Saw this blog post by Bill Swan and liked it so much I just had to re-post it here. Bill provides us with a step by step instruction guide on how to run like a severe asthmatic. ( I think the photo says it all, don’t you?) Read more about Bill on his blog at [...]
From the Archives
Do you know when it's time to go in?
The idea for this post came to me during the middle a recent severe exacerbation. Actually, it was the same exacerbation that put me in the hospital for 12 days, for which I am still recovering. Foremost on my mind during one of these really bad flares is the ...
My Trip to Churchill
My journey begins in Winnipeg (my very first time crossing the Canadian border). Just 2 days earlier there had been a pretty bad snow storm and potential weather delays at the airport were a big concern.Fortunately things worked out and I got there on time without any problems. ...
Asthma guilt trip
How many times have you had a really bad asthma flare, but had serious trepidations about going to the emergency room for treatment? How many times have you felt guilty that maybe you weren't sick enough to be admitted to the hospital? Well, that's pretty much been the ...
Double Whammy Asthma
I often find it frustrating that here I am, a life long asthmatic, a Respiratory therapist and an asthma educator, yet still unable in normal conversation, to describe what makes my type of asthma so different from others. When asked to define asthma in general, I usually give the ...
I'm a recovering Albuter-holic
Rick, the author of the Respiratory Therapy Cave , wrote to me the other day talking about what it was like growing up with severe asthma. One of the things he mentioned that I thought was kinda funny, was how he used to sleep with an inhaler ...
Healing Walks
Carolyn Scott Kortge's new book is finally out and guess who's in one of the chapters? Carolyn contacted me about year ago for this project. She thought I had an interesting story to tell, and that it would fit in nicely with the motivational theme of the book. It's really ...
My New Old Passion
It's actually not a new passion, more like the reigniting of an on again, off again love affair Ive had since early childhood. I'm referring of course to the bass guitar, or for that matter any other heavy string instrument. My introduction into the world of making music actually ...
Boston 2011 Race Report
They don't call it the best marathon in the world for nothing , and this year was no exception. The weather was near perfect and the spectators and volunteers outdid themselves. The moment I entered athletes village and the disabled athletes staging area early Monday morning, my worries and stress about ...
Buried Alive
The photo is from the movie "Awake" , but what happened to me last September was not fiction. It was the real deal. I'll share with you now, what I couldn't 9 months ago because of pending legal action. Ive since withdrawn my lawsuit against the parties involved and ...
A quarter million puffs
Care for some Albuterol? (Hey.....how did the primatine mist get in there?) I sometimes jokingly claim that Ive
Questions for Dr. Wenzel
Last week after finding out just how damaged my lungs really are, the only thing going through my head was..WHY? All of the assumptions I had made about my asthma throughout the years, suddenly didn't seem to make sense anymore. I was beginning to wonder if ...
Asthma Breathing Zones
This is the 2nd installment of my " Breathing, the mini series". This one is more for the non-asthmatics out there, but I think some of our lung challenged friends might learn a thing or two as well. If you hang around asthmatics or browse as many personal asthma blogs ...
#97 , misinformation and a virus from Hell
Battle scars: 4 failed arterial line attempts and 12 failed IV attempts. I have no veins left and my radial arteries are so scarred up from previous insertions, that it's virtually impossible to get access unless they put a central line in. Very frustrating for the doctors and ...
Plan B
Yesterday I completed my final “test” walk in a series of trial walks that started a month ago to see if training for a future marathon might be doable. The plan was to do the Portland marathon this October ( my 3rd time) and then hopefully obtain a qualifying time to enter Boston in 2014 [...]
Just call me Bubble Boy.
Exposure to this …… And this…. Is there anything Im not allergic too? I think I need to live in one of these… So two hospitalization in just two months has me and my Pulmonologists scratching our heads as to what it is that keeps causes my asthma to spiral out of control so often. [...]
Self Service
Just one of the advantages of being an asthmatic Respiratory Therapist, though the hospital staff might not be so thrilled. They get a little grouchy when the patients start adjusting ventilator settings Now for the serious educational part: The rational for using non -invasive bipap therapy during a severe asthma exacerbations is simply to reduce [...]
Musical friends hard at work
My friend Don is up for a Juno award next month. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. If you haven’t yet, check out his music 2013 has also been a really busy year for friend and bass mentor Rick Shaw. He just completed an 8 show tour in Japan with the Gordon Goodman’s Big [...]
3 Good Weeks
For the life of me I can’t figure out why my breathing was so good from those last 2 weeks in January all the way till Feb 3rd. When I say “good” I don’t mean like a return to normal lung function or even a significant decrease in symptoms, but still what I experienced during [...]
Duke …aka snuggle bug
When it rains it pours. Our hearts have never been so broken for so long. Why does this keep happening to the ones that bring us so much joy. It’s barely been 4 weeks since Milo’s passing, and now this morning we had to put to asleep yet another one of out beloved cats. His [...]
Yes, I still walk.
Haven’t trained for or entered any races, or even taken any walks greater than 5 miles in almost 2 years now. However,come rain or shine, crappy breathing or not, I still get out and walk 3 to 4 miles almost every single day. My main motivation for doing so nowadays, is mostly to preserve what [...]
Farewell Sweet Angel
The oldest of our 4 cats who shared his live with us for almost 19 years, was given back to god at 10:10 am February 13th,2013 Milo was a proud and fiercely independent little Persian kitty that we adopted from the SF SPCA in 1996 and became a huge part of our family unit. Milo [...]
Guest Post by Kerri
It’s a real pleasure to have my good friend and asthma advocacy partner Kerri MacKay here as my first guest poster. Thank you Kerri! For as long as I can remember, defining moments in my life have had some sort of musical connection to them. To use two very cool album titles in the [...]
What’s in a number?
I still have a hard time believing it, especially the way Ive been feeling this past year, but during my most recent Pulmonary function test a few weeks ago, I blew an incredible FEV1 of 50%! OK, blowing an FEV1 of only half of normal may not sound like a big deal, but it’s the [...]
My Trip to Churchill
My journey begins in Winnipeg (my very first time crossing the Canadian border). Just 2 days earlier there had been a pretty bad snow storm and potential weather delays at the airport were a big concern.Fortunately things worked out and I got there on time without any problems. Within minutes of stepping off the plane [...]
12 month Update
It’s almost 2013 and I just realized I really haven’t posted a breathing status update in almost a year. Probably the biggest change that I’m noticing, is that my dyspnea is getting more pronounced and more constant. Where I used get 8 or so “good” breathing hours a day, Im down now to less than [...]
