breathing

I had the most amazing, colossal, knee-shaking, scary asthma attack this morning. Coughing strong enough to bring me to my knees. Gasping for breath. Shaking all over. All from shoveling the front walkway. The walkway! That little, no more than 3 foot long cement path that runs from our driveway to the front door. It took 5 minutes! I'm not sure if it was the cold air (3 degrees), the dryness of the air, or the fact that I'm not over this illness yet. Whatever the cause, it was scary. I was grateful for the inhaler that the doctor gave me last week, and I could feel it opening my lungs. Except for the fact that I had to go upstairs to get it, I was grateful.

Now I'm wondering - should I get on a regular prescription for this stuff? Maybe at least until winter's over? Should I shovel the sidewalk? It is the law around here (and the town newspaper and all the media make sure we know that we're legally liable to clear our sidewalks of snow). Brian's gone for a few days, so it's all up to me. Should I worry that my loud cough didn't wake up Caitlin? Really. She slept through the whole thing. This cough seems loud enough to wake the dead. Would she come to my rescue if I passed out? Hmmmm....

I'm not use to this. My asthma only comes into play when I do sports like soccer, or cross country. Anything that involves running and heavy breathing. So I just don't do things like that, and I have no problems. But this..... this is hard. I'm still sick. I'm having a hard time breathing, and the dry air makes it worse. Maybe no snow shoveling for this girl this week. As much as I love winter and snow, I'm looking forward to the temps in the mid-40's by the end of the week. I want to breathe easier.