MOVE

     Yesterday, Louise and I had a conversation at the beginning of the rehab class. She is the head of the pulmonary rehab 8-week program and we in the class are all graduates of her program. She had read a copy of my speech to the American Thoracic Society and thanked me for my big push for rehab. She also commented that my positive attitude, change of life style and embracing rehab has kept me alive and living well up to this point. And currently off of supplemental oxygen.
     Later, I was thinking that there may also be another piece. When I realized that I was not going to get better and in fact I had a fatal disease, I read all about Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis and lung transplants on the Internet. It scared the living daylights out of me until I realized that they were talking averages: 2-5 year life expectancy with an ILD and only 50% of people alive five years post transplants.
    But I also read about people living 12 or 13 years with transplants. I met a man in rehab who had IPF and was still in rehab after nine years. It was then that I realized that the horrible numbers that I was trying to get my head around were AVERAGES. Just averages. Bell curves. That meant that there were people living a whole lot longer with an ILD and lung transplants. I decided to be one of those people. The NOT average people. As I have never been average, I decided not to allow any of those number invade my brain or body. 
     Today's blog is to you, dear reader, who may be searching all over the Internet for information regarding an interstitial lung disease or lung transplants for yourself or a loved one. My advice? Don't embrace the bad stuff. Decide to join me on my bell curve and not be one of the average people. Our minds and goals are at the far end of that curve. It is our job to get our body in shape to help those goals. Go on, get moving.