May 4th is WORLD ASTHMA DAY! ASTHMATICS WANTED! Can’t think of a better time to recruit people for our Severe Asthma Facebook Group. If you, or someone you know has difficult asthma, please join us. To Dr
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 renewing my RCP License
You might recall that over the past couple of years, Ive been trying to decide whether or not I should State of California continuously for more than 25 years now , and retiring it just because I’m no longer able to work, would be a shame. I’m an RT whether I practice the profession for [...]
Boston to Big Sur
Francis, for completing the Boston to Big Sur Challenge this past Sunday. These 2 wonderfully nutty people, along with a couple hundred other crazy people, ran BOTH the Boston marathon in Massachusetts AND the Big Sur marathon in California just 6 days apart. Two tough marathons in less than a week on opposite sides of [...]
Behind that finish line smile
Ok, so I look really strong in some of my finish line photos, but believe me.. looks can be very very deceiving. I’m an expert at hiding what I feel inside (I think most asthmatics are, to some degree.) Behind those smiles were waves of excruciating pain shooting down my legs. My breathing was really [...]
More images from the 2010 Boston marathon
[JP-Facebook-Like] During this trip I took close to 500 still photos and about 20 different video clips, which I still haven’t sorted completely. I’ll be adding more photos to these albums as I get them. ______SOME SCENES BEFORE THE RACE______ ______SCENES DURING THE RACE______ ______SCENES AFTER THE RACE______ Still more to come about this amazing [...]
Boston marathon video highlights
Rather than bore you with a mile-by-mile account of everything that happened during this entire 7 hour-17 minute very fun but challenging, and at times a excruciatingly painful journey, this year I decided only to post what I can consider to be the highlights. The experience was a little overwhelming and with so many pictures [...]
Racewalk Planet Radio Interview
[JP-Facebook-Like] Check out my radio interview with Chris Rael over at Chris is an awesome racewalker and coach. It was a video of Chris racewalking(Dave Mc Governs advanced racewalking clinic in Solana Beach last October. Related Posts:Behind that finish line smileSolana Beach Racewalking ClinicRock&Roll Race ReportHappy to be training again.Clarification
Boston—-7 hours 17 minutes and change
20 feet from the finish line Details and tons of more photos and videos in the following days. ( This is also the very first blog post Ive ever published from my cell phone…pretty cool) Related Posts:Behind that finish line smileBoston marathon video highlightsIn good company2009 Boston marathon trip/race reportBoston crew
Bound for Beantown
( read more) Well, after all the training, all the planning, and all the hoping like crazy that my sore foot will somehow heal in time and that my lungs won’t act up too bad, for better or worse, to finish or not, the big daddy of race weekends is finally here! Saturday night I [...]
In good company
There might not be very many of us (only 26 this year) and we might not be as sleek as the other runners, but there are some pretty amazing athletes who compete in the Boston marathon’s mobility impaired division. Take for example Keven Counihan. Kevin lost part of his right foot in an accident with [...]
That’s a rap !
As they say in the movie making business…That’s a Wrap! And what a Beautiful day to finish up on. Training for my 2nd Boston marathon (and my 7th full marathon to date), has officially come to an end. Ive trained and prepared the best I can what with little time Ive had. In total, I [...]
Posts from the Past
You may or may or may not have noticed, that I haven’t been updating my blog as often as I have in the past. There are several reasons for this, the main one being is that Ive just been preoccupied with training and preparing for this upcoming race. There are however, other times when I [...]
Boston crew
You might be surprised by how many people it takes to get 2 severely lung challenged athletes and an 80 lb oxygen cart across the finish line of the world’s most prestigious foot race. Introducing the crew ! Our spotters……………………………………Lizzy and Chuck Not only I am privileged to participate again in this incredible race with [...]
