Breathless

Toronto was against me.

I was doing so well, leading up to my trip to visit Kid 2 and some friends who came up from Pittsburgh. My cough had really subsided, such that I hadn't had more than one or two coughs an hour.

I know that this doesn't sound like a lot of coughing, and it isn't, but before I started using inhalers, I was having coughing fits at least two or three times every minute, all the time. My lungs had become sore and I was prone to headaches throughout the day.

But with the course of steroids and other inhalers, my lungs were settling down. I was even thinking that, come my appointment for a CT scan, my lungs would show much improvement.

And then I went to Toronto.

We tend to leave our car in one place during our visits to this city. We either walk to where we want to go or we take public transit. Being able to tap a sensor on a bus, tram, or subway with our smartphone makes getting around so convenient.

Mean streets of Toronto.

We spent a lot of time outdoors, wandering the St. Lawrence Market area, Kensington Market, Yonge Street, Dundas, and other places. I was more concerned about breaking in my new Vessi shoes than in running out of breath. We even went to a Korean karaoke bar—a norae-bahng, they're called—on our first evening, after dining at our favourite Korean restaurant.

My lungs felt fine, though I only sang three songs.

By the afternoon, on Saturday, my coughing increased. At first, not enough to bother me but by dinnertime I found myself taking my Ipratropium-Bromide inhaler—something I hadn't needed in over a week but had packed, just in case. I used it three times that evening and by bedtime, I was coughing so much that I went to bed with a pounding headache.

On Sunday morning, my lungs felt heavy and I was still coughing. I was glad to be heading home after breakfast and couldn't wait for my upcoming CT scan to discover what it is that makes it so easy for my lungs to go from feeling better to feeling worse.

Throughout last week, I felt like crap. I had coughed throughout the night, on Sunday, so much so that I was exhausted on Monday morning and ended up taking the day off work. Not great after an already three-day mini vacation.

My lungs hurt all last week and I would become short-winded after such easy tasks, like walking down a flight of stairs, or taking a shower, or even bending over to tie my shoes. Walking upstairs would have me panting as though I had just climbed a long, steep hill on my bike. I would get light-headed and have to rest often.

This weekend, I finally went for my CT scan. It was the fastest medical appointment I've ever had. I arrived about 20 minutes before my scheduled time but the receptionist checked me in and took me to a waiting room outside the imaging room.

The lung specialist had referred me to the Renfrew Victoria Hospital, about an hour's drive from home. He said the wait times for CT scans at this Ottawa-Valley hospital were a small fraction of the wait times at an Ottawa hospital and that he felt that the technicians were superior.

So, I had only just sat in the seat in the waiting area for about 10 seconds when the technician called my name. She led me into the room and onto the bed that would move me in and out of the donut-shaped scanner. Within a couple of minutes, we were done.

I was back in my car and the clock on my dashboard told me I still had 10 minutes before my scheduled appointment. Awesome.

I'm really hoping that the results will give the lung specialist a clear picture of what's going on and that we can find a way to get my lungs back to normal—not just how they felt before I went to Toronto.

Wish me luck.