Can you talk a little bit about how you figured out you had exercised-induced asthma specifically, like symptoms and what not? Some of the things you mentioned I also have but I always chalked it up to just being out of shape
Actually it was someone on tumblr who pointed it out to me, an Anon who sent me an ask. I hope it’s ok to post this publicly because I think it’s information people can use especially since it’s apparently more common to runners than other athletic activities, but I’ve NEVER seen it come up in any of the runner-related reading I do.
The doctor I saw was somewhat skeptical that it was exercise-induced asthma because I’ve shown no other signs of asthma, and usually if it’s exercise-induced you still get attacks occasionally even when not exercising, at least per the doctor. So there’s that to bear in mind. However, it does happen, which is why he prescribed me the inhaler.
Symptomatically, for me, the main indicator was that my ability to breathe was getting worse, not better, as I continued my running over the course of a couple of months in late 2017 (especially after the MONTH LONG sinus infection in October). I’ve always had issues with my breathing more than with my muscles when running, but it was getting to the point where I had been doing four miles and now could only do two because I couldn’t seem to pull in enough oxygen -- then one, then less than one. I was getting sore throats while running that would last me the rest of the day and cause mild coughing, and occasionally when I was really pushing myself during a run, I could hear my breath whistling when I inhaled.
What really seemed to settle it was just that the inhaler, when I used it, worked. I could literally feel it holding my throat open, that first time, like an invisible tube in my windpipe. I went from barely being able to go a third of a mile to doing a full mile literally overnight. I’m still out of condition because I haven’t been running, but now I’m confident I can get back into condition.
There are tests that doctors can do to measure lung function and inflammation and such, so it’s worth getting checked out, especially if it’s causing you discomfort or interfering with your workout. But it’s worth it just to ask your doc if you can try the inhaler first and see if that helps.
