‘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 – It’s a Diet Problem!!

At first, I was going to call this write – ‘Hey Dummy, It’s the Diet’ – but I realized that was just a bit over the top and maybe leaned a bit too negative, so instead ‘It’s a Diet Problem’ was the final choice.

Recently I have had several postings with shares about how my stamina and ‘Lenny’ was going to be tested over a two-to-three-week period due to end of the school year grandkid stuff, graduations and of course a daughter and family moving out-of-state.  Needless to say, my stamina has been given a real run for the money and ‘Lenny’ has on a few occasions begun to raise its aggravating irritations and nearly put me into a full-scale SoB (Short-of-Breath) emergency.

But we have worked through it all for the most part and tonight we have been prepping to head out in the morning with my daughter, son-in-law, his mother and four grandkids on a one-way trip for all of them except the mother and me for their new out-of-state adventure.

With all the festivities of grandkid music performances, DARE graduations, eighth-grade recognition, high school graduation and prepping for the move the time for regular meals has kind of gone out the front door – in other words to many pizza, hamburger or hot dog type of eating and not enough regular chicken with vegetables meals, let alone much of any fruits.

And anyone with COPD and/or severe asthma would know, your diet can and will make a difference in the battles with a chronic illness.

Have I noticed, yes very much so, especially in the most recent few days even though I could blame some of my lack of stamina when walking any short distance or trying to do much of any physical work on the weather, which has been warming up with higher humidity and plenty of changes in clear days and stormy days.

My eating routine is out of sync and I have noticed, a lot.  When I get short of breath just by running a couple of errands, I know immediately that I must consider doing something different or more accurately, fix the problem.

In checking in on the household scale, I was much agitated by the weight for which it was sharing with me, yet I knew that in the past 10-days I was eating too many potatoes, too much pasta and too much bread or dough products – the three food items that my favorite physician keeps reminding me should be very limited w removed from the listing of my eats or diet.

So, while I know that the next three days will be tough due to the travels to and from moving my daughter and family, I know that my diet needs to get back to eating many more veges, non-red meat, salads and soups, plus more water drinking and absolutely no soda!!  Instead of potatoes, I must remember to feed ‘Lenny’ cauliflower tots or rice, while cutting back to maybe a piece of toast with an egg in the morning and not another bite of bread product the rest of the day.

Can I do it, of course because I have done it before – but for me, while gaining weight can and will be a factor in having ‘Lenny’ getting agitated, I also know that I eat when I am feeling stressed or trying to work through some moments of the blues.  So, my goal today is to spend my traveling time the next few days on sorting through the past two weeks and disassembling my emotions, while working on a game plan for the return home without my rocks (my daughter, son-in-law and four grandkids) that have been there ever since my heart attack and diagnosis of a disability called late stage III COPD.

I have already taken that first step by understanding that much of my current run of ‘Lenny’ irritations and short bouts of SoB has been caused by not watching my diet and upgrading (if you really can call it that) my weight.  Now the question is, can I tackle and solve the ‘diet problem’.

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.)

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 medical founded information.