asthma

I haven't been writing about triathlon training since the Hawk Island Triathlon because there hasn't been any training since the race. When I finished the race I was wheezing and coughing quite a bit, but I didn't think much of it since I've felt like that after running in the past. I figured it was just more of the same and it would pass pretty quickly. Wrong. The day after the race I was still having a hard time breathing, so I called my dad's allergy/asthma doctor to see if I could get in. They were able to squeeze me in that afternoon, so I hopped in the car and headed down to Ann Arbor to find out what was going on. When the doctor listened to my breathing she asked how I was able to go to work that day. Not a good sign. She had me do a breathing treatment while I was there, but I was still wheezing after that. She gave me some steroids and an inhaler to take home. She said I should avoid exercise for a few days until the steroids could get my breathing under control. Unfortunately the steroids and inhaler didn't do the trick. Sunday night I laid in bed until after 2:00 am feeling like I couldn't breathe. I finally fell asleep, but I didn't sleep well. I called the doctor Monday morning and they said I should come in to get checked out again. I didn't want to drive to Ann Arbor again, so I went to the urgent care in Lansing. The doctor said I had a slight wheeze and she gave me another breathing treatment. She also wanted to do a chest x-ray just to make sure there wasn't anything else going on. The x-ray was clear, so she gave me a new steroid inhaler. This one seems to be doing the trick. I haven't had any problems since then and I'm feeling pretty good again. I'm scheduled to go back to the doctor in Ann Arbor for a breathing test to officially diagnose my asthma and to get a full allergy test (skin pricks and all). I'm hoping that I'll be able to get this under control so I can start training again. I was thinking about running a 5k later this month, but I don't see that happening since I haven't been able to run for almost 2 weeks. Mandi's dad is bringing her bike over tomorrow so we'll be able to start riding together and I think I'm going to try to join the Playmakers team ride on Sunday.