To celebrate reaching my 64th year despite crippling asthma, and to satisfy an itch for getting out there one more time, I’ll soon be wiggling my ass again on a race course…. this time in Canada. My body is too wrecked to attempt another full marathon, so I searched the continent looking for a worthwhile […]
I was racking my brain trying to come up with an appropriate title for this post and finally settled on this one. I think it works because in many cases living with asthma can be a full time around the clock job. Kind of ironic when you consider all the people who are unable to […]
Since you’re reading this post, Im assuming that you’re either living with asthma yourself, or you know someone else who is. If you’ve been to my site before, then you probably know that I blog extensively about my asthma and the impact it’s had on my life. Ah, but except for a few who […]
This is a generic notebook that they give ICU patients at the hospital I go to when my asthma gets really bad. With it, they encourage patients and their families to keep a sort of diary, which often times can help in with the persons recovery. I have a stack of them at home. Well […]
So on May 23rd, just days after proudly declaring how I had managed to keep my asthma under control and stay out of the hospital for a full 5 months, my good luck streak came crashing down and I ended up back in the hospital sicker than Ive been in a long time . (Below […]
After spending the last several months testing the waters to see how my body and lungs might react to doing another race, the verdict is finally in. Assuming I can work out some nagging foot issues…..I’m going for it! On Oct 14th, with my lung function the lowest its ever been, I hope to attempt […]
I hate to jinx myself by writing this post, but I haven’t had an exacerbation severe enough to warrant a hospital stay, dare I say since the beginning of this year? Been roughly 4 months and counting since the last big one. May not sound like a long time, but between late 2015 and late […]
I post my personal hospital bills from time to time to show how incredibly expensive an asthma exacerbation in the San Francisco day area can be, but this one takes the cake. At first glance $56,000 may seem like a drop in the bucket compared to some of my other hospital bills. That is, until […]
Im a happy camper in this photo, because today I completed my first feasibility walk. It was only a 2.5 mile walk, but I tolerated it reasonably well without a break. Assuming I don’t have any setbacks, I should be able to complete the rest of these test walks and render an opinion within a […]
The events of recent weeks has made me think really hard about just how long I want to continue this fight and under what conditions. With 135 hospitalizations under my belt, including dozens of near-fatal exacerbations and a declining quality of life, I find myself asking the question more and more….When is enough, enough? I […]
Found these in my closet today. Sure brings back a lot of memories, mostly good ones. They were my very first pair of race walking shoes that I purchased 12 years ago while training for my first full marathon. They’re a little beat up and don’t have much tread left on them now, but I […]
Ive always had a hunch, but now there seems to be more and more scientific evidence that less is better when it comes to our favorite poison…corticosteroids! ( ie, prednisone pills and IV steroids.) And that applies not only to daily maintenance doses, but also to the treatment of severe exacerbations that require emergency hospital […]
Didn’t I just blog about my 133rd hospitalization for asthma? Well make that 134 now. This is getting F’ing ridiculous. This latest flare wasn’t triggered by some massive chest infection or the flu, but by a simple cold….aka Rhinovirus. Id been feeling pretty decent in recent weeks, but just like millions of other people during […]
