaler and the minute I took my first dose, I was able to take a deep and wonderful breath. 

While I'm disappointed about this new bump in the road, I'm thankful for having tools to help me treat it.  I go back to the doctor Friday as he would like to do additional breathing tests etc.  I find it a little amusing that as I get smaller this is one issue that isn't getting better, rather it's getting worse.  Maybe it's because I didn't have it before, maybe it's because I didn't pay attention before, or maybe it's because I never pushed my body hard enough.  Regardless it's something I'll get used to and learn to treat in a manageable way.

Tomorrow Pam and I do the Race for the Cure 5K.  I'm excited and nervous at the same time.  I'm really proud and honored to be there for Pam's first race event.   She's come so far and she is so amazing.  Time to head to bed so I'm extra rested.  I'll post about it tmrw after the event.

Unstoppable "got my breath back" Mariah