No need to be worried...

"No need to be worried. You are doing everything right." These are the words I heard today from my doctor when I went to find out why my feet and ankles had swollen up so bad this past weekend.

I have had so many obstacles over the years, many over the past year and a half. From two knee surgeries, to 4 bulging/herniated discs in my back, to asthma, to crushing my hand (and then breaking my wrist,) to a really bad concussion, to arthritis and bursitis in both knees...I often feel like I am running an uphill battle and I wonder if it will ever get any better. So when my feet swelled up this past weekend, despite drinking 3 liters of water per day and changing my diet and decreasing my sodium, I began to worry. When it didn't get any better after a few days, I called my doctor and made an appointment.

I was nervous today. I was worried about my heart and/or my lungs. I smoked for 12 years (and quit January 2, 2012) and was diagnosed with adult onset asthma in 2007. I have been told for years that I had crappy lungs...that the damage I had done to them from smoking would probably not ever get back to perfect. I was told to get used to bronchitis every winter and nebulizer treatments whenever I got a cough. I cried because it was my own poor choices that caused this. I accepted it and moved on.  So today when I talked to my doctor about what was going on and I had a bit of a nagging cough, she ordered an EKG and a spirometry test to rule some things out.

My EKG came back normal. My blood pressure was normal. My spirometry test showed that my age is 35 years and that my lungs are less than 35 years! She said that I had the best lungs that she had seen in a month. I nearly cried. After years of hearing about my crappy lungs, I finally got to hear something good about them. She looked back at my blood work from a month ago when I had my physical and said all my blood work was perfect. She looked at my vitals from a month ago and told me that I had lost 7 lbs since my last visit. That is when she told me, "No need to be worried. You are doing everything right."

I know that this is a long, hard road ahead of me. I know that it will not get easier (and if it does, I am not working hard enough!) But for a moment today, I had a glimpse of hope for the future...a future that does not include weekly doctor visits and daily medications. I long for that future and it pushes me to do hard things every day. I hope that it will push you as well.