Tuesday, May 31

Breathing

It's one of those things you take for granted until you can't. Or it's painful and difficult every time you do.
Breathing.
Basic.
Simple.
Necessary.
You don't even have to think about it. You don't learn it. I bet it doesn't cross your mind even once a day.

It does mine.
Breathing has been a big subject in my life, well, forever.
I was born a couple weeks early and my lungs just weren't completely ready. So as long as I can remember, I've thought about breathing.
I've worried about breathing.
I've been on countless medications, inhalers, steroids, various cocktails. My body has stopped responding to some medications and then the entire regimen had to be re-thought. More than once.
I can't exercise too strenuously.
I can't be around crazy dust.
Smoke.
Cats.
And I'm sure there's more.
For a while, I outgrew it. I didn't have any problems for almost seven years. I think I went about four years without even needing my rescue inhaler once. I thought I had grown out of it. I thought I was done.

Then, when I was pregnant with Daughter, I had a really bad attack from cats. I ended up in the hospital and thankfully everything was fine. Once that was settled, I thought it would just go away.
It hasn't.
It's only gotten progressively worse.
Every year is just a little worse than the year before.
It started with just being triggered by allergens, being sick or exercise.
Then it was also seasonal...winter was tough.
Then it just started happening for no apparent reason. Even heart palpitations.
I went back to the Dr. More tests. More medications. Nothing fixed, nothing solved. Just more things to take to hopefully help me breathe normally.
It wasn't helping. I was taking my rescue inhaler every single day with no triggers, and multiple times a day with triggers.
I heard that changing over to raw foods helped. That was pretty extreme for me. I've always been fairly health conscious about what I put in my body, but after reading countless books and cookbooks about going Raw, I decided that I knew I couldn't stick with that and I'd have to start slow.
For a long time I had cut out meat a lot more, I'd say I was about half-vegetarian. Then after more research linking dairy with allergies and asthma, I cut that out. Funny thing is, I have always struggled with a slight intolerance for dairy products, but it's not bad enough that I can't cope with it so I've never given it a second thought.
I did that for a while and noticed some improvement. Not a huge amount, but a little. Then I decided to take a little plunge and eat meat very rarely, maybe once a week if even and make my diet a little over fifty percent Raw. At first it was great. I loved it. I did well on it and felt great. It was easy! Then I just didn't make it to the store and started eating little cheats here and there. I always say, I'm not a Nazi about it. All things in moderation. No big deal. But I almost completely fell off the wagon. And within just one week, my breathing started to be bad. Now it's been about two or three weeks and it's really bad.
I'm almost out of my rescue inhaler. I flew threw it in a combined time of about six weeks. It was supposed to be enough for six months to a year.
Now it's almost all the time. Breathing issues, that is.
I feel like someone is sitting on my chest.
I feel like I can't catch my breath.
I feel like I'm breathing through a straw.
I will try so hard to breathe in deeply and get a satisfying breath that my body will tremble.
But I can never get that one breath.
I get dizzy.
I have heart palpitations.

If I go up or down the stairs a few times I need my rescue inhaler. If I go for a short jog or long walk, I need my rescue inhaler. If I do a few loads of laundry, wash the dishes and clean the play room, I need my inhaler. Any amount of light housework, walking, too much talking even and I feel like I've run out of air.

So I have to jump back on my bandwagon. No more dairy for me. Little to no caffeine. Extra vitamins. Little to no meat, and only fish or chicken. Raw foods a little more than half the time. Cleanse with water. Like double the water that's recommended. Nothing else to drink...water, herbal teas. That's it.



I hate to be cynical, and I have absolutely NO qualms with health care professionals, doctors and nurses, etc. I do feel like they and in turn, we the patients, get cheated out of a decent education on the incredible healing benefits of what we put in and don't put into our bodies. How it is possible to live a life without the drugstore.

So there...I've had my moment on my soapbox. I will update y'all later to let you know what my Dr. says and then maybe I'll even keep up on my diet journey and let you know if it's helping. I hope so. I'm tired of not breathing. Well, not breathing well. And I'm tired of pumping myself full of drugs and reading all the warning pamphlets that come with. One of my inhalers has a warning that it may lead to asthma induced death. Huh?!

Yeah, see what I'm up against?

Anyone else? What are your thoughts on these matters?

Do you think I've lost it? I've finally gone to a dumb extreme?

Am I crazy...too skeptical?

Let me have it. ;)

3 comments:

  1. Oh dear daughter, I am feeling your pain. I still struggle to take a nice deep breath, Greg thinks I am huffing "what's the matter" he'll ask, and I say "just taking a breath". The raw food thing is a great idea. Juicing is a great way to get good fresh juice also. See ya in a few days. And no you are not going overboard.

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  2. How have you been doing on the diet!? I think you are doin the right thing, but you are so right! If you can't get to the store, you are screwed! That's my biggest problem with Eating healthy. I just dint have time and energy to prepare it too. Please let me know how you feel now?

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  3. I have been doing pretty well...not as well as I'd like but I completely feel a difference when I'm on track. And it's not hard at all once I get some momentum, but if I lose it then I totally mess myself up. The great thing about eating veggie/raw is that there really is very little prep or clean up. lol...grab a bag of raw carrots, berries, nuts, etc. It's easy as long as I make sure I have it! and when I'm doing it, I actually really love it! haha...I'm feeling pretty good the last couple days. I've been doing good! Thanks for asking!

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