‘Lenny’ is my constant companion the doctors call COPD/Asthma.  Naming my constant health companion seems to make life easier for me in relating to my disease as it gives it a bit of a personality.  Besides treating ‘Lenny’ as a companion, come good days or bad, is much better than always dealing with it as an enemy.

This ‘Lenny and Me for Today’ is an occasional write about the adventures and handling of life together of ‘Lenny’ and me.

Let’s see where ‘Lenny’ and Me have been most recently – we will be testing the stamina!!

Today, tomorrow and next week my schedule should have the big headline ‘TESTING STAMINA’, as I will be on the go pretty much daily for the next eight days.

Those of us with a chronic illness and/or disability, and especially those with something like COPD and/or severe asthma – stamina is many times an unchartered adventure as we just can’t predict much of the time on how our bodies and/or companion of chronic illness and/or disability will hold up to a busy, busy schedule.

Me, well considering I have 11 grandkids and several of them have school functions as we finish up the school year, needless to say – I will be keeping busy.

Today in particular could be a challenging day for ‘Lenny’ to keep calm and not get too irritated.

Reason being, our community has what is called an ‘All Schools Day Celebration’ and it comes complete with a ninety-minute parade of school bands, school floats, school royalty and much more – I will have two grandsons in the parade, one walking with the kids graduating the DARE program and the other on his school float.

The parade is followed the rest of the day with lots of activities, including what they call ‘madathons’ where school kids from various area schools compete in fun styled Olympic formatted games – and I have two grandkids and an adult daughter competing.

Of course, then the day is topped off with a community street dance, which this year is featuring of our state’s long-time, all-time great bands that just happens to originate from our community.

Did I mention that the parade time how our community of maybe 13-14,000 will balloon up to as many as 35-40,000 folks?

As I prepare to get my stuff together and head out the door in less than two hours, I am watching the weather (an absolute must) and finding that it is cool this morning (around 52 degrees Fahrenheit) but the humidity is like 72% (potential trigger).  Good news is they are calling for clear skies and very little wind.  So, all I must do is give myself enough time to walk to the parade route from where I park (I estimate about four, maybe five blocks) without pushing ‘Lenny’ to the limit.

Okay, oxygen checker – check, rescue inhaler – check, bottled water – check, cell phone charged up – check, camera batteries charged – check, I may be ready to go.  Did I chat with ‘Lenny’ – yep and hopefully cooperation will entail.

The extra incentive to keep my triggers in check and work gently on keeping my stamina up, my daughter and the two grandkids in the madathon will be moving five and a half hours away at the end of the school year in two weeks and this may be the last ‘All Schools Day Celebration’ they are here – the extra incentive to doing it, working through it and moving on.

Oh, did I mention – tomorrow is scheduled a two-hour drive to take hobby photos at a hot air balloon festival, something I have never seen before up close and personal.  The real question is – who is being tested more, myself or ‘Lenny’!!

And that my friends, is where ‘Lenny’ (my COPD/Asthma) and me are at 4 today.

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 good breathing, is a person without a good life’, so let’s do what we can, to learn what we can, to improve what we can.

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

(Copyright@2017, CrossDove Writer through wheezingaway.com – no part of this write may be used or copied without written permission.)

Follow all the adventures of “‘Lenny’ and Me 4 Today” at wheezingaway.com or on Facebook at “COPD Travels”.

NOTES: 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.