So 2011 was more or less uneventful-ish. I walk/ran/swam/erg'd 1100km that I remembered to log on daily mile. Did a few races including my first triathlon(super short sprint). My asthma and allergies were pretty much stable. Same meds, same jabs at various frequencies with allergens. No prednisone, ER visits, or epipens used! New diagnosis: PCOS. Same admonishments to loose weight and get in shape.

I admit to being inconsistent at doing goals and stuff and sticking to them. But here's some hopes/dreams/goals whatever you want to call them for 2012:

1. Get the heck off symbicort or at least on less symbicort(Dr. B said if the winter goes well he'd consider changing my asthma meds but didn't elaborate)I'd like my voice back to normal
2. Finish a Marathon.(I'm hoping for the St. Louis Rock & Roll marathon in October)
3. Reach the top of the Rock Climbing Wall(I just learned to belay about a month and a half ago)
4. Weigh less than 80kg/175lbs (would put me out of the "obese" bmi range)
5. Faster time at the same Sprint Triathlon.
6. Finish rowing/erging my million meters.
7. Finish Half Marathon (Looking at the Go Girl! Run in Mid Missouri in May) Corollary to #2.
8. Do the fitness ladder workout daily.
9. Get a "real" adult job.
10. Significantly reduce the amount of soda/sugared soft drinks I consume.

I'm going to endeavor to accomplish these things I hope my list isn't too long however, I feel like it helps that most of the goals overlap. Here's to a fitter 2012.

I was chatting with Kerri tonight on facebook and mentioned that I'm not really sure if I should keep up with writing here. I will be the first to admit I'm not really much of a writer. I mean I can write a research paper like nobody's business. I have an analytical scientific mind, always have probably always will. This whole blogging thing... not so much my strong suit. As you can see senior year (take 2, yep I'm a 5th year) has been keeping me pretty busy and away from the computer.

However, there are weekends like this past weekend where I feel like I'm barely human. I do homework between naps and spend a lot of my time in bed with my laptop or propped up with pillows on the floor with books or my laptop around me trying to get studying done. By the time 8 or 9pm rolls around I'm so worn out that there just isn't anyway I'm going to get to have fun Friday night plans. I might stay up to watch something on Netflix but otherwise nothing wild is happening here. Just gonna take my evening meds, a dose of ventolin to keep my lungs open while I sleep and curl up in bed. The part of this that makes it so hard is that I *only* have a cold. It's isolating to have friends who don't get it. Yes, I'm not well, but no I'm not going to completely put my life on hold. Sometimes I just need to scream at the world.

I also don't need the sympathy good job from my friends when I finish yet another 5k in 40 some odd minutes. Guess what you all are healthy 20 year olds whose brains process motor skills instructions in a "normal" fashion. At the end of the race not only are my lungs yelling at me, my brain is too. It is just as fatigued as my muscles from the coordination efforts required. I realize that until you've walked a mile in my shoes(or intermittently fast forward motioned it) and I in yours neither of us will 'get it'. Life isn't perfect, I realize I've got it pretty good my future is bright but sometimes I just need to say how I feel without fear of judgement or sympathy or belittling of my achievement or current health situation.

One thing that has definitely always been a barrier to me really developing my writing that I didn't even really think about until recently is that handwriting is something I've struggled with. Keeping a journal is just never been my thing. I can't seem to keep and even keel to my writing in terms of spacing, pressure to the pen, and just general flow. Don't ask me why I excel at typing as a motor skill and suck so much at printing out my words. Perhaps some of the blame falls to the evolution of society as a whole. We have moved away from the handwritten word and towards electronic composition. Typing is a skill I need to survive. My slow sloppy inconsistent handwriting gets me by for the things that I need it to, like writing checks and short notes to people.

Hey Y'all.
Clearly the whole National Blog Month thing didn't go very well for me. I did however do a 5k on November 20th. It was right above freezing. My lungs weren't very happy campers (read at least 6 puffs of ventolin was involved in this adventure). I didn't have a very good finish time: 45:37, official times TBA. I did jog quite a bit. I also felt like I was breathing shards-o-glass. I'm pretty sure I finished last. I was too busy balling my hands up in side my jacket to take pictures. The temperature didn't get me so much as the wind. It was an okay time. I think the fitness goals for the winter are going to shift more towards swimming or rowing or something indoorsy.
As you can see quite a spikey intermittent forward motion fitness event. I know the distance and time are a bit off. I started it a little early and ended it a little late(the water cooler was mighty tempting). I did get to try out a new bra "shock absorber" quite nice, really keeps the girls from bouncing pretty well. The course was around St. Louis University's campus, which is decently pretty. The markings would've been better had the weather not been kind of a foggy/misty/dampness outside since they used sidewalk chalk. All on sidewalk which was nice. Quite a few decent hills which is where most of the slow downs in speed comes from. The track club which puts the event together was out at every turn to point you in the right direction. Maybe about 50-75 people did the event, which was a benefit for the canned food drive/campus food pantry in the holiday season. It was good to get back in the saddle even if it wasn't a PR by a long shot.

