Monday
Jun152009
Comedy
Monday, June 15, 2009 at 6:10AM Saturday night, TOG and I went to a comedy festival with friends. This is dangerous for two reasons...
- Comedy makes me laugh really hard (duh!). Thus I rate comedy shows on the official Asthmagirl Inhaler Lung Scale (AILS) which is similar to how scientists predict earthquakes except far more exact.
- Most comedy festivals are in downtown Seattle which is triple jeopardy for the lungs; bus diesel, parking garages AND laughing as hard as you can...? Time for AILS!
So the two headliners were:
Mike Birbiglia and...
Kathleen Madigan!
While the two opening comedians were very good, these two had me reaching for the inhaler multiple times. (Yes, laughter is a trigger!).
Kathleen Madigan alone? We saw her last year. She was a 4.5 on the AILS.... Kathleen Madigan and Mike Birbiglia? They scored an all time high at 6!
Thus, on Sunday I was struggling with how bad my chest hurt from both coughing as hard as I could and laughing until I cried!
I would far rather have asthma issues from laughter than anything else though!
AG out!
Reader Comments (10)
We better bring extra inhalers for Blogfest...
I don't think I've seen Madigan, but I just love Mike Birbiglia. And yes, if I had to have asthma, I think I would prefer laughter as the source.
MPM beat me to it ... and frankly wheezing is not a good thing no matter what sets it off ...
I haven't been to a comedy club in a long time! Glad you are recovering from laughter, not something even more sinister!
When my little asthmatic gets laughing I know it's inhaler time. I'm surprised tose comedians didn't incorporate you and your inhaler into the act!
If I had asthma I would much rather use an inhaler for laughter too. Glad you had some good laughs!
I've just been cruising around and stumbled across your blog. I can totally relate to the laughing triggering asthma thing. It always bothered me because laughing was somewhat a p.i.t.a. I mean, everything is a'okay with the inhaler and all but it's still a pain. Sometimes I even left the room so that I would stop laughing so I could catch my breath... Do you ever do this??
I had never heard of laughter as a trigger, but I agree it is one of the better reasons to need to use your inhaler.
I suffer form asthma and very bad allergies the only medication I trust taking with my asthma is Flonase over the counter.. I read up on it at "kiwi drug" news after a friend told me that its the safest thing now to take with my inhaler. Feeling amazing this fall and able to breathe properly!
LOVE both those comedians. Hope your lungs are recovering well.