Originally Posted by
Racer Ex
Cats kill me. I once walked into a house and 10 minutes in asked "do you have a cat?" Turns out it had died a few months before but the people though I was clairvoyant and not just allergic when I asked that.
I've been trying to stack allergy meds and antihistamines on top of the inhaler. Hit or miss.
My story is similar to yours. Childhood asthma due to parents smoking. Well, my mom stopped, my father stopped when he died of cancer.
Anyway, allergy shots too. Terrible allergies. 1-5 scale I was a 5 to EVERY GODDAMN THING.
As I aged stuff got better. By 20 I felt good, no asthma and moderate-to-sometimes-bad allergies. Around 27, the asthma came back a little bit. I got an albuterol inhaler "in case" and would use that before cold-air exercise to prevent onset of symptoms. I also religiously take claritin or allegra 24-hour tablets, once/day every day. There are still about 10 days in spring and 10 days in fall where my allergies are horrible. I use the albuterol in the morning and in the evening (1 puff only each time) to give a little clarity to my chest rattle and hope to prevent a real "attack".
I've never had it bother me cycling except in cold air, and usually after I warm up or do a hard effort or two it goes away. Intense effort seems to open my lungs rather than incite an attack, so I feel safe doing it. A couple of times I've asked around and usually like 1/15 guys around here (engineering and .com nerds) have inhalers so I don't carry one when riding. I may regret that someday, but it's been 20 years since I had anything close to what I'd call an emergency in re the asthma.