Thursday, October 13, 2011

I am on steroids!

I don't go to the doctor....except for annual checkup at GYN because well I have to.  But I don't get sick and I don't go to the general practitioner.  Hadn't been in at least 3 years.  Until I started running...
I have a spinal condition called spondylolisthesis and when I first started running I was (and still am) having a lot of back and hip pain so I went in to get checked to make sure running wasn't making it worse.  The doctor said everything looked okay and that I needed to strengthen my core and sent me off with an anti-inflammatory and some muscle relaxers.  Which I don't take.  Because I'm not very good at taking medicine.  I don't like it and I don't remember to do it.  I did take 1 muscle relaxer.....I couldn't do anything the entire next day.  The anti-inflammatory only works if you take it regularly and doesn't really kick in for 2 or 3 days.  So I'm sticking to my ibuprofen and aleve.
But yesterday I was back at the doctor's office.  I really don't feel horrible.  I felt like I might be coming down with something and usually when I feel like that I deny that I'm sick and take some airborne...ya know, just in case.  But during my runs this week I have not been able to breathe after about 10 minutes.  Like literally gasping for air and feeling like my lungs are closing up. And then coughing and tightness after. Normally I would think okay time to take some Airborne and rest up a little.  BUT, I'm running a 5k on Saturday morning.  And since my last one took me 43 minutes I'm thinking that not being able to breathe for the last 33 minutes would not be good.  I thought they would give me something to break up the mucus that I just knew was beginning to fill up my chest and maybe give me an inhaler to use to make sure my lungs were opened up on Saturday.
My lungs were clear.  She asked me if I had acid reflux.  Well yeah and it's really bad, but I came in here because I can't breathe, not because I wake up in the middle of the night choking on yuck stuff from my esophagus (ok, gross, I know.)  Apparently it turns out that somehow acid reflux can trigger bronchospasms.  And so can running in cold weather.  And the weather here has just gotten colder over the past couple of weeks.  So I have been diagnosed with exercise induced bronchospasms and acid reflux.  I left the office with 3 prescriptions.  Which I am going to do my best to take.  I did get an inhaler to use before running and remembering that won't be a problem.  A 5 day dose of oral steroids to help with breathing should also be easy to take since it's a short time.  But I also ended up with a prescription for an acid reflux medicine that I have to take EVERY DAY....for 4 MONTHS!  I'm gonna try but not sure how that one is gonna go.  Did I mention I don't like taking medicine?
Took the steroids this morning and discovered a wonderful side effect.   My hips didn't hurt all day!  Then I ran tonight...2.8 miles.  My right hip did start hurting by mile 1 but my left hip did not hurt at all and still doesn't!  Now my only problem is that I have gotten slightly out of shape over the last couple of weeks from not being able to run as long, but I still took about 30 seconds off of my mile pace tonight so my goal Saturday is just to beat 43 minutes....I'm a really slow runner I know....

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