ASTHMA, WHO ME? YOU GOT TO BE BLOODY KIDDING!

Well it’s been an eventful week as I have been struggling, with a mad cough and breathing difficulties that I put down to a chest infection. This morning it all got too much and my usually very healthy body continued to betray me, I was coughing like an pensioner who'd been smoking 50 a day for 50 years, to the point of puking up even though there was nothing to puke up, as my appetite has not been great.

Now there are two things in my life that if they fail to come easy to me, it’s time to worry and that is sleep and eat, Time to call in the Calvary.

Breathings important right, we all need to breathe to live, that's what I thought, well it's always worked for me before, seems like my body did not agree with this biological necessity!

I trudged off to the DR's she took a peak flow test which only measured 250. She said for a runner it should be around 500, she then listened to my chest, no bronchitis or pneumonia, possible bug or asthma, so gave me an Ventolin inhaler with instructions to take it at least twice a day and then whenever I need, then come back tomorrow to try and figure out if it is asthma or not.

Me asthmatic I really hope not, I proudly told her I’m a runner and that, I exercise at least 5 times a week, people like me don't become asthamtic, I was also proud to tell her that neither do I drink (okay, okay, but very rarely)and niether do I smoke.

Yes, okay so it runs in the family, but I’ve always been the lucky one, the healthy one, strong as a rhino one, who never gets sick, now they want to tell me that I might be asthmatic, that would be a dent to the ego, to my image of my healthy self.

Through all of those thoughts I can't deny the truth that sucking on that Ventolin is heavenly just how a crack head must feel sucking on a crack pipe, because I’ve had nothing but sweet relief since. It was starting to get a bit scary there for awhile so fingers crossed this is a temporary situation, if not I will have to learn to deal.

If I’m honest there may have been signs leading up to this, that I just did not recognise, sharp stitch like pain around my breast, sometimes when I run which I just thought was an ordinary stitch, curse it out, then ignore it and continue running has always been my policy, occasional wheezing or chest pain, nothing to write home about., I would always put it down to running in the cold, or working with kids who carry so may germs, a little Vicks chest rub would always get rid of it.

We have asthmatics in the family my sister who is only 18 months older than me has had asthma since childhood, I should’ve known better. I know what a wheezing chest sounds like, I grew up listening to the sound of her chest rattling away, keeping me awake at night worried that she would stop breathing, as a child I was by her side on many occasions when she had an asthma attack. I know how deadly it can be, how could I fail to spot it in myself, has running made me think I am invincible,has this ZUPAKAT persona gone to my head, anyone seen a red cape, cause I'm missing mine!

Crossing my fingers and toes, that this is just a temporary blip and not a permanent one, the decision not to run that half marathon last Sunday in hindsight was the right decision, I dread to think what could've happened.