Don't Try This At Home

For the first time in my life I have been taking care of my asthma in a manner that my pulmonologist approves of.  I am exercising, taking my prescribed medications on a regular basis and I am dieting.  As I feel better and better, deep in the recesses of my mind I have wondered, “Do I really need to take all this medication?”  It is tough to avoid the thought, “Is it all the exercise that is really doing the trick, and is the medication really just working due to a placebo effect?”  I got my answer this past Sunday.

After a tough, but not out of the ordinary, bike training on Sunday morning, I put on my running sneakers and went out on a run with some of my TNT teammates.  I take that last statement back.  I put my sneakers on and intended to go out on a run.  About .25 miles in to the run I stopped running and started to jog and, soon enough, I was wogging.  I struggled tremendously to complete a 2.5 mile run (considering that I ran 5 miles on Friday, I was very disappointed) and when I got back to my car I felt as tired and as beat up as I have felt in a long time.  During my last mile I was really upset, feeling like my training had hit a wall and, worse, I had taken a major step backwards.  A few of us were talking after running, and I said, offhand, to a teammate, “I guess I should have taken my Xopenex this morning.”  Xopenex is a fast acting inhaler that I use in more extreme circumstances, but I try to use it sparingly.  It was at that moment, with my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath that I realized that not only did I fail to take my Xopenex, I hadn’t taken my Advair, which is a medication delivered by an inhaler, which I must take twice a day, without fail.

My mind was flooded with a plethora of realizations, among them: (i) I am an idiot for forgetting to take my medication; (ii) apparently, Advair really does work, and it is not just a placebo; (iii) I had just done bike training and ran 2.5 miles without taking a key asthma medication – that is pretty awesome, all things considered; (iv) I had just done bike training and ran 2.5 miles without taking a key asthma medication – and I could have ended up in the hospital, brilliant!

So, please, if you happen to see me out running/biking/swimming, and especially on race day, please ask me if I have taken ALL of my medication that I am supposed to take.  If you can help it, ask me before I start exercising…