Last Person Standing

I felt horrible last evening. Not enough sleep along with no appetite left me rather weak while working out in the rehab class. Limping home, I ate some nuts and drank lots of water but it still was not good. After a bit of dinner, I felt worse. By 6PM, I was drifting off to sleep and Michael put me to bed very early.

This morning, I am feeling much better. Soon, I will drive into the city for the meeting with the ILD doctor to talk about the options other than the re-do surgery to stop my acid reflux from flowing into my lungs. It should be interesting.

The news from the class yesterday was that the founder of the pulmonary rehab program, Louise, is retiring as of January 11. She was the visionary who began the program, which is the finest in the Bay Area. Her educational piece was the first time I learned the physiology of my lung disease. I learned how to manage it and to adjust my life for it and to also keep living. The exercise piece saved my life.  Programs (and businesses, i.e. Apple) who lose their visionary change. The suits move in. Louise fought so hard against the suits (hospital management) through the years. I remember her telling me that one head of the entire PT and rehab programs at two hospitals asked her why have rehab classes for pulmonary people as they are going to die soon anyway? That type of thinking was what she faced. And fought.

Ironically, Louise has been fighting liver and lung cancer. A non-smoker, she has been through about two years of chemo and is facing more. Sadly, her husband died of liver cancer and their son is constantly having his monitored.

With this news, I looked around the room and realized that NO ONE was left. Not one person was still involved with the program since I began in 2005. No RN, no exercise physiologist, no class member and now, no Louise. I am the last person standing.