I normally don’t post excerpts or links to other peoples posts, but this one I couldn’t resist. Like the many others who’ve reposted it, I just love it. Piper, a recent double lung transplant recipient who had Cystic Fibrosis, lists her recommendations for that perfect holiday gift. I especially love the gift of prednisone. Her [...]
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
I’m blessed
You know what? I might be cursed with crappy lungs, but I sure seem to be blessed with some cool and caring friends. Case in point: After spending a pretty ugly night in the local ER, I woke up the next day to find a bunch of Facebook alerts on my phone. My talented friend [...]
Breathin Basics—ABG’s
“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 [...]
Exploring my roots
A couple months ago I signed up with Ancestry.com to search out relatives and build a family tree. Its amazing how much info the Mormon church has in it‘s archives(they own Ancestry.com). They have the largest repository of genealogical records in the world. When I first started the tree I knew the names of maybe [...]
Stress Break Stephen Style
Recovering from a serious illness?………………………….Hop a plane to Vegas, see a Manilow Show! Needs some cheering up?………………………………………Hop a plane to Vegas, see a Manilow Show! Feeling down in general?……………………………………….Hop a plane to Vegas, see a Manilow Show! At least that’s what I do, and that’s what I’ll be doing this weekend. Good Music always works [...]
Breathing Basics —O2 Saturation and Oximeters
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 [...]
The OTHER Breathinsteven
His human name is Steve Ferkau, and his story is truly amazing. Related Posts:What to get the lung transplant recipient who has everything.Transplant option back on the tableLife is hard in the FEV1 30′s, but… The meetingThe SARP experience
The green shoes are back.
Who hoo…scored! Remember the Asics Hyperspeed II and III’s that I had, but couldn’t make up my mind as to which ones to wear at last years Boston Marathon? Well, as much as I wasn’t too crazy for the lime green color, those Hyperspeed II’s were probably the most comfortable racing flats I’d ever worn. [...]
Life is hard in the FEV1 30′s, but…
Being sick for long periods like this, often has me thinking about lung transplant surgery and how wonderful it would be, at least in my mind, to not have to struggle to breath all the time. This month also marks the one year anniversary of my initial SARP work up, and the infamous meeting of [...]
Boston Scare
Imagine the look of horror on my face when I went to the Boston marathon website a few weeks ago to register for next years race and saw this…. How could this be? How could they have sold out all 25,000 slots in 8 hours? At first I thought… is this a spoof or something? [...]
SARP Follow-up
Wow, has it been an entire year already? I guess so, because I just completed my one year follow-up interview for SARP. This time it was just a phone interview. One of the researchers called me last weekend and asked me a bunch of follow-up questions. Most of the questions had to do with whether [...]
Trapped in the yellow zone
We all know what it’s like to be in asthma purgatory for a few days or maybe even a few weeks, but for 2 months? Geeze, cut me some slack would ya! Seriously, except for a string of 6 days in the middle October when I still on high doses of pred, Ive been in [...]
Eating Organic, the first 4 months
Time sure flies when you’re eating well. It’s been 4 and a half months now since we switched to an all organic – low sugar, HFCS -free diet, and all I can say is…. food doesn’t get any better than this! Without exaggeration, this is probably one of the wisest live style changes we’ve ever [...]
