Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Consider Pulmonary Rehab

It's amazing how much better I feel just a week after seeing my primary doctor. To return to rehab class next week, I will need her approval so I will jump through those hoops today. First, contact rehab to have them send a form to her just to sign and return. Second, email the doctor to let her know it is coming to her FAX machine. Hopefully, it will all just happen as planned.

Dave, the singer/guitarist of our Irish Fiddling group, was working couple of days ago and needed to jump to the rescue of a young girl before she fell off a 15' cliff. In the process, he really messed up his right leg. His driving leg. The pain was so severe that the EMTs had to wait for the morphine to kick in before they could move him. They and the police kept referring to him as a hero.

I adore him. He and Michael went to the same schools in Southern California, decades apart, and they really have a bond.

He is stuck at home, they are waiting for the swelling to go down before an MRI but believe he really tore up the ligaments. So, while I am food shopping today, I am going to put together a "First Aid" basket to include goodies like his favorite beer, small bottles of Irish Whiskey, Molinari salami, crackers, nuts, chocolates and other goodies. Things to munch on while he is home alone all day. Michael will drop it off at his house over the pass tomorrow morning.

It was funny when Dave commented that our group needed an RN on staff for the one violinist going through chemo, me going through pneumonia and now him! Half the group is struggling medically.

Yesterday, I was texting Michael's youngest cousin to let her know there was a problem with her mom's Facebook account. She shared that her mom had just been diagnosed with COPD and was now on supplemental oxygen. I wrote back and pleaded with her to have her mom talk with her doctor about pulmonary rehab and encourage her to join ASAP.

If I can share one thing to anyone who has a lung disease is that pulmonary rehab will improve your quality of life and probably extend it. It begins with two days a week classes. I added three more days at another hospital for years then tweaked it to include one day for yoga. I also have worked in my massive gardens 2-5 hours every Saturday well before I was ill and have continued until just recently. Different muscles then what I was working on in the gym. I am still here since being told I didn't have long to live in 2005. I credit Dr. K., good medication and pulmonary rehab.

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