So this is me PRE-evening symbicort. I don't know how in the heck I managed to hit 620(103%) but I did many times(I repeated because I couldn't believe it). The humidity has been around 85-100% all day so my lungs have not been happy campers. As a fluke one time I hit 730 or so when I was trying out my peak flows. I'm not sure why I'm so completely green without any ventolin in like 10ish hours but I'm not going to complain. Hopefully this nice little green thing will last through til saturday afternoon. Past that it doesn't really matter since I don't have anything especially strenuous planned. Actually it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if they did act up a bit next week since I'm due to see the allergist and he could see the crazy stuff they try to pull on me.

Well the big day is almost finally here. In exactly 6 days I'll be hearing the starting gun go off. I'm hoping I'm ready to run the 5k. My lungs and their shenanigans have put me about 3 weeks behind schedule on the couch to 5k program. At this point I'm still determined to do the 5k it will be a good motivator for me even if I do end up walking for some of it. I haven't really made it longer than about 3.5k yet on a run which kind of worries me if I'm going to be ready for that last 1.5k. I'm also trying to start preparing the mental check list of everything I need to get ready and carry for the run and plotting how to carry it all. All and all I'm just hoping that my hormones will behave so that the lungs will follow suit. I'm guessing at this point I'll probably do some kind of run so many minutes followed by a minute or two walk. I'm hoping to finish under 50 minutes but honestly just crossing the finish line will make me pretty happy. I'm not looking to break any records especially considering that there is a good chance of rain and/or hot temperatures. If all goes well I'll keep up the training and hopefully run another 5k in the fall up at school (a little faster or all running or perhaps both next time :P).

So I didn't really get any pictures but I was at Six Flags for the majority of the day. It was a nice 80ish(28ishC) degree day so my lungs behaved for me for the most part. I did take two hits of ventolin before we hit the water park just to be sure that I didn't have trouble in the pool where I'd be far from the inhaler. May or may not have needed to premedicate for that one. I mean in all honesty I should have premedicated for the entire adventure multiple times. You see not only was I wandering the park like all the rest of my fellow roller coaster junkies I also was pushing my best friend. She uses a wheelchair and the terrain is uneven and hilly enough that I have to help push her around most of the time. I don't feel like I missed out by skipping my running workout today at all.
I was really super excited that I didn't need my inhaler at all today other than a little preventive premedication. Of course as I say this my lungs are starting to twitch... maybe there should be some post medication??Can you post medicate for something when you were running around doing it for 8ish hours? Is that legal in AsthmaLand(I think I've just invented a new universe that runs parallel to the normal people universe :P) or does that just count as rescue inhaler use. These are the questions that plague my life. Alas I digress in search of my spacer and ventolin.

So the hot muggy weather is still here for some fun breathing conditions. It seems to be temporarily giving us a reprive for the next day or two but then it will be back in full force no doubt. I thus have been not getting much training in for the 5k which disconcerts me as it is a mere 12 days away and I'm not looking too good for getting the running in I need to really be ready for the race. I'm not really trying to break any records or place or anything. I just really want to be able to run it.
However, as of late the lungs have been doing a fun almost flare thing. I'm not exactly flaring. I'm hovering right on the yellow/green line 78-81 percent up to 85 right after meds-o'clock. I definitely had a bit of an attack yesterday after I ran down 3 flights of stairs, across the street, and up 2 flights of stairs in under a minute to try to catch the train(I made it through the closing doors). I was talking to a friend on the train and every few words I would have to stop to breathe. My chest was super tight and I kinda sounded wheezy with a light cough but it was hard to tell since I barely had a voice from all the talking at work. 
I'm not sure but it felt like I might have been air trapping. I can't tell if I was just feeling way super tight or if it was more of a feeling of air being stuck in my lungs that made me feel so miserable. Today I've just felt tight and slightly labored in the breathing dept. My posture has definitely taken on a kind of hunched over stance when seated that makes it easier to draw in air.  I'm not at the point of calling the Doctor yet. I clear up with a hit or two of ventolin so nothing too serious right now. However, I'm hoping this is just a little dip in the road that will flatten it self out in the next day or two.