At present fitness is kind of on hold. I'm working on a nice cold thing that has gone down to my lungs. It was up in my head most of this week and then moved down into my chest over the last 24 hours or so. Which is fun or something. So far just a nasty cough and short of breath. Not much peakflow drop which is good I guess. Homework has got me pretty well buried. Finals are not this week but the next. I'll try to be more bloggy, as finals permit.

So today I took the jump and am signed up for the local Turkey Trot back home it's a 5k at Local Catholic University benefiting a food bank. Yes, I walked a 9k 2 weekends ago. No, I'm not feeling ready for this 5k. Hopefully, I can do something not embarassing at it. It could be anything from sunny and in the 50's(F) to snowing and single digits(f) I have some decent cold weather tops and I have ordered some legit cold weather pants from Title 9, which should be here along with some new bras (yay!) in the next few days. Since me and athletic in the winter don't exactly go together and I should really stop wearing the aweful cotton stretch pants I've worn the last few times I went out in the frigid. I need to for reals formulate a training plan and get my butt in gear, in hopes of not finishing last. Which would probably mean a p/r cause the looking at some old results the last finishers were at like 30 minutes... Maybe I should see if it's not too late to walk the 3k instead?

I think I got that acronym right. It's november, I'm on the rag, the lungs are cranky(oh hai 400 (66%), I didn't miss you!). I'm going to attempt this whole national blog posting month. I wouldn't be suprised if I fail at it. After all lately school has kind of eaten my life. I owe you a race report (or is it two), and a bunch of other catching up on life.I'm also woefully behind on updating my daily mile, and overall keeping up with much health related other than the taking of meds. Hopefully an attempt at a post a day will help me get back in the blogging swing of things, don't hold your breath though.

I was in 7th grade this day in 2001. An akward tortoise shell glasses wearing young girl, 12.5 years old, math nerd, and just about to get braces put on my teeth to correct an overbite. While that day I grew into a young woman it only partially had to do with the terrorism attack that occured that day. I was already a New York Times reading, NPR listening, investment making kind of kid. I've been going on 40 for quite some time now :P.

We'll it's been quite some time that i've been rambling along on here. I have just moved back to school for a final year of intellectual stimulation and degree completion and such. I've used way too many spoons in the last few days. I'm probably going to end up sleeping it off at some point this weekend. The lungs have been decent all and all, I've been SOB a bit. However, I'm pretty sure on the list of stuff your not supposed to do with allergic asthma includes heavy lifting moving oneself into a ResHall out of the Parent's Basement, on a yellow air quality day, that you got allergy shots on...oops. So shoot me. I apologize for the lack of creative title. This post is post 101 on this blog: pretty self explanatory.

On a tangentially related note I'm considering leaving blogger for something that doesn't make me want to tear out my hair when I try to deal with pictures. Which could have something to do with my utterlack of motorskills concerning a multi-touch trackpad. Yes, I've had a computer with one for 1.5 years and still can't do much other than pointing and clicking and two finger scroll with it. I haven't even mastered drag and drop without the physical mouse button hence my lack of OS X upgrade at present....motor skill fail. This has been kinda hard for me. I don't generally do new stuff much anymore so this whole learning motor behaviors has been kinda bringing me to tears of frustration.

A random thought: Went to the pharmacy today to pick up a symbicort refill which involved transferring it from LocalGroceryChain Store near Summer research to another store of the same chain in my college town. When the lady pulled it up in the computer the "refills were void". I know i still had refills left, I hand carried a freshly written paper copy of the script to the Pharmacy near Research this summer I had 4 refills left. Frantic call to Dr. B's office later, with the explanation that the pharmacy screwed up somehow and needed a new one called/faxed/escribed into oh-yeah my not-home-pharmacy-that-you-don't-have-on-file. Thankfully Dr. B was in and sent it in in relatively short order and I had all the relevant numbers/address/name of the pharmacy handy. Cause these things lower one's stress level on the first day of classes.

