Hope for COPD

Pause, almost over? So, you have noticed my absence and missed me! I have been so busy with my father moving, getting ready to sell his old house (the one I still live in), and enjoying the weather (not really, my allergies are killing me), and teaching Tiny, that I haven't posted anything new in quite some time! Since he moved, we have realized that autopay on for the internet stopped when we all of the sudden had no internet! GASP!!! (dramatically puts back of hand to forehead and faints) Hope for COPD is important to me, so I will be back full blast in September. After the internet outage, I came back online to several thousand emails which I promptly deleted versus trying to sift through all of them. I will be scheduling all tweets for September and October this month because I will be moving at the end of August or sometime in September,down to Missouri with my father, unless plans change.  If you have emailed me and need to speak with me, or would like to work on...

Ch... Ch... Changes (RIP to all of the AMAZING artists we have lost recently.) Hey everyone! I hope you are all well and enjoying the nicer weather!  Yes, there are big changes coming up in my life. Some have already started. Some good and some bad. Some just eh. Haha! My father, who also has COPD and I lived with, bought a house in Missouri. He MOVED the day he closed and received the keys. Hasn't been back since.  Left me and my lil one in our family home to clean it and prepare it for sale.  With NOTHING we actually needed.  You know, things like trash bags, toilet paper, paper towels?  And no money to pay for housekeeping help, as he was a hoarder, no money to pay for lawn care, tree trimming. Eh, no matter. A dear friend has sent me money to purchase those items, and I even let an old friend move in temporarily to help clean in exchange for a place to stay. Trust me, I am going to owe HER for the cleaning!  I am...

COPD AT 40 Hi everyone, let me start by introducing myself. My name is Justine Peach. I am a 40 year old woman with a beautiful 16 year old daughter and I live in Melbourne Australia. I used to have a wonderful job that I loved doing. I worked as a nursery hand in a wholesale plant nursery. I moved between two different areas every six months. For the first six months I would be doing all areas of the work place. I would transplant baby plants into trays on a conveyor belt or moving trays of plants to their designated area to grow. Once ready we would be moving the trays from the ground to a trailer attached to a buggy and put them down ready to pick orders. Staking tomato plants, or watering the entire stock. Sweltering on hot days in greenhouses. There were many different areas and depending on staff and stock as to what our job for the day would be. The other six months I would spend at the main nursery department as a dispatch worker. Getting plants ready to load on t...

COPD Unaware A guest post by Duke Reeves  Despite the advances in medicine and technology, COPD rates and the financial burden of COPD continue to rise. While part of the rising rates can be attributed to a growing population, the bottom line is that the majority of COPD cases are preventable through awareness and education.  The most common symptoms and signs of COPD are shortness of breath, chest tightness, coughing up mucus, and a chronic cough. Looking at these symptoms, it’s easy to see how we can brush them off and assume they are from a common cold or old age. However, by brushing these symptoms off we are setting ourselves up for a potentially rude awakening. COPD is a progressive disease which means the longer it goes untreated the more damage it’s going to cause. The best way to ensure you live a full life with COPD is by catching the disease as early as possible. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) predicted COPD would become the 3 rd leading cause of...

How relationships MAY change when you are chronically ill.  Finding out you are chronically ill, is challenging at best. But, there are other things you may find more hurtful. Please do not take this the wrong way. I want you to find a positive even in the event of a negative.  Here is a (by no means comprehensive) list of things I have experienced since finding out I had stage III lung disease. They are in no particular order, but I feel they are important to talk about. Knowing what to expect, makes the disappointment hurt a little less.  1. Your friends and family may doubt you. Google "invisible illness", it is any disease or defect that is not visible to other people. Because you look healthy, or "normal" people may not believe you are really sick. They may be down right nasty about it.  Now, there are ways to handle this. And, I am not here to tell you what is the correct way. Each person is different, and will need further explainin...

How much does it cost to have Severe COPD, severe arthritis, carpal tunnel, chronic pain (unexplained), and illness associated anxiety? For 2014-2015 Medications $11959.43 Dr. Visits $1620.18 (specialists and primary) OTC medications, vitamins, and supplements $798.37 Travel to specialist $681.49 (gas, tolls, parking, and meals) Grand total of $15059.47 NOT including oxygen concentrator or nebulizer rental.  Thankfully most of that is covered for me. Over 24 MILLION people in the US have COPD... 15 million don't even know it yet! As the numbers rise, the likelihood of YOU getting COPD rises... If you are short of breathe, get tested. Don't work too hard or too much, breathe CLEAN air. Work for a better way to live, work, and breathe.  Sadly, outdoor air pollution cannot be avoided. But with much effort by many, it might be reduced.

SUPPORT GROUPS When I was first diagnosed I didn't know much about COPD.  I knew it had to do with not breathing well. It was, in my opinion, a senior aged smoker thing. How could someone my age, some HEALTHY and ACTIVE, who only smoked a half a pack a day or less, HOW could I get this??? I was in my 30's! Thinking back, I had it in my twenties, and just didn't think anything of it. It was an occasional breathlessness. As a kid, I was never an athletic girl. Always the last one picked in gym class. I didn't like playing in any sports, or anything physical. But, I  did love  walking for hours  at  the forest preserve, and was always there when the weather was good! HOURS, not minutes, of walking the trails. I would say hiking, but not quite. So, I had COPD. Stage 3 at that point. But, what does it all mean? The woman who first diagnosed me accurately, told me something scary.  "Getting sick just one time, might be your last."  She was...

(UPDATE AT THE BOTTOM) I thought I would write today about my experience with filing for Social Security Disability. It is not and easy task for many Americans. For some, the rare few, they are approved right away. Not in my case. After my being denied, I missed my appeal filing deadline because of illness and a friends death. Then, I had to reapply, get denied, appeal, denied again, appeal with an attorney and go to hearing.  So here is my experience with this so far, remember post this if you need to apply.  First a little back story in case you haven't read my first few posts. After I realized I needed to quit working to focus on my health and achieved a clear and accurate diagnosis, I did just that. I accessed my savings, and knew I could live for about a year without a job. I had already been seeing a physician for 2 years about my getting bronchitis or pneumonia every 2 months. "It is because you smoke." That is all he ever said, then prescribed a Z...

TIME TO GET GROCERIES! *Updated information in Schwans They are only allowed to accept LINK/SNAP/EBT for up too $150 per delivery. That is fine with me, they deliver every 2 weeks, but this time my order included some Christmas items and totalled $157. So I have to pay the difference in cash. If you are anything like me, I buy the bulk of my groceries at one time. Always have. Maybe because I was a single mother with two young daughters that were too little to help ? Maybe because I thought I was supermom . I used to loop several bags over each arm, and carry them all in at once. We are talking $200-$300 worth at a time. My arms would be bruised and sore afterwards.  It usually looks something like this....  Okay, maybe that is an exaggeration. Now, with COPD, it is really foolish for me to try that. I drive through the yard, back the trunk right up to the porch and take about 4 bags in at a time. I line them up neatly on the staircase… I still have ...