Living

When I was younger, I wanted to be a photojournalist. That profession combined my love of writing, photography, and travel. I thought it was perfect for me. That dream gave...

I was a normal working person, in the last years of my career. At age 60, I hadn’t really begun the game of looking ahead toward retirement or losing my...

Dreams…. I’ve always been lazy and could stay in bed for most of a mid-winter storm or for a humid, 95-degree plus day. But, career, children, wife – name your...

More and more I’m hearing from people who struggle with confusion. The discussion usually begins with someone asking if COPD can cause them confusion. The question then is, can COPD...

Watching out for humidity wasn’t one of the things we though about when mom was first diagnosed with chronic lung disease. As time went on, we came to understand that...

In this series, we've explored the relationship between COPD and depression. We have gone through the reasons why COPD patients have depression. Now, what are we going to do about...

I have often talked about providing patients with tools for their toolbox to manage their COPD. One of the most important tools for managing any disease is your mindset. It’s...

It’s a good thing to have a sense of humor and to laugh - even when you’re healthy. I think it’s especially important to be able to laugh at yourself...

After leaving the doctor’s office the day mom was officially diagnosed, we kind of made a “not so official” pact: She asked me not to talk to my siblings about...

In Part I of this series I wrote specifically about how COPD patients have an increased chance of being clinically depressed and how depression affected our illness, and vice versa...

I used to be in the news business. So, I get a lot of breaking news alerts on my iPhone, that I’ve signed up for, throughout the course of the...

Yesterday, someone posed a question asking about our favorite season. Is it spring or fall? When I responded, I went  right into winter, stating that fall is a big allergy...

I don’t care what anyone says, men are way more vain than women. At least this one is. It’s one of the reasons – scratch that – it’s the ONLY...

I have been writing articles for COPD.net for several years now and there's one topic that I've thought about writing about for all this time, but just couldn't: Depression. I...

Did you know that COPD is one of the top causes of death in the U.S.? Or that it affects at least 16 million people? One in five adults in...

Mom liked to feel like she had things under control. With COPD, she did her best to keep her environment where the air was safe and easy to breathe. Some...

Most of us with COPD end up showering and taking care of personal hygiene at night or in the middle of the day because mornings are spent like a sloth...

"I'm too young for COPD" is something that I frequently hear. According to the Mayo Clinic, "COPD develops slowly over the years, so most people are at least 40 years...

Did you know that COPD affects more than your lungs? I was not ready for that tidbit of information after I was diagnosed (I am currently at stage 3). I...

So you are diagnosed with COPD. It’s a chronic disease that slowly progresses over time. It’s normal for a diagnosis of a chronic disease to cause you some grief. This...