Health--COPD--I-Am-A-Warrior Being willing to share with others the path I am traveling while battling ‘Lenny’ (name I have given my COPD/Asthma) is almost like therapy for me while also giving me the responsibility of taking my battle seriously.

With the help of social media I know I can also reach out to others who are also fighting similar battles and hopefully at time supply a little insight, little knowledge and maybe stir up some questions.

Today I once again share where I am at and maybe how I may or may not be dealing with it.

I will start with a report that my birthday on Tuesday last week went great with the wife and I making a visit to a nearby Olive Garden for lunch, then I did splurge with my eating by having pizza and birthday cake with my daughter, son-in-law and one of the grandkids.  Humbling was the word I use when I finished out the day trying to personally answer all 275+ birthday wishes I received on facebook added in with phone calls from my Dad, my brother, my two Aunts but only one of my grandkids.

Then I began to find out that this summer is nothing like any in my most recent past summers as I continue to have no clue day-to-day on what to expect from my un-cooperative sidekick ‘Lenny’ (name I have given to my COPD/Asthma lungs).

There have even been days where I may feel really good in the morning only to have ‘Lenny’ grasp a hold on things and make my afternoon and evening very uncomfortable.

This past weekend is a prime example as Saturday we (my wonderful wife and I) headed south an hour to spend a short time photographing a custom car showing and then planned to have a quick meal with one of the kids before heading home so the lady in charge could go to her evening job.

Trip down, photo time and meal time seemed to all go well as the weather had not warmed up to an unbearable level so I for one was feeling confident on having a great day – at least until ‘Lenny’ grabbed my breathing with a solid grip and worked at bringing the term uncomfortable to the lips of my day.

My battle with being uncomfortable carried deep into the night and when I awoke Sunday morning I realized I had transferred from uncomfortable to concern as I was very tight in my breathing and was feeling like I had gone back in time to those days as a kid and had run smack into the middle of a major asthma attack.

This continued on for most of the morning, even after taking an extra lap on my nebulizer machine and giving me thoughts of bothering my physician on a weekend.  But then poof shortly after noon ‘Lenny’ seemed to have decided he had enough of irritating my day and my breathing seemed to return to normal, or at least to what is normal for me.

What triggered this 20-hour entanglement with SoB (short of breath) and ‘Lenny’, I am not sure though I have been making mess of my mind trying to sort it out.  What this does do is presents a reminder that as hard as we try to avoid or train ourselves to control our triggers, that sometimes those triggers just get fired up and unload another adventures episode in our daily, sometimes hourly, battle with COPD/Asthma.

Am I still rambling through the brain to figure out the trigger of the weekend – NO, but I am monitoring my breathing and activities to see if it may be time for a visit with my physician or can I wait for my next visit in four weeks.  So monitoring I am as so far this summer has not been very pleasant several times and daily I do feel as if I am taking some steps back in time which is not a thought I really would relish having.

So today I continue to prod forward by staying pretty much indoors even though the temperature today will only be in the mid-80’s, the humidity is still resting in the low 60% area which makes things for me sometimes a chore to walk through.

Next time maybe I will rant about exercise, eating less but gaining weight.

For now though – that my friends is where ‘Lenny’ (my COPD/Asthma) and me are at 4 today.

*** I continue a request for all to hold Kaycie Chapman (from down New Zealand way) in your thoughts, prayers and blessings as she continues her courageous Facebook sharing of her continuing battle with late stages of emphysema/asthma/COPD – and she continues to do it with the level of faith and hope for which we all should hope we will have when our battle and travels become much, much worse.  Prayers and Blessings Kaycie.

NOTE TO REMEMBER: Sometimes we share what may seem like medical information, but we are only giving descriptions and highlights of various aspects of having COPD and/or asthma and no way do we ever want our information to be considered medical treatment type of information, always consult your physician for more, clearer and more medical founded information.

As always – if you or anyone you know have any symptoms involving lung and breathing functionality, and they linger over and over while disrupting a lifestyle – then please ask questions and get it checked out.

Remember – a person without breathing is a person without life itself.

I bid to all – smiles, prayers, blessings and steady breathing – Mr. William.

(Copyright@2015, CrossDove Writer through wheezingaway.com)

(Image used cleared for use by yahoo.com and/or google.images.com)