Allergic to exercise?

Yep, and I mean that too... believe it or not, but I was reading the January issue of Runner's Magazine (free subscription I got from registering for/running Grandma's half marathon) and there was an article talking about a relatively rare condtion - anaphalaxis after strenous exercise. I guess there are about 450 cases of it each year, not especially life-threatning in all cases, but still a medical concern nonetheless. I am wondering if that was my problem in Calgary a few weeks ago. Since I don't seem to be able to tie it to any food or perhaps any other contact allergy... the article talked about sometimes it is tied to food, eating foods that you are mildly allergic to (and show no symptoms to speak of) up to 5 hours before exercise might make the body more susceptable to having an allergic reaction, and the exercise sets it off. Most people with this condition don't think that it can be exercise, because they exercise all the time, it just manifests itself when the conditions are "perfectly" aligned. And other times, there is no food involved, it just happens.

I know I did a pretty intense workout that morning - 3.5 miles on a treadmill on the hill program (don't usually do hills on the treadmill) and about 20 minutes of lifting weights (which I don't usually do at all), and Calgary is definately at a higher elevation than Minnesota, which would contribute to the "hardness" of the exercise. As the author of the article said, "maybe it is just my body telling me that it is something it does not like" and isn't that exactly what an allergic reaction is? You just have to be prepared to deal with it, is all... I am going to make sure I carry Benadryl, or it's equivalent, with me at all times. Not much of a burden as I already carry ibuprofin and pepsid in case I need it.

Well, I survived the doctor's visit. And once again, they took my height and my weight. Third time I have done that in a doctor's office in the last three weeks. Why do they insist on weighing you before they have you pee in a cup? I mean, you know with your woman's exam they are going to ask you to pee in a cup, so you make sure to drink lots of water before you go in, so you can pee in said cup, but they make you step on the scale before you are allowed to pee. Now everyone knows that will make the scale say nicer things, and with your heavy clothes on and an appointment at the end of the day, you need all of those extras to help with the scale... I suppose it is better than when they had me step on the scale with my steel-toed boots - "We'll just write down you were wearing heavy boots" yah right. Oh well, water under the bridge, move on!

The Holiday Train went quite well, I think. We got lots of people parked, and it seemed like there were no major snaffu's. I sort of begged my husband to help me out, and let me tell you, he was an immense help. He has all sorts of experience with dealing with layouts of parking, and getting cars in and out - he does a bit of this with his job at the State Fair. I think he made a world of difference had he not been there. Although, if I get roped into doing this again next year, I will need to make a more concerted effort to recruit more volunteers from the company. It ended up being a pretty late night, I was pretty tired by the time we got home, and morning was way too early.

Although, I probably would have been early to my 8am meeting had I not decided I NEEDED to fold the two baskets of laundry that have been in the bedroom for 4 days already. Tonight, I get the house to myself, I am going to cook some food to freeze, probably make a batch or two of biscotti and banana bread (I give it to people in the office for Christmas on the 23rd, since if you HAVE to be here on the 23rd, you might as well get some sort of reward!), and de-clutter. Sounds pretty ambitious, but I know I can do it!

So that's it for today... I have a to-do list here at work with a lot of things on it, and the morning was spent in meetings... plus I am going to Fargo tomorrow, so will not be in the office at all.

Make it a great one!
-a