Hi! This is my first post. I just started Masters Swimming and had a scary incident happen.
I have a terrible kick, so my coach has been doing a lot of leg drills with me. Last night, he had me swim with fins in a side stroke position with flippers on. I did 8 sets of 75 yards.
By the last set, I started wheezing (I don't have asthma), and my lungs were gurgling. I couldn't stop coughing.. and I found I couldn't swim anymore.
All last night, upon exhalation, my lungs would make a loud wheezing/percolating sound. It's fine today, but my lungs are really sore from coughing.
Did I swallow water? Maybe, I didn't really notice.
I've Googled like crazy, and haven't been able to find anything, except for SIPE (swimming induced pulmonary edema). But, everything that I read, points to open water swimming. I was in a chlorinated pool. I also didn't cough up the pink, frothy stuff they talk about. I did notice a tiny bit of blood, but I think it was from coughing so hard... but I did have the same type of experience with the wheezing and rattling in the chest.
Has this happened to anyone else? What could have happened? I'm now kind of afraid to swim again.
Thanks for any input on this.
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Former Member
I went to the doctor today... had a chest x-ray, and it was normal.
My doctor thinks I inhaled water and my lungs are irritated from the chlorine, and yes, she agrees with all of you who told me I should have gone to the ER when it happened.
She doesn't think it's exercise induced asthma, because here it is, 4 days later, and I'm still coughing. She said it should have resolved itself within an hour or so Thursday night.
Anyway... she doesn't want me swimming for a few more weeks.. and I'm on a steroid inhaler for two weeks to get the lung swelling down.
I'm still not so sure it's from inhaling water, but I guess I'll never know. I wish I knew, because I'm kind of afraid to go back to practice.
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Former Member
I went to the doctor today... had a chest x-ray, and it was normal.
My doctor thinks I inhaled water and my lungs are irritated from the chlorine, and yes, she agrees with all of you who told me I should have gone to the ER when it happened.
She doesn't think it's exercise induced asthma, because here it is, 4 days later, and I'm still coughing. She said it should have resolved itself within an hour or so Thursday night.
Anyway... she doesn't want me swimming for a few more weeks.. and I'm on a steroid inhaler for two weeks to get the lung swelling down.
I'm still not so sure it's from inhaling water, but I guess I'll never know. I wish I knew, because I'm kind of afraid to go back to practice.
