What a sway of emotions to travel through in a matter of just three and one-half days, a high of joy to a muscle tightening bout of anxiety.

To start the week off on the right foot, ‘Lenny’ cooperated with me so I could enjoy the ride that went with a joyful, though short, 36-hour visit with our oldest grandson.  Keller is just a little over five weeks from being 17 and drove down to see us for the first time on his own, in his own car and it was maybe the best 36 hours of the whole summer.

We gotta tell you all one thing about Keller – he is my first-born grandson and spent nearly every weekend he had with his Dad (his Mom and my son never were married) for his nearly first three years at our house.  We shared in his first crawl, though he rolled throughout the house looking for Nana long before he crawled, and his first steps.  Nana taught him to love his vegetables and to this day he counts broccoli as one of his favorite foods.

Now our little ‘Keller Bear’ has become more of a ‘Keller Grizzly’ as he stands a hair over six-foot-one and weighs in at right near 285 pounds of solidness.  Our ‘little’ buddy is already a state qualified wrestler and all-conference lineman in football, with aspirations to return to state in one and get past the semi-finals of state playoffs in the other while pushing for all-state honors as well.

Among the joys of just having time to visit and share in some good food (he loves his Nana’s lasagna), Keller did make this ‘Papa or Gramps’ feel a touch older when he started talking about his future of maybe joining the Navy reserves to help pay for college, unless of course he can get himself a scholarship somewhere in either wrestling or football.  He talked about wanting to go into biology or maybe even history, and while these talks made me feel a bit old realizing he will graduate from high school in two years, it did humble me and make me proud that he has a level head on them large shoulders with some goals already set and a path to reach them.

But after having some ‘Papa’ pancakes, bacon and orange juice this morning, the joy of the visit ended and our ‘Keller Bear’ had to head on home.  With big bear hugs and promises to let us know when he arrived home, he was off – knowing that football season starts in less than a month and confident that ‘Papa’ will find his way to the sidelines for game number one.

So as the joy of the visit began to mellow out, the anxiety of the next scheduled event for my week began to creep ever so cautiously into my veins and into my mind.

Anxiety over an impending visit to an out-patient hospital the next morning for an EGD (Esophagogastroduodenoscopy).

Yep due to recent swallowing and digestive problems that gave ‘Lenny’ a reason to flare up just a bit and required not one, two, but three unplanned trips to the ER – we get to have a tiny scope shoved (gently I hope) down through my esophagus, past my stomach and into the upper region of whatever is beyond.

Anxiety grew just a bit when one of the out-patient nurses called and did a bunch of pre-procedure paperwork info over the phone.  While she did her best to assure all would be well and due to my stage III COPD, severe asthma and slight heart condition – they would take great care of me and monitor me extra close.

While the evening draws down and I realize I have just thirty minutes to snack one more time before I hit that point of no food and drink until after the procedure – I get anxious.  Anxious because while I have a c-pap machine for sleep apnea, I normally count on water to keep my mouth and throat from drying out and from ‘Lenny’ getting irritated throughout the night.

But like when I had a procedure done on my vocal chords last summer and my more recent colonoscopy – both ‘Lenny’ and I will get through this and if I am lucky, ‘Lenny’ will behave while I am slightly under and will continue to behave as I work at getting over the up to 24-hour grogginess they promise I may have.

But then again, the body we are given is like life itself – we have just one and if we are lucky and well taken care of, a procedure like this should be just a slight, little bump in the longer road we are traveling in that life itself.

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 p