…. ” And would it be asking too much, if you could beam me up to your space craft and zap me a new pair of lungs?” In just a few hours, this lung defective humanoid is off to Nevada to not only do the ET marathon, but also to attend a string of 3 [...]
From the Archives
I look too Healthy
I get this all the time......... "You look so healthy" "You don't look like you have a disability" "You can walk farther then I can" "You look amazingly fit for someone with severe asthma" "You make marathon walking look so easy", and so ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Multi-tasking
When you spend as much time behind a nebulizer as I do, you learn to put that time to good use. A back massage, reading a good
Treatment plans for the future
Wednesday I have a pulmonary follow up visit at the UCSF chest clinic. What makes this appointment different, other than the fact that I will be breaking in a new Pulmonary fellow, is that we will be discussing some future treatments options, including bronchial Thermoplasty and SARP team, has agreed to take me on as [...]
Boston still follows me
I didn’t even know that this was out there until anAmerican Assoc for Respiratory Care, a national organization that thousands of Respiratory Therapists belong to. They also put out a science journal called “Respiratory Care” in which I was featured back in 2008. Click the cover to see the article Related Posts:2009 Boston marathon trip/race [...]
Dave does San Francisco !
Coming to the San Francisco Bay Area March 5th-7th, 2010 Lizzy has been kind enough to host one of Dave Mc Governs world famous racewalking clinics here in the San Francisco Bay Area March 5th-7th at her home in Tiburon,California. The $175.00 fee covers all 3 days of clinics and includes Friday nights pasta dinner. [...]
A good weekend
Had a great weekend, one of the best actually, in quite some time. On Saturday I was breathing so well, that I was able to go a full 12 hours without having to take a neb treatment. I did use my inhaler a couple times, but overall, I think it was the best breathing day [...]
About my “Latest Breathing Stats” sidebar
In much the same way that you would keep a diary of your asthma symptoms, I came up with the concept of posting my daily breathing parameters as a way of letting others out there know, (i.e. my doctors, family and fellow asthmatics), on how my lungs are doing on any particular day. I often forget [...]
October race choice
And the winner is…………….. finish line drama that occurred this year. Related Posts:No Mountain climbing for me 
Behind that finish line smileRace resultsAnother write-upDo you know the way to San Jose?
72 hours of hell.
I always try to write a little something about each and every hospitalization Ive experienced, but this is one Id just as soon forget about. In total , I spent 7 days in the hospital, 6 of them in the Intensive care unit, 3 of those days spent on continuous Bipap with an Albuterol bleed-in [...]
Number 95
Released from the hospital on July 14th, but still very sick. This was a real bad one. Will try to update in a few days when I’m breathing better. Thanks for all the well wishes! Related Posts:Number 96 72 hours of hell.Live from San Francisco….It’s Asthma Night Live!The letterBehind that finish line smile
Flaring again?
I was going to blog about a nicer topic this evening, but my breathing kinda put a damper on that. Ive been flaring mildly on and off all week, but on Monday afternoon, my peak flows took a nose dive. In a matter of minutes my chest got really tight and my peak flows dropped [...]
Propofol
This is a picture of me on a ventilator last year during a severe asthma exacerbation ( what they call status asthmaticus). See the little IV bottle inside the blue rectangle with the milky looking stuff inside ? That’s Propofol ! Also known as Diprivan or “Milk of Amnesia” in medical circles, this is the [...]
Change of plans
Last Saturday I did my first post-hospital semi long training walk for the new racing season, but it turned out to be much more difficult than I thought it would be. I was pretty much breathless the entire distance and had to terminate the walk at mile 7 instead of mile 8 as planned. Since [...]
