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 [...]
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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 [...]
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Over the years Ive built up a pretty loyal following of friends who are interested in what Ive been up to and how I’m doing health wise , but the bulk of visitors to this blog still get here while searching for answers to asthma related questions or topics. The following (in order of popularity) [...]
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Had the great fortune of having lunch last week with one of my most favorite people in the whole world. Dr Wenzel was in town for the annual AAAAI convention in San Francisco and managed to squeeze in some private time with me in between her busy presentation schedule. Although we keep in close contact [...]
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Friend, Award-winning Chef , severe asthmatic and fellow SARP alumnus, Sheila Brillhard, wrote me the other day to tell me about her new cookbook . She created it for people who have to take prednisone for their asthma or other medical conditions. What a cleaver idea! I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how [...]
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Introducing the “Breathinstephen Blog Awards” Once a year around the holiday season I like to put together a list of my favorite lung blogs. This year I thought it would be fun to give an award to those bloggers as well. If your blog is on list, feel free to copy and paste the code [...]
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“ABG’s” is another one of those medical acronyms that you hear all the time when you have asthma or lung disease. And if you’ve ever been unfortunate enough to be hospitalized for your asthma, no doubt you’ve had one of these tests done on you. ABG stands for “Arterial blood gases”. An ABG is a [...]
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Today’s Breathing Basics review is all about Oxygen Saturation and Oximeters. If you have lung disease of any kind, no doubt you’ve come across the words “Oxygen saturation” or “O2 Sats” , “Pulse-Oximeter”? I use those terms on my blog all the time, but do you really know what they mean ? I suppose you [...]
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Meet Alfie the fish…. When the publishers of this new childrens book about asthma sent me a copy for my opinions, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to give it a fair review. I mean, an asthmatic fish who saves the live of shark who also has asthma? My background as Respiratory Therapist [...]
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As this new treatment for severe asthma becomes more readily available to the general public, I think it’s important that prospective patients arm themselves with as much information as they can about the procedure. A physician by the name Steve Gupta, a board certified internist and an allergy immunology specialist practicing in Southern California, has [...]
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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 as much as I do, [...]
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I thought Id do something a little different with today’s post and teach some Respiratory Therapy 101 to my fellow asthmatics . A mini series if you will, on topics that I think every asthmatic should be familiar with. Things like.. Dyspnea, what exactly is it? Or, Air-trapping? Or how about, Obstructive lung disease..what is [...]
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