I've also been putting off a follow up with Dr. Z I'm like wwwaaayyy overdue for an annual check up cause I don't want to face the scale. I haven't really put on weight but it also hasn't disappeared. I did put in an electronic request for an appt this evening. So I should know by monday at the latest if I can sneak that in over fall break or not. I will probably have come to the end of my vials and need to make an appointment with Dr. B too over fall break.

I've been somewhat away from the internet for the last few weeks. I'm in the middle of a whirlwind of moving back to my parent's house for about 3 weeks and then it's back to my college town. My EpiPens just expired(unused!) so I got some new shiney ones that don't have a year's worth of scuffs on them and pocket lint worked into the protective tube.

I don't mean to keep making excuses for why I'm not writing on here. I really do have intentions of getting back to writing on here. The transition to living away from home at State University has been slightly less than smooth. I've also had a bit of a hard time acclimating to the warmer weather. Between the stress of the new surroundings, recovering from the latex encounter over Memorial Day weekend, and all the day to day stuff that happens in the life of a busy college student I've not had the energy to write. The lungs have been atypically cranky spent a lot of time in the lime green which just zaps the energy. The fact of the matter is also that it is almost 5k of daily walking to get from my ResHall to the research lab and lunch and back. I have been doing a lot of napping in my free time outside my 40 hour work week. Not knowing people here who get that I don't look sick but some days dragging myself out of bed and staying upright really is an accomplishment. I mean I still have those friends who talk to online but they aren't around in person for a hug. Things are looking up, I'm getting settled and I intend to have some proper posts soon.

So I'm involved with the Residence Hall Association on my university's campus and we are affiliated with the National Association of College and University Residence Halls. Our school went to the national conference this past weekend in Macomb, IL at Western Illinois University. It was a fun weekend full of presenations about different events and issues related to ResHall living as well as legislation for the governing of the national association and regional affliates.

However, as part of the decoration there were many balloons, thankfully not in the ResHalls where we were staying. This did not do happy things to my body or lungs. I took lots of benadryl and the reactions waxed and waned. I was better when I was away from it but still pretty darn miserable. I did have a few good moments where I was up to taking the stairs to our floor(11th, with a super slow elevator). However, overall it was pretty well bendryl and ventolin every 4-6 hours.  I'm ready to be back to normal. My body is still pretty wore out but my lungs have started to bounce back today. Still have some congestion going on in my ears and sinuses. I'm glad to be feeling human again. I know I owe you a 12 of 12 from may as well as a race report from the 80's run in May and a doctor visit update.  Life has been hectic and now that I'm settled in at the state university for summer research I should have some time to do some more writing.

So I haven't disappeared into the abyss I swear. Just the library(darn finals/end of semester)! Alas the end has come and gone and I shall re-commence some proper blogging. Today I turned 22, I didn't really do anything special like at all. I worked, hung out with the family for mother's day and that's about it. No big deal. I didn't actually blow out candles today. We'll have cake and such some other day. Since I've been home for  a whole 24 hours I kind of wanted to just have a break before the festivities.  Plus I need to do some serious un/repacking since I've got a summer research fellowship at the State University about halfway between my parent's place and my college. The lungs/allergies have been freaking awesome. I haven't seen a number below 590(95%) other than right after the Tri and even then I was still in the green. I could definitely get used to this. Haven't been doing to much training for the 5k that is on Saturday :/. I've been moving things out of the reshall out to wahzzoo so hopefully that will keep me in shape enough. I did run up the big staircase by work this afternoon on my lunch break(without stopping or premedicating, somewhere around 90 steps in the staircase). Anywho just a quick drive-by birthday post.

