Living

What is meant by who cares for who with COPD? Frequently a person with COPD has a spouse, partner, or other loved one with COPD or another chronic illness. COPD...

World COPD Day is an initiative that is sponsored by the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD). Beginning in 2002, it has gained momentum each year since. Banding together...

Love the fall. It’s my favorite season. I feel like my lungs open up (relatively, for someone with COPD) and that I can breathe so much better than I can...

So, I’m sitting at my computer to finish up some charting. I click on the Epic icon. That’s as far as I get before my work phone dings to indicate...

The first time I realized that I might be having some breathing problems was many years before my diagnosis. Working in the downtown core often meant that parking wasn’t always...

Ten years and eight months ago, we purchased our house. Besides cleaning house and shampooing carpets, we haven't made any real improvements. Finally, it was time for our much-anticipated remodel...

Twenty years ago there were only a few COPD medicines. Today there are many COPD medicines. Even better is that there are currently 36 COPD medicines in the pipeline. So...

COPD Awareness month presents the opportunity, for those of us who currently live with COPD and all of its symptoms, to call attention to the deadliness of the disease and...

Do you ever get frustrated? Frustrated because your mind says "Yes you can do this, you go to do it!" and your body says "NO!!" That's me to a tee...

Good morning, or should I say good afternoon or evening? I’m still amazed that we can communicate across the world, with a click of a button on our keyboards. About...

One of the first things that you will be told upon your diagnosis with COPD is that you must exercise daily. If you are one of the lucky ones, you...

Some people have asthma. Some people have COPD. And some people have both in what is now called Asthma/COPD Overlap Syndrome (ACOS). So, how do doctors differentiate between these three...

I Googled, “vaping” and “death” just now. There have been so many awful headlines lately and so much bad/sad news about folks, many of them very young, who had died...

There are some amazing benefits of home oxygen therapy. This is for those who qualify. So, how do you know if you qualify? If you do qualify, what happens next?...

Sometimes I fantasize about having new lungs. Seriously. I’ve applied for a lung transplant and I’m making progress. But, it’s kind of a “Catch-22” situation if you’re familiar. You have...

While it is certainly beneficial to folks like us (with COPD) to keep up with the latest news, treatments, suggestions, etc., it is sometimes difficult to “separate the wheat from...

I want to buy a scooter – a 2-person scooter to be precise. One that runs on electricity – not gas. Seriously. I’m fortunate because I can still drive and...

Here’s my take on the topic of COPD advocacy. I know this topic has been written about before. In fact, you see a post on this topic every year on...

When September is over and the month turns to October it is cooling time. The weather is much easier to manage with lower temperatures and humidity. It is a time...

Growing up, math was my #1 worst subject. I got as far as geometry and algebra but that was it. Science wasn’t far behind. I took freshman biology and chemistry...