Tomorrow will be our 1st year anniversary in the house. A few days later is the anniversary of me trying to run 3 blocks and having my lungs burn up before I could get 2 blocks in. It was my test "run" to see how badly off my lungs were from asthma as I was just starting on Singulair. I needed to have a test run to see what progress I would make.

Now, a year later, I'm running 5k distances 5 times a week for 25k a week! I will finish my 3rd 25k week tomorrow (it rained today). And 4 weeks ago I did a 20k week. Does anyone realize how significant this is for me? It is the first time in my life I've been able to sustain exercise long enough to make a difference in my life. Steroids haven't done much to control my asthma in a useful way. Sure I had good days but then I also had bad days/weeks where I could not exercise.

Now, after a year on Singulair I've been able to run EVERY week since June 1 of last year. Granted when I first started running I wasn't going very far because the body needed to recover. But now I'm well in shape. I still have a lot of weight to lose, 100 pounds in fact before I feel I will be at a good weight. However, with the advent of doing 25k weekly runs I'm losing weight like never before. I bought a new belt 4 weeks ago that was too small on purpose and did not fit. Today I am on the 2nd notch of the belt. That is easily an inch or two lost around the belly in 4 weeks.

One additional drug I started a couple of months ago is Spiriva. While I don't think it has made much difference in my life I do think I am snoring less. At least Sandra says she doesn't notice it as much as she used to.

What I really like is the two drugs that have helped me a lot are non-steroidal. That is really nice and I hope as I get closer to my weight goal that I'll be able to drop the steroids and just stay on Singulair and Spiriva.