Official times have not been posted yet, but I finished last at somewhere around 1:15. Edit: Official Time: 1:11:32, splits: 2:44/5:05/38:19/1:21/24:03. The swim went well, no cap for me since the numbered ones were latex. The extra drag didn't really bother me. I wasn't trying to set any records. Swim went well... took it relatively slow, did manage to pass one person (we started individually with 20 second spacing between people). Just kept it long and good form, with flip-turns and lots of gliding under the water to conserve energy for later.
I dried off and put real underwear on/took my suit off to reveal the sports bra already on underneath. Tossed my running shorts on as well as a singlet and socks and shoes. I did manage to pin thru my singlet on one of the pins so I had to fix that right quick during Transition 1. Put my helmet, sunglasses, and camelbak on and grabbed my bike. The course was relatively flat, a couple big hills nothing too major. Had a nice tailwind on the way out, and a few people behind me/close to me. At some point I got overtaken by the other fat chick/non-atheletic non-size-2 person. Then it was just Ivy the bike repair dude behind me. He was great and cheering everybody on and such. Not having a road bike definitely made it hard to keep up with the folks on road bikes.  That and some killer wind coming off the nice rolling fields on either side of us for a good deal of the ride. It was a headwind that was also trying to blow us into the oncoming traffic(wasn't a closed course) on the way back. That wind really kicked my butt.
>
I tossed my camelbak, helmet, jacket(which I had but didn't wear the whole bike ride), and bike in the transition area and was off to 'run'. I use the term run loosely. My legs were pretty tight/wobbly, after biking. I walked it out to the first hill we were headed out to. Jogged down the hill and part way up the next hill. Walked the rest of the way up the hill, jogged down. Pretty well jogged the flat  parts and downhills and walked the uphills. I was just plumb tuckered out by this point. However the watered down Gatorade I'd been sipping on all of the bike ride definitely hit me at this point and I got a bit of a second burst of energy. I was running next to the bike rider who was the "tail" for the race. Her name escapes me at the moment she was super nice and talked to me the whole way. The best thing that sticks out is "You know what they call the last person who finishes the race 'a triathalete' that's something less than 5% of the population can claim".
There wasn't a clock at the finish but looking at my phone I estimated the finish time. There was good post race munchies and I got my finisher's medal. The lungs behaved really nicely the whole time. I woke up in ultra mega double-plus green(read 102%), took 2 puffs of symbicort and 2 puffs of ventolin before heading out for the event. Didn't need anymore ventolin the whole course. Took 2 more puffs before I laid down for a post race nap which was after some delicious french toast with a friend who volunteered as a course guide person for the event.
The event was a lot of fun since it was women's only, lots of cheering(the other racers all cheered as I ran past as the last finisher) and good job-ing and high-fives. Not that that doesn't happen with co-ed races too but it was just a really fun environment. If I do it again I'd get my hands on a road bike for the event and do more training rather than going oh hey look that's in 2 weeks that could be fun. I'm really glad that road construction forced the bike portion to be cut short by 2 miles. I'm not sure how well I would've faired with a longer course. Oh and I got a confirmation email with some details(parking, race map etc) for my '80's themed 5k in 2 weeks that promises to be "totally boss". It's weird to think that I can lay claim to the title 'triathlete'. If you said that to me before I would've asked you what you were smoking. I apologize for the lack of action shots, I was busy trying to finish the race :P.

So I ended up doing a little impromptu exercise with my friend Ryan this evening. We decided to go for a jog. Which seemed like a good idea at the time, we had somewhere to be, and both of us are trying to get in shape. It is a little colder than it has been recently outside but still above freezing, between that an a lack of warm up and premedication I got to the last little stretch and was audibly wheezing, which never happens. Ryan was a little freaked out by this, also my inhaler and spacer seemingly came out of nowhere. I have forgotten that it is scary to other people when you can't breathe. I wasn't particularly worried yes I wasn't feeling great but I've def been worse. I took two hits and we went into our destination.

Later this evening he was asking me if I thought it was scary or if I was afraid to run because of it. And I was like no, I normally don't have problems and I carry my inhaler/epipens. It's no fun to live in fear, plus there is too much going on to let asthma get in the way. Now that he kind of understands what to expect and that I'm most likely not dying, he's a lot better about it. The lungs have perked up now. 

Well it's been a year since I sat down one night and decided to try out this whole blogging thing. I've learned a lot, lived a lot, run a bit, coughed some, gotten off the couch, and made some great friends. It's certainly been an interesting year, I've gotten an "official" asthma diagnosis(not shocking), as well as a PCOS diagnosis(slightly more suprising), and allergies under the best control they've been in in years. Overall I'd say I'm in a lot better place now than I was this time last year. Yes, I still inhale more ventolin and symbicort than I'd like. This is a better control place than I've been in a long time. I like it but I know we/I can do better. I feel like the dose of maintenance meds I'm on is kind of overkill. Yes, I'm controlled but I feel like the dose might be able to be titrated lower. One thing I'd say for sure these days is that my asthma isn't "mild" as I said in my first post on here. Yes, I keep marching on but with some pretty hardcore ICS/LABA on board.

