I’ve been occasionally asthmatic since I was 13. It is exercised-induced, and it’s worse when the air is cold.

I also notice that, in recent years, it’s coming back a bit, after a decade or three of not being much trouble. And I notice it a bit more when the air is particularly foul.

I’m thinking specifically of the last spate of major wildfires in the San Bernardino Mountains, last October. There was ash falling all over town (or Highland, where I lived, to be more specific), and I had some issues. And this was even while staying inside.

The up side to that ugly weekend? I got a prescription that may be keeping me from wheezing my way through the Olympics.

Basically, it’s a steroid. You take a puff on it twice a day, and it is supposed to help your lungs (bronchial tubes, etc.) heal. Like all steroids.

(So, yes, I probably would be kicked out of the Olympics if they were doing drug tests on journalists.)

I have another inhalator, with an active ingredient of albuterol, which is for emergencies. Or sudden, significant attacks.

But I haven’t had to use that device since I’ve been here.

Either the steroids are doing the trick (and I never took them until a week before getting here) … or the air isn’t actually that bad. For a non-serious-exerciser, like me.

I’ve done three fairly brisk walks of 30-minutes plus this week, and I haven’t been wheezy at all, and that surprises me a bit.

Again, the air may not be getting me as badly as I thought it would … or the steroids are keeping me from some major incident that only albuterol would solve.

I’ll quit the steroid, once I get home. Be interesting to see if I start getting wheezy again.

Anyway, so far so good, here. Thanks, apparently, to the wonders of ‘roids.