All Clear!!

I finally got the all clear from both Dr. Stadler's yesterday afternoon! Lungs sounded good and the little shortness of breath and coughing I have left over is more than likely due to the lost aerobic capacity over the last two weeks. Carlton's advice - "You need some hard interval training"!! So now I'm back to training full steam, but just need to ensure I get good rest.

Once Coach K got wind of that, I was back in Guppies at 6am this morning and I'm now getting ready to head to Lake Gaston for the next 3 days for her Tri clinic. It was kinda last minute, but I'm excited about going. We'll be doing lots of open water swimming and a couple long bikes.

Guppies went surprisingly well this morning. It definitely hurt a bit on some of the breathing drills, but I know that it will until I get back to where I was. Coach K even mentioned that I should take a few weeks off more often, as my stroke looked much longer than it has in a while! Can't wait to get a run in later this afternoon!

Day 14

It's been 14 days since I've been sick now. I'm feeling better, but anytime I do a little more playing or moving around too much, I can feel my lung tighten up. Then I start coughing.

I got a 30 minute ride on a stationary trainer Thursday, which felt good. I kept my heart rate close to 130, which is where Dr. Stadler recommended. The one time I felt a little good and inched up just a tad on the level, my lung started to tighten up and I had to cough pretty bad. I noticed that my heart rate had only gotten to like 135-137. Gotta take it SLOW and EASY, Deal!! A nice hot shower helped, followed by my inhaler.

Had my follow-up with Dr. Stadler that afternoon and she is still really concerned about the sound of my lung. She is testing it by having me take a deep breath in and blow out hard and fast while she listens. The good news is that I was able to do that 3 times without a ton of wheezing and coughing. On Monday, I could not do it once. The next step is to have her listen to my lung again on Tuesday and possibly schedule a CAT scan to check for fluid. If there is a large pocket of fluid in there, they'll have to go in with a needle and drain it! Yikes!! She scheduled another follow-up for Tuesday with her husband Carlton as he may be the one to drain me.

Here's hoping some weekend rest and meds will keep me away from any long needle plunged deep into my lung...