Monkey’s Threshold trainer arrived in the mail today. Due to general June craziness, I had to wait and schedule his next speech therapist appointment to learn how to train with it for June 22, which will be the day after his next pulmonologist appointment. While at the pulmonologist, I’ll make sure they measure his PI MAX (maximum inspiratory pressure, which I assume is part of the usual spirometry workup, but may not be for all I know about it). That number is needed to determine the correct threshold setting for the trainer. I’ll update here after he gets started, of course.
June 14, 2007 at 12:54 pm |
I was reading your entry and I thought I would tell you about my daughter. She has been treated for exercise induced asthma since she was about 8 years old. She has been on every inhaler and steroid you can imagine. She is very active in basketball and softball. We never questioned her asthma until this last year. The only time she would ever have an “asthma” attack was during an intense game. The inhalers always worked until this last ball season. She suddenly could not get through 1 or 2 minutes of a game. She then started having attacks outside of sports; even waking up in the middle of the night not being able to breath. It got so bad that for about 2 weeks in February, she was only going to school for 1/2 a day. She was having attacks all the time. We finally had the test to find out if she really had asthma and found out she didn’t and was then diagnosed with VCD. She went through the speech therapy and the breathing exercises. She is also a trained singer, so she was already breathing using abdominal muscles; she just needed the relaxation exercises. Those really didn’t help that much. We finally started her on Spiriva. She seemed to get better, but then basketball season was over, so we couldn’t really tell if it helped or not. She started a week ago in summer basketball. She did really well the first few days, then on the third day she had forgotten to take the Spiriva. She ended up having one of the worst attacks ever. She couldn’t hardly get up and down the floor. We ended up leaving practice early. The next day, she had taken the Spiriva and did wonderfully. I don’t know about anyone else, but I am a firm believer. She can play for 45 minutes or longer. If she has any breathing problems, she can come out, rest, do the breathing exercises, then go back in. To only be on this one medication is amazing, compared to everything else she has been on. Thought I would share our story. Good luck.
June 14, 2007 at 2:11 pm |
Beth, thanks for sharing yoru story!