I used to jokingly tell people that I’m a human barometer or a walking weather station, because my lungs are so sensitive to the environment. Well thanks to Atmotube, now I actually am. Not only does their newest gadget, the Atmo tube PRO and it’s companion phone app, monitor and track the current weather conditions, […]
Ive got nebulizer machines coming out of my ass
Better to have too many than not enough I suppose. And always better to have several back ups, should one stop working. Below are just some of the nebulizer units I have. Because my lung function is so low, my airways don’t respond very well to inhaled bronchodilators that are administered through metered dose inhalers […]
This recovery is different
If you’re a hardcore asthmatic or COPDer you know the drill. It’s begins with increasing difficulty in breathing, followed by a trip to the the ER, then a possible stint on life support, followed by a week in the ICU, a miraculous reversal of symptoms and then home to start the recovery/healing process. Of course […]
Dear Doctor
I don’t have to tell you how important it is to develop a good relationship with your pulmonologist and other doctors, but its also important to establish open lines of communication with them especially when you have a disease like asthma. Chronic severe asthma is not a condition that just requires the occasional check up, […]
2019 Wego Health Awards Nomination
The annual Wego Health Awards are here again, and this year Ive been nominated in several of the categories, including the Life Time Achievement award. If you’re someone who’s living with asthma, or a caregiver, or someone who has an interest in severe chronic lung disease and found my website or personal stories helpful to […]
Shortness of breath in asthma
Breathlessness, shortness of breath, dyspnea, air hunger, whatever you want to call it, when you can’t breath, it can “feel” like you’re suffocating, but are you? If you suffer from chronic asthma or COPD, then you’ve probably noticed that the severity of your shortness of breath can vary in immensely, from mildly annoying to sudden […]
2 days or 2 weeks in the hospital, you never know with asthma.
Welcome to my world….. This scenario plays itself out pretty much on a monthly basis for me. The only thing that really changes is how bad things will get and whether or not Ill end up on a ventilator. Be it be 1 or 2 weeks in the Intensive Care Unit, or in and out […]
Train Wreck
Sub Glottic Stenosis (PGS) with asthma exacerbation. That’s how this most recent hospital admission is listed on the AVS (after visit summary). These conditions and the resulting hospitalization and treatment for them have turned me into a total train wreck. I started getting sick about 3 weeks ago with symptoms of breathlessness, air-trapping (dynamic lung […]
Putting a face on severe asthma
May is asthma awareness month, so I thought it would be fitting to share with you a 6 hour slice of a typical morning in this asthmatics life. No near-fatal exacerbations or depressing hospital photos this time around, just spontaneous mundane bits of me going about my daily routine, and rambling at the camera lens […]
Please…..Not the Knees!
Call me nieve, or maybe a just a wishful thinker, but I figured that because I’ve had to live my entire life with such awful breathing issues that maybe I’d be spared some of the more common health ailments that people tend to get as they get older. Who am I fooling, my entire universe […]
One in a million
The following is about an incident that happened to me a few weeks ago involving, dare I say……… a vaccine. In a nutshell, I had a very severe reaction to one. Ive been hesitant to write about this, because I didn’t want to give the wrong impression or provide ammo for the vaccine nay-sayers. But […]
I’m more than just a severe asthma patient
If you’ve just scratched the surface of my blog or even if you’ve been following me for years, you might be thinking, does this guy do anything else except spend time on ventilators in hospitals? Well, believe it or not, I spend very little time as a patient inside a hospital. In fact, just like […]
Blame it on the tubes?
Continuing on the stenosis and scarring theme, you’re not gonna believe this one. So about 2 years ago my doctors and I noticed that every time I had a urinalysis done, either routine or because of a suspected UTI, the results would always show the presence of microscopic blood, anywhere from a trace to large […]