Around nine months ago, I started having these coughing fits after high intensity cardio, or if I was around allergens such as smoke, dust, or pets. I didn't think much of it, and figured it was just a temporary problem and would surely go away after a while. A few weeks went by, and I started feeling like I couldn't get enough air in my lungs while I was teaching Zumba®. My son had asthma as a baby, and I still had some of his albuterol inhalers lying around, so I started using them as needed.
I had no other symptoms indicating that I had a cold or any kind of infection. I simply couldn't breathe very well while exercising. I had no idea what was going on in my lungs, but it was definitely starting to affect my performance during my Zumba® classes. I wouldn't think about my breathing issues prior to getting on stage to teach, and within minutes, I could barely focus on teaching because I was worried about my next breath. On several occasions I had to sprint out to my car to grab my son's inhaler during the middle of my class, and use it in order to continue.
I went on a vacation over the summer, when I didn't exercise at all, and I thought maybe my body just needed some rest. I figured that my lungs would be fully functional when I returned to working out.
No such luck. I was struggling to breathe within the first few minutes of doing any kind of cardio. Plus, I had started to wheeze at night at little. My son's inhaler was getting low, so I finally decided to go to the doctor. He asked me lots of questions, and he said it sounded like exercise induced asthma. He prescribed me my own inhaler to use prior to exercise, but told me I need to come back for testing if it didn't work or I had to use it when regularly when I wasn't exercising.
Puffing on the inhaler worked great prior to jogging, lifting weights or general physical activity, but not so much for Zumba®. I would use it before class, and then have to use it again two or three times over the course of a one hour class just to be able to go through the movements and breathe at the same time. I felt like I wasn't being fair to my class participants because my lungs couldn't function properly. I was too concerned with just inhaling and exhaling to be effective at instructing, although my students didn't seem to notice.
I also started having to use the medicine to control my wheezing. I would wake up several times each night with labored breathing that would only subside with a puff from the inhaler. I starting needing to use it every few hours on the weekends, even when I wasn't exercising at all.
My son got a trampoline for Christmas, and I was just as excited as he was about jumping on it. One afternoon we were playing on it for a while, and after about ten minutes I had to stop because my chest started closing up. I'm like a kid and can't just lightly bounce on a trampoline. I like to jump as high as I can, and do flips and crazy stunts. I go all out and I love it. Well, when I got off, I could not breathe. I started coughing and coughing and gasping for air. I had to run and frantically search for my inhaler. It took me a few minutes to find it, and I was struggling so hard to breathe, I thought I might need to go to the emergency room. After a few puffs off the device, I was finally able to catch my breath, but that was the final straw. I was going back to the doctor.
I went back and they used a spirometer on me to determine my lung capacity. I had to blow into a machine all different kinds of ways, as hard as I could, as long as I could, and more. All that blowing made me seriously lightheaded! Then they gave me a mask and hooked it up to a nebulizer machine so that I could inhale the medicine vapor. After several minutes on the nebulizer, they removed the mask, and I had to blow in the spirometer again a multitude of ways. Then the staff went off to analyze the results.
They concluded, that yes the medicine improved my lung function, so I needed to be on an asthma maintenence plan. I received another kind of inhaler called Dulera to use every morning and evening. My healthcare provider told me to continue using the albuterol inhaler before exercise to give the medicine time to get into my system, but that hopefully I wouldn't need it anymore.
Within a few days, I wasn't wheezing at all, and only had to use the albuterol inhaler during Zumba®. It's been about two weeks since I've been using the Dulera regularly, and just the other night I finally taught a full class without having to struggle for air!
I think my aerobic capacity has diminished a little since I have been unable to really push myself, but no doubt I will get it back quickly. I am so relieved that I now have my asthma under control! I can focus on teaching and motivating my students without worrying about my next breath!
Both my parents were diagnosed with asthma as adults following healthy childhoods, so maybe it's genetic. I remember spending nights in the emergency room as a child because my dad had lots of severe asthma attacks. It could have also been caused by all the Newports I smoked in my twenties. Whatever the reason, I am so glad that our medical technology is able to solve my problem. It would be horrible not to be able to succeed at my career because of a health issue.
Now that I have my breathing back, my students can again expect me to push them to their limits. I love teaching group fitness classes!
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