I will be honest with you all, even I am trying to figure out how time keeps flying by and life seems to get so busy or disrupted that my writing seems to get put on the back burner when I have no intention of allowing it to happen.

‘Lenny’ has been a very unsettled companion for a while now and I am searching for the reasons why.  Is it a weather or nature thing, a stress thing, a traveling thing or just life itself and my COPD/Asthma is telling me that maybe it is getting worse?

For several weeks, ‘Lenny’ has not so much putting out a big problem, but instead just consistently it’s been the little spurts of SOB (Short of Breath), enough that I would cut short on my walks around Wal-Mart and the only couple of times I walked the block to get the mail, my oxygen level dropped to 87-88 so I stopped doing it.

Of course, there are issues going on that may be helping in churning up the problem, such as the weather which the last month or so has either been hot, humid and windy, or dry, but full of pollen type particles and yes even down here in the center point of the United States we are getting a wisp of the smoke from all those forest fires in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

Then we have the traveling thing and lately I have had several spots where I end up being in the car, on the road for a significant amount of time over a two to four-day period.

Last weekend was a good example, on Friday I took a couple of young men to meet my daughter and grandkids so these young fellows could spend the Labor Day weekend with good friends.  After dropping the young men off to my daughter, I headed south to spend Friday evening, Saturday and early Sunday with my brother and sister-in-law.  Total amount of being on the road was maybe 5 hours.

Sunday, I drove home and spent the entire rest of the day catching up on writes for the weekly paper and Facebook page I do part-time work for.

On Labor Day itself, I drove two hours with my wife and two oldest granddaughters, picked up my oldest grandson