Sickly

I haven’t talked or written much about my recent health issues.  This is in part because I keep thinking that everything will clear up any day, and partially because I keep thinking that they are somehow my fault – that I am doing something wrong.

Backtrack a couple of months.  I ran the Dallas Marathon on December 13.  My daughter had a nagging virus for a couple of weeks before Dallas.  My husband caught it from her, but I didn’t.  Her pediatrician said it could hang on 6-8 weeks.  The week after Dallas, I got a little sick with sore throat, fatigue, and cold symptoms, and figured I picked it up from her because my immune system was down after the marathon.  I wasn’t too sick, however, as I ran my second fastest half marathon ever on a slow course 6 days after Dallas (why that occurred is another story!).

I had continued minor symptoms for the rest of December, and I figured that I just had the nagging cold that Albani’s pediatrician said could hang on awhile.  I had days when I felt worse than others, especially Christmas, but overall it wasn’t impacting my work schedule or running.

On January 3, I ran a PR 10-mile tempo, and that evening I heard myself start wheezing.  I had asthma as a child and have always been more vulnerable to bronchitis and walking pneumonia because of that, so I started worrying that my illness might be turning into one of those illnesses.  I went to the doctor a few days later, and she said she thought that the virus had irritated the bronchioles in my lungs, which was causing the wheezing.  She sent me away with Prednisone steroids and an Albuterol inhaler.  She said the steroid should reduce the inflammation that was causing the wheezing.

When I got back to work after my appointment, I Googled whether Predisone or Albuterol were banned substances!  They are not.

Running didn’t make me feel any worse, and most days I didn’t feel very bad even though I kept wheezing (some days I took a “lunch break” and laid on my office floor, though).  I tried taking days off running.  I tried taking days off work.  I tried running on the treadmill, in case the cold outdoor air was irritating my lungs.  I tried covering my mouth with a bandana to filter the cold air.  I tried the inhaler before and after running.  I tried sleeping more, drinking more tea, eating more, eating less.  I took more vitamins, I stood in the hot shower, I elevated my head and upper body at night.  Nothing seemed to matter.  Nothing I did made it better or worse, and although I was more fatigued than usual I could generally hit my running paces just fine (this is very different than when I have had bronchitis or pneumonia – those kill my running).

I went back to the doctor and she gave me a steroid inhaler, Flovent.  After a week on that, the wheezing was gone and I celebrated!  I started hitting my stride with workouts, but then I got injured (see “Well that didn’t work out…” blog).

Then the wheezing returned – when I wasn’t even running!  I thought surely I would kick it while off running, but no such luck.  The Flovent didn’t help any longer, and neither did Albuterol breathing treatments on a nebulizer.  Throughout this whole time span, I had other symptoms that seemed to cycle, but not reliably related to anything.  Some days I would feel great, others I wouldn’t want to move from bed (mostly the former, though).  I had periods of sore throat, runny nose, sinus pressure, ear pressure, and fatigue.  Some days I would think I was surely on the mend, only to feel bad again the following day.

Since I wasn’t getting well progressively, it was back to the doctor, and she gave me a Symbicourt inhaler (which didn’t do anything for me except mess with my blood sugar) and decided to refer me to a pulmonary specialist.  By the time I saw the specialist on March 3, I had also caught another illness my daughter brought home from school, so I had a double whammy of the wheezing along with sore throat, a very productive cough, and drainage city from my nose.  Despite all of this, I didn’t feel THAT bad.  I had also stopped all of the inhalers since nothing was helping, and actually thought I improved some when I stopped.

The specialist started me on an antibiotic, Azithromycin, and again on Predisone (a more aggressive dose).  She also told me to resume the Flovent inhaler.  She did blood work, and scheduled me for a CT scan of my lungs, which I will have on March 8.  If these tests don’t show anything, I will have additional testing.  She said she wanted to be aggressive with finding the cause and treatment for this, because I am otherwise so healthy (but my lungs sound horrible).  I heard her and the LPN mention my heart rate of 40 and “she’s a marathon runner” outside my exam room!  She said I’ve been able to compensate since I have such great lung capacity as a runner, but if I were a sedentary smoker I would probably be in the hospital.  Yikes!

I guess sometimes when it rains it pours, but I guess if I had to have illness and injury, it was preferable to have them both at once to get them over with!  It seems that after one dose (albeit a hefty dose – 7 pills total) of the new antibiotic and steroid, the wheezing has improved quite a bit.  So I will be optimistic that this will kick it.  And – my theme of the year – if this doesn’t work out, something else will.

***Update:  After a few days on the Azithromycin antibiotic, I was mostly fine, and after finishing the round of antibiotics completely I was completely fine.  Apparently my PCP should have just given me an antibiotic to start with.  I know they try to avoid using them, but it sure did the trick!***