So as of late my lungs have been mildly cooperative at best. Some of this undoubtedly relates to the fact that our air quality around here has been yellow most of the time, when the air quality doesn't stink it's because it's raining cats and dogs outside (time to start on the arc!). Finally, I'm still recovering from the week off antihistamines. That really tanked me down like a yellow submarine(okay so the ventolin is exaggerating my puny-ness). On top of that my hormones decided it would be a good time to mess with me too.
Basically it boils down to me and the little  blue guy have been seeing way too much of each other as of late. Don't get me wrong I love my little ventolin but I'd really like to see quite a bit less of it. I mean I'm definitely not in full blown flare by any means. I hit the ventolin up maybe once or twice in a day which isn't too horrible for me and flares. However, I really do want to get back to pounding the pavement and in generally not feeling gross all the time. So in a moment of weaker judgment today I went out for a run after it had started to cool off for the evening. I don't know if it was the heat or what but even with premedicating I still ended up all tight by the time I got home. I took another two hits of the inhaler then which loosened me up. It's now precisely 4 hours later and I'm starting to tighten up again.
Darn my lungs and their inability to tolerate this heat/humidity. It's really going to cramp my style if I can't get back to training for the 5k. I do want to run it so badly. It is not just a physical goal but also a mental one. Finishing the 5k with at least a good chunk of running for me will symbolize a victory over my asthma and allergies. I know that this is just a small victory in a long and endless war. However, being able to do something that literally would have never dreamed of until I read some of the other asthma blogs out there is really a big mental step for me. It is just a few physical steps. However, it breaks down the wall between me and the idea of being physically fit. Last spring/winter when I was literally gasping for breath just to make it up the stairs (not out of shape mind you); I thought I'd never exercise again.  I couldn't breathe enough to laugh, power walk, or do the stairs. I pretty much gave up on being able to hit the rower or the elliptical at the gym ever again. At that point success to me was being able to make it around campus to classes or sharing a good laugh with friends without stopping to cough up a lung. With some symbicort and a bit of TLC my lungs have made it to that point. I still wheeze quite a bit when laughing but I have always done that and probably always will.
The new goal is to get my buns in shape. I managed to loose a whopping 14 lbs between my annual check-ups with Dr. Z(PCP). While I don't care if I loose and ounce (okay so maybe I do a little), I really want to be able to run and bike and swim like I used to when I was a carefree kid. Okay, so I never really did these things very well as a kid because I was always stopping to catch by breath/cough(hmm.... early warning sign anybody?). Who says I can't let my inner child turn into a runner after all? Now seems like a good time to stop rambling.

So I went to the allergist yesterday. It went pretty well, he's super nice and seems to be a good fit. I've got my first pair of epi-pens ever. They kind of scare me quite a bit at this point. I know that they are most likely never going to get used. However, it just scares me to think that I might have a reaction to latex that is bad enough that I would need to use one.
I've also gotten the addition of singulair to take for a test run this month. I'm hoping it will help me out with the allergy/asthma craziness. I have gotten recognition of the elephant in the room. I do in fact have asthma and a latex allergy officially.  It's nice to know I'm not just a hypochondriac. I've also as such been told to wear a medical alert tag. I have one I just am not the best about wearing it.
The other thing that has also been decided as part of the whole allergist thing is that I'm going to start getting allergy shots for mold and dust allergies. It should be an interesting adventure doing them, but hopefully it will help the allergies not be so horrible.
My 5k training this last week as well as anything really requiring brain function has pretty much been non-existent. I had to be off anti-histamines which didn't really work out so well for me in terms of not just being completely worn out all the time. I'm hoping to get back to pounding the pavement in the next day or two once I've got a good handle on the allergies. I apologize if this is pretty much rambling I'm pretty tired and pretty scared by the whole epi-pen thing.

So, I've been away from this blog for a while. Mostly time has gotten away from me, since I've been working a lot. I've also started on a Project 365. Which is a photo blog that follows my adventures with one photo each day.
I have been making progress on my 5k training I'm up to running for about 16 of 30 minutes and covering about 2.5 miles. I've got about 29 days til the 5k for a medical clinic in Haiti. It's going to get harder to train since the muggy, smoggy summer is just about upon us.
The lungs have been behaving pretty well as of late. They are a little iffy right now since I'm off antihistamines to go to the allergist next week. I'm also probably having a little hormal stuff going down in the lung department as well. We'll see how it all plays out but for the moment they are behaving for the most part.