October has traditionally been a bad month for my asthma (and I’m sure I’m not alone on that), but this is the first time Ive been sick for most of September as well. No doubt about it… this has been a humdinger of a flare. Ive been out of the hospital for an entire month [...]
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The following is a perfect example of what prednisone can to an otherwise intelligent and creative mind…… I was at the town grocery store the other day, where I noticed they were having a contest to see if you could guess the weight of this huge pumpkin they had as part of a Halloween display. [...]
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As this new treatment for severe asthma becomes more readily available to the general public, I think it’s important that prospective patients arm themselves with as much information as they can about the procedure. A physician by the name Steve Gupta, a board certified internist and an allergy immunology specialist practicing in Southern California, has [...]
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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 as much as I do, [...]
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You train hard and wait months in anticipation to accomplish a goal you’ve been aiming for, and then BAM! ….in a matter of hours, a severe
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I actually had something else prepared for this weeks post, but since there’s a good chance I’ll be heading to the slammer shortly, I thought Id do a quick update on what’s been happening. If you’ve been watching my sidebar lately you probably noticed that my numbers have been all over the place. Ive been [...]
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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 case for me for as long as [...]
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I thought Id do something a little different with today’s post and teach some Respiratory Therapy 101 to my fellow asthmatics . A mini series if you will, on topics that I think every asthmatic should be familiar with. Things like.. Dyspnea, what exactly is it? Or, Air-trapping? Or how about, Obstructive lung disease..what is [...]
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I hope I’m not jinxing myself by writing this post, but if you’ve been monitoring my little “days out of the hospital” widget, then you know that this week makes 6 months that I’ve been hospital free **YAY!** I wouldn’t break out the campaign bottles just yet, as I still have twice as long to [...]
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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 cool to finally see the [...]
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Looks like I jumped the gun on this one. After polling my family, friends and doctors, and after reading up on high altitude hiking, Ive decided to heed some good advise for a change and will not be participating in the Mt Evans COPD Challenge hike. The elevation just makes it too risky for someone [...]
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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 spiel about how asthma is an [...]
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How’s this for a view! In just a few weeks , if all goes as planned, I hope to be standing on that very same rock with a half a dozen of my COPD friends. The brainchild of my Boston marathon walking partner Mike Mc Bride, the “COPD Mt Evans Challenge” as he calls it, [...]
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