Tag: immune system | Breathinstephen

Just a guy with ridiculously bad asthma who walks marathons.

I’m phenotyped

Thanks to the efforts of the SARP researchers and the new era of severe asthma phenotyping, my particular flavor of the disease […]

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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 ...

Not just Asthma, Severe Asthma!

Not to downplay the heartache and suffering that people with milder forms of asthma have to sometimes contend with; obviously it's a big deal when you can't breath, but the ...

The Recovery phases of a severe asthma exacerbation

Suffice it to say, I wasn't exactly a happy camper when I wrote that last post about a recent hospitalization... I apologize for that. At the time, I was ...

O2 sats and asthma attacks revisited

After 9 years of blogging about life with severe asthma, I still get a lot of traffic from people searching the web for specific information about O2 saturation and how ...

Air-Trapping

Ive written about this before, but this is such an important an misunderstood topic; one that effects most chronic lungers and causes more suffering than any other respiratory symptom, that ...

What's it like to be intubated for asthma?

The search term "Intubation" comes up fairly often on my blog's traffic logs, so I thought I take a moment to write about it. Lord knows I've had ...

You're worthy

What is it with chronic severe asthma, self esteem, self doubt or self worthiness? Why do we tend to hide or downplay our disease or the severity of our ...

My 133rd hospitalization for asthma

My 133rd hospitalization occurred on 10-9-2017. The trigger wasn't the usual environmental allergies or resp infection, this time it was smoke from wildfires that have been devastating portions of northern ...

The evil candy

(The Prednisone Molecule) Thanks everyone for checking up on me. I'm fine! ( well,... almost) I've been out of the hospital for 5 days now, and ...

Macrolide therapy

This past week I started on yet another experimental therapy. This time it's long- term Macrolide therapy using Azithromycin. As an add-on therapy, recent studies indicate that the long term use ...

The wonderful side effects of frequent asthma flares

Think a severe asthma exacerbation only effects your lungs? Check out the photos below. Each photo was taken appx 2-3 weeks after being discharged from the hospital after a serious ...

Exercise like your life depends on it

Everyone knows how important daily exercise is for maintaining good health, but I believe this is even more true when you suffer from a chronic breathing disorder such as ...

The A word

Im talking about the other A word.... ANXIETY As a Respiratory Therapist and a lifelong asthmatic, I know all too well that anxiety and breathlessness usually go hand in hand. ...

Cmon....Thank a Nurse, Thank an RT

As I was mentioning to AsthmaMom, the first rule of etiquette for an asthmatic who has just survived another bad flare and hospital stay, is to thank those who ...

My asthma has changed again

I'm not talking about the disease itself, I still have the classic text book definition of asthma, maybe even to a greater degree than many. What I'm referring to is ...

Steve - 9, Asthma---a big fat ZERO!

This might sound corny, but I feel like Ive just been reborn. On Oct 5th I finished my 9th marathon at the Portland Marathon. If you've been reading my updates, this ...

Tour De Badass YVR

"Badassmatic (adj.): Person with asthma better defined by badassery. Possesses insatiable desire for growth, change and adventure." ( Brought to you courtesy of Kerri Mac Kay)(Part 1 of 8 clips) ***For ...

Recovering from a bad asthma flare

A lot of attention is focused on what goes on during a severe asthma exacerbation, but very little about what occurs after. What a lot of people ( and ...

Treatment overload

Yes, another update about treatment options. Things seem to be changing at a lightening pace now and it's making my head explode. Too much for an over-thinker like me to ...

Did you bring a note ?

Back in the old days when you got sick and ended up in the hospital, it was probably because your primary care doctor put you there. ...

Opiates and Lung disease

No longer just reserved for severe pain control or to relieve end of life suffering, today a growing number of people with severe lung disease are using opiate ...

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 ...

When did my Asthma become COPD?

Im a Respiratory Therapist who's been in the field a long time, but I was a quite taken aback when my local Pulmonologist blurred out these sobering words... "Your COPD", ...

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 ...

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 ...

Mike Mc Bride

Think I have it bad? Meet my friend and fellow lung challenged athlete....Mike McBride. Michael has really bad emphysema and has to be connected to supplemental ...

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 ...

Respiratory Therapist/Asthmatic/Patient

All this buzz about inhalers ,nebulizers and hospitals , got me to thinking of various situations, in which Ive been involved. Not always practicing what I preach. As I'm sure

Im the conundrum, the outlier, the oddball asthmatic

I can't tell you how many times people have written to me telling me that their doctors can't figure their asthma out or that they have nothing more to ...

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 ...