Remember the other day, my birthday, when I was crowing a bit about getting back on that exercise bike and surprising myself by getting sizable time and steps on my daily health charts, I also think I mentioned how I needed to keep my head and thoughts on a swivel – waiting for that trigger to slip by and get ‘Lenny’ agitated, well yep it happened.

While I had a solid stretch of a week where I managed to get solid time and steps in each day, I knew that ‘Lenny’ was lurking in the background of my days waiting to find something to get irritated at and then take a shot at my day.

Somewhere along the time of noon on my birthday and noon the next day, my body said enough was enough and for most of Saturday I was just plain sick.  Without going into details, I will say I was mostly sick like most people get sick – maybe it was the two styles of pizza I had or the mountain dew I wasn’t used to drinking anymore, it could have been a-number of things.  It could have been that handshake or brief contact with the lady at the brewery or the shoe shop where my wife bought me a new pair of shoes, I just wasn’t going to dwell on why as I just wanted to feel better.

Unfortunately, when I get a bit under the weather I also am fighting the fact that my guard or defenses go down.  And yep, ‘Lenny’ yanked my chain of living.

By Saturday evening every breath I was taking felt as if an extra amount of weight was resting on my chest and walking through the house would drop my oxygen levels to 90.  As we all know, when you have a bout of SoB or just a major 10-minute flare up – it can make your whole system seem as if you just ran a marathon or played a quarter of high speed basketball.

I was down for the count through Sunday, and even on Monday morning as I stumbled my way to a meeting I needed to cover for the newspaper I write for part-time, I was still struggling.  The going out on Monday morning to get that meeting covered, well when I walked back in the house my oxygen level was 88 and that tells you the story.  Much of the rest of Monday I spent vegetating, just trying to get my body levels back to feeling normal, while trying to rack my mind wondering what the trigger was that put ‘Lenny’ on the warpath, putting me back on my heels and gasping for normality.

So once again I was served a reminder of just how quick and deep my COPD and Asthma can take over my trip of the day and how much time a major blast of SoB will make for recovery time.

Just so you know, here it is late evening on Tuesday and I still am feeling the pings of ‘Lenny’ not being totally at rest yet, and with the weather scheduled to be in the low 100’s the next three days – then it is home I will be and home I will stay.

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

Want to know who ‘Lenny’ is?  ‘Lenny’ is the name I gave my constant companion called COPD/Asthma.  I have found that referring and dealing with my chronic illness as a companion I am less apt to get angry with it, but instead more likely to work with it like you would in a strong relationship.  Besides treating anything with TLC is much better than hammering away at it as if it was an enemy.

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.