Thursday, September 12, 2013

My body is fighting me but I am fighting it back

Well it hasn't been the greatest week. Mentally, I'm on top of the world! Physically, hmm, not so much!
So of course my right foot has been giving me a fair bit of grief as previously mentioned, though it has been less sore since I have been having a rest from wearing the runners.
As I've also mentioned, I've been wondering if I've been getting asthma, despite not having it since I was a little kid.
Last night when I was at my wonderful doc's, getting yet another dust mite desensitising injection (one fortnightly one to go before I start monthly jabs!), I mentioned it. She had a look up my nose, and said no wonder I couldn't breathe through it as both nostrils were nearly entirely occluded (blocked off) with nasal polyps which develop when you've got chronic rhinitis/sinusitis like I have had for the past couple of years. Greattttt. And she says yup, what I've described is definitely asthma, and probably worsened by the fact I can't breathe through my nose, as the nose plays a vital role in humidifying the air before it hits the lungs, as cold air makes your air passages close up.
So anyway, I'm to use a steroid nasal spray morning and night, use an asthma puffer (steroid & to widen my airways) morning and night, and if we're still not making progress, she's going to put me on oral steroids to try and shrink the polyps, which she otherwise says will take forever to decrease in size (surgery is an option but she says they often just grow back).
I'm happy to get started on the puffer & love the idea of being able to breathe through my nose again but the thought of oral steroids doesn't excite me as I know they lead to weight gain, bloating, and other yucky side effects.
Anyway, in more positive news, I had some thick insoles in some old shoes at my parents place, which fit in my new runners, and elevate my heel to the point where my bone is no longer bashing against the side of the shoe. Happy days! Today I tentatively (keeping my recent asthma diagnosis in mind, plus my physio's 'NO RUNNING!' advice) set out to see if I got pain in my legs after a while. Because of asthma and just starting on meds the previous night, I walked some of the way, but managed a bit over 10k including hills in about 1hr 7min. Not a bad effort. And the best part is, I got NO pains in the part of my foot that has been hurting recently, and I didn't get pains in my knee til about the 9k mark. I did get some pains in the outside of my left knee (great!!!) but I may just need to take the extra insole out of that shoe. We shall see! Came home and jumped around for a while to take the cal burn to 1004. If I can get on top of my asthma a half-marathon may be do-able after all :)

Thursday
Big day of driving (2hr45min) & long day at hospital placements & then at docs & chemist, so no exercise today. Days like this only happen once a fortnight so I'm okay with that. Unfortunately didn't reign it in food-wise too well, so ate about 1500cals including going out for dinner & having a mexican bean burger & chips :P

3 comments:

  1. Congrats on getting out and having a go, I think your time is awesome for a 10k walk.
    Keep up the great work!
    ~Michelle~

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  2. Thanks so much Michelle! I think I probably walked 2-2.5k out of the 10, the rest was done at a very slow jog just to test out my lungs and ankle, haha!

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  3. Wow!! My 10km was slower than that on the Bridge to Brisbane! That's pretty great :) At least your legs are feeling a bit better and I hope your nose does soon too!

    It's good to hear that you're in a good head space as well :)

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