Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Anxiety on the bike trail

Part of the road in English Park.

On Saturday morning, my husband and I decided to bike in English Park, the park that runs along the river that I wrote about last week.
Last summer was the first time we rode our bikes in the park, and we biked on the road that circles the playing fields. It was good exercise, but we were literally going in circles. And we had to watch out for cars and walkers and slow down periodically for the speed bumps.
This spring, there’s a new road leading from the old part of the park to the new, still largely undeveloped part of the park. That’s the road we took Saturday.
The new road is gravel set in asphalt, a little rough, but smooth enough. It winds under a train trestle, but there’s a shelter built underneath to protect walkers, runners and bikers as they pass under.
Me before the coughing started.
Further back, the road narrows and is made up of dirt and gravels. It winds along beside the Staunton River, and soon all we could hear were the sounds of the water, birds singing, the wind in the trees and our own voices.
The road is fairly level, so we made good time, slowing down periodically to enjoy the sights. We were surrounded by green: trees, bushes and weeds. Sometimes rocks rose to our right, part of the river bluffs.
Then I started coughing.
I have asthma. My doctor calls it of medium severity, but I think I do pretty well most of the time. I use a maintenance inhaler, Advair, and I have a rescue inhaler.
That morning before we left for the park, I used my rescue inhaler because I was feeling a little wheezy and exercise sometimes brings on an asthma attack.
I didn’t use the Advair, and I’m sorry to say I had not used it the night before either.
I am usually a compliant patient in that once I’m on a medication, I take it as directed unless I have a problem with it, at which time I call the doctor.
But I’m different with Advair. It’s silly, really. I am supposed to take one puff twice a day. Easy enough. But I have to rinse my mouth after I use it, and sometimes I don’t think I have time to do that. So I skip a dose. Yes, that’s pretty silly.
Back on the trail in the park, we had biked through a section where something—blooms, pollen, something—was heavy in the air, and I started coughing.
We stopped and I drank some water. Still coughing. I was out of breath, and I just couldn’t bike any further. I took out my inhaler and told Larry I’d stay where we were and he could go on.
He rode further down the road.
You might wonder why I would have him go ahead of me when I was starting with an asthma attack. It’s because we’re used to them. I cough, get short of breath, use my inhaler, and get back to normal, and everything’s fine.
He rode out of sight, and I shook my inhaler and squeezed. Nothing came out. It was a dead inhaler.
By then, tears were running down my cheeks from the exertion of coughing, and my hands were shaking. I was coughing so hard that I thought I would surely throw up.
We were at least a mile from the truck, and even if I could get there, I didn’t have another inhaler. My extra was at home.
With no option of an inhaler, I decided I’d try to calm down the attack on my own. I let the coughs come out, and then I pushed my bike slowly back up the trail, towards the truck and towards some shade.
I drank some more water.
A photo I took while I was trying to calm down: rocks and trees.
And I tried to concentrate on the sounds around me. I don’t often get to a place where I can hear no human sounds, only nature’s sounds. I decided to savor them.
By the time Larry got back, I was calm and could breathe better. I was grateful that it had been a mild attack.
We rode on back to the truck, and I made it fine, though I was still coughing a little.
And when I got home? Yes, I used the Advair. It’s not a quick fix, but it’s time I started using as directed to help stave off these attacks.
Will I check my inhaler before the next bike ride? You know I will.

What’s the hardest thing you have to be willing to do to maintain good health?

25 comments:

  1. I am so glad you came through that experience ok Tina. My son had childhood asthma and I sat up with him many a night, all night long. It was so sad because he loved playing little league and and sometimes running the bases he would cough so much and at the base pull out his inhaler. It always scared me. He grew out of the asthma.
    The hardest thing I have to do to maintain my health is eat and drink on a regular basis. I get up and always say I will grab something for breakfast after I do this, that, or the other and I just get caught up in the day, then all of a sudden it is 4 pm and I haven't eaten anything and probably drank a cup of coffee or a cup of tea. I'm not going to eat so close to dinner, so I just wait till 5:30-6 pm and half the time feel sluggish or have a headache. I know it is terrible for me, but I just get busy and put eating off. I'm sure it is horrible for my metabolism too.

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    1. Krystal, I'm glad your son grew out of the asthma. I probably had it as a child--it just went undiagnosed until I was an adult.

      My husband is like you when it comes to eating. He will get up in the morning and do all kinds of work out in the yard and around the house and not eat a thing until he's finished. I usually eat something for breakfast. Sometimes I skip lunch but have plenty of snacks. :-(

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  2. I think your attention to your senses in the midst of crisis was so wise, Tina. Taking a photo (and thinking about how to blog the story?) took some of the misery away.