Credit: WikiMedia Commons

By the Numbers:
2 5k's
1460 puffs of Symbicort
358 Allegra Pills
1 5mi/8k Race
900ish puffs of Ventolin
83 blog posts
2252 hits on this blog
458+ km of forward motion
0 ER/Hospital Visits
0 Prednisone

Overall I like where this year in my life has gone and I look forward to a new chapter of awesomeness as I embark on year 2 of blogging. Goals for the year to come:
1. Get the weight under control.
2. Lower the dose of my maintainence meds.
3. Inhale less ventolin.
4. Complete at least a 1/2 marathon.
5. Run more, walk less when competing.
6. Finish Undergrad. 

Well it's been 2 years since the day I went to Student Health and they suspected allergic asthma and gave me a ProAir (albuterol) Inhaler. It's been a little under a year since the "official" diagnosis and a little under 2 years on symbicort. I've learned a lot, most importantly, sometimes if you don't laugh, you'll cry. hope some of these give you a chuckle.
You Know You have Asthma if:
1. You have ever slept with an inhaler (& spacer) under your pillow.
2. You are excited to have a backpack with a second water bottle pocket just the right size for a spacer, PFM, and your inhaler.
3. You have sent your inhaler through a washing machine cycle or two.
4. You can function on the jitters from albuterol and the craziness of oral steroids.
5. You are a regular at the pharmacy.
6. Exercise is a carefully planned for event.
7. One of your puffers is your favorite because it tastes better.
8. You have an obsession with doing walk/run events.
9. You know what 'evil candy' is and have a love/hate relationship with it.
10. You are on a first name basis with your doctor, and the nurses and receptionists in the office.
11. You find empty/expired inhalers in the strangest places.
12. You can't sleep for more than 12 hours without waking up to take your morning meds.
13. While being SOB isn't good, it has everything to do with your lungs and not your behavior.
14.  A complex set of spreadsheets charts the ups and downs of days and weeks.
15. Red/Yellow/Green are of two significances in your life and only one relates to traffic control.

from Graphics Fairy

As a part of the PCOS game plan I'm supposed to be loosing weight in hopes of improving my high cholesterol and out of wack periods. Additionally my blood pressure was ever so slightly elevated this last visit which is not great but not the end of the world. Don't get me wrong I'm not exactly enthused to we tipping the scale around 200 lbs at 5'4" tall. I know my weight isn't the healthiest. However, at present it's just feeling like a loosing battle. I log 20-40 or more Kilometers/week. It's not like I'm sitting on the couch just eating Doritos. Even the doctor was at a little bit of a loss, I'm pretty active, I eat more or less good for me. I don't eat meat or drink soda. I eat 'good' carbs like whole grains and fruits and veggies aka fibrous things. I've been doing the low fat low cholesterol thing since I was 13. It's not like I'm not trying. The other end of things is that unfortunately there are months like this one where I literally don't have the lung capacity to get out there and work out. I've had some kind of cold nastyness going for almost 3 weeks on and off. This pretty well puts much physical activity out of the question. I'd love to loose the weight and I'm trying my darnest to do so. It's not easy carrying a full load of classes, working part-time, and trying to balance asthma, allergies, and hormones out of wack while getting sleep and having a bit of a social life. I don't know what more to do, I will not give up I'm a fighter. I just wish that my activity level and eating habits were enough to make the scale tip at a lower level and please Dr. Z.

I'm on the last night in New York. It's been pretty awesome pictures will follow when I get home to my parents place. I've really enjoyed my time wandering the city. Our hotel has not been so great for the asthma front. The front entrance way smells extremely strongly of this orange perfume. Kind of like a giant plug in. Oh well you can't win at everything. Considering how much walking we've done the lungs have been pretty well behaved. I think the key to this was that I'm that nerd who brought my own dust mite cover with me. I've also been carrying symbicort with me so I don't miss doses. I'm pretty sure my symbicort has seen half the bathrooms in Manhattan I've been in. Lungs have been fairly copacetic. Walked about 15km that I remember the routes to and thus could map in the last day and a half. Had a hit or two of ventolin here or there. Nothing major. Knock on wood no problems with flying with all my asthma/allergy paraphernalia. Laters!

On the 12th of each month a bunch of people around the blogosphere take 12 pictures. 12 of 12 was created by Chad Darnell. I'll be posting some other visual aids in the next few days to recap my runs. :)