Breathless

Breathless

There is nothing more to love, then when you feel 

the endorphin's taking over your body in a moment
 of effortlessly floating in deep powder.  The freedom 
and feeling of complete submersion in the greatest 
moments of life... and feeling invincible.

Or, when you cross the finish line on your much anticipated 100 mile bike ride that you trained for all year.    

How about, running that last 26 miles... and finally realizing that you can do hard things.   Oh, if I could do this the rest of my life! 

It was a priority for me to eat whole clean food and exercise regularly, I loved it. And in the last year I have been absolutely energized with Cross Fit. My family at Heber Valley Cross Fit greeted me every morning with smiles and a new challenge. I never felt more fit. From workouts like "tabata" to "bring sally up", I was pumped enough to free-heal all day. 

I found myself in the month of May, two weeks into gym wars with Tasha and Karli and something was off. I couldn't be.... more motivated by my "team yellow".  I soon found myself cutting back on my weekly workouts due to extreme tiredness. Not to mention when, I was completely out of breath 1/2 way through my workout. WHAT's the deal?

Pneumonia right?  infection of the lungs....No I don't have flu or cold like symptoms, I have edema. Edema so bad that over the course of the summer I put on 22lbs of water. ugh! This sucks, I have to get back to Cross Fit and finish out gym wars!

It was at that time that my family physician refers me to a Pulmonologist specialist. Ouch! no insurance, that will be $409.00 to walk into the doctor office and say 

"Hi my name is Tonia Turner". 

I cannot wait any longer I'v got to breath. So I see the Pulmonologist and we start with a Chest x-ray, and then an ecco-cardio gram, and then take it a step farther with a CT Scan? What am I told, "Looks like its heart failure"? Better think about health insurance, ha, ha.

Yep, fluid on the lungs. My right lung had collapsed, I was only breathing from a small section of my left lung. I guess if you have to breath we better do a Thoracentesis:

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  Tapping the thorax, the thrusting of a trocar and cannula into the cavity of the chest with a 6 inch needle for the removal of accumulated fluid.          Promise you'll never do this!  

• My right lung had collapsed. 
• Breathless! 
• Over the course of 10 days and three of these procedures later. 10.5 liters of fluid was taken out of my lungs(don't ask me how that fit) I could finally lay on my back which really helped my me get some much needed rest, but how do I stop this and what is causing it.
• Events may be horrible or inescapable. You never really know what's coming. A small wave, or maybe a big one. All you can really do is hope that when it comes, you can surf over it, instead of drown in its monstrosity. I know now its not heart failure and that I can do hard things.
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