    As for myself, I suffer from muscle and skeletal strain when I write. The one thing I will not miss about NYC is writing on a dining table at a laptop!

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    1. Shirley, Yes, taking my attention away from how I felt helped. I have developed awful posture from non-ergonomic (is that a word?) seating arrangements when I am at the computer. I'm on it all day at work, and then I go home and do more. I tend to sit on the edge of my seat and lean forward. I'm trying to remember to get up and stretch more often than I've been doing.

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  3. Tina, Sounds like you really kept your cool and handled the situation as well as possible.....glad you are feeling okay now. My struggle to maintain good health is similar to a lot of people's.......trying to eat right, exercise, keep the stress down....it's not always easy but I try!

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    1. Thanks, Janet. It's not easy for me to eat right, etc. But all we can do is try!

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  4. Wow, Tina, that sounds scary! My hubs has mild asthma from time to time, but nothing like this. It's hard for me to think of anything in my life that would equate at all.

    The hardest thing for me to do to maintain health may sound strange, but I have trouble taking it easy. I lean toward trying to do too much in a day, both physically and mentally, and I have to manage my energy carefully. I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for many years, and I'd prefer not to have it come back!

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    1. Nadine, I wouldn't want it to come back either! You sound like a very busy and energetic person. I tend to go in spurts. When I'm working on a specific project, I tend to want to work straight through until I'm finished, even if I'm exhausted by the time it's all over.

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  5. Oh, that is absolutely horrible! I thought I had a difficult bike ride. I am so incredibly proud of you for using mindfulness to calm yourself down. I can't imagine how frightened you were, but you kept your wits about you and proactively helped yourself. I bet it ended up being a milder attack in part because you took control of your fear and allowed your body to relax some rather than tighten up. I'm so glad you're ok.

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    1. Oh, and to answer your question - I have to stop stuffing my face with carbohydrates all day long. I'm literally addicted to sugar. Ugh.

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    2. Thank you, Sunny! I was thinking scary thoughts, but somewhere inside I knew it wouldn't help.

      Addicted to sugar? You and me both. Sugar and bread. All the simple carbs. It's so hard to stay away from them!

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  6. I struggle with asthma too. It's not bad like when I was little, but sometimes it raises an issue when I'm racing, particularly if I forget to use my inhaler before. It makes me really anxious too when I start having symptoms, mostly I think because I remember how scary it was as a kid.

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    1. Lisa, I bet memories of childhood asthma do factor into the anxiety. I find that I feel "safer" if I know there's an inhaler nearby.

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  7. Wow, that sounds scary. I've only experienced a mild version of that once when I was cross-country skiing under the moonlight. I think the exercise and frigid air triggered something in my system (nothing a quick trip to the ER couldn't remedy). Thankfully it's not anything I've experienced regularly. I can't even imagine. Your calmness was powerful. I'm glad it all worked out for you.

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    1. Thank you, Becky. Cold weather is hard on me too, especially if the wind is blowing hard.

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  8. I can imagine what that must have been like and I am glad you made it through. I love the attitude of taking care of ourselfves, including taking asthma medicine. We can do it :)

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    1. Thanks, Jen. I like the idea of doing what I need to do to take care of myself, too.

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  9. Awh, man. I'm sorry to hear that you had anxiety/breathing trouble. It's so nice that you go bike riding, though! I've been wanting to get into it; I even bought myself a bike a few months ago. Unfortunately, I haven't done well with getting out there.

    I hope you're able to stay on track and keep up with it! Definitely remember your inhaler next time and, most importantly, remember that you are stronger than your disorder! :)

    All the best.

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    1. Alisha, I hope I can keep up with the biking too. We plan to go again later this week. Biking is good exercise, but it seems more like playing to me. :-)

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  10. You kept yor wits about you! Great job! What great practice for calming anxiety. Practice calming us helps, that's what biofeedback is!
    Glad you're ok!
    Love,
    Jodi

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    1. Thank you, Jodi--that's what I was doing--practicing. With more practice, I hope it becomes more automatic.

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  11. Oh that is so scary! I am so glad you made it back home safe and sound!

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  12. Take my medicine as prescribed, but there is one much more important thing: tell the doctor the truth about how I feel. It is really hard.

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    1. How right you are, Nikky. It's important to be honest with our health care providers. It's they only way they know how to treat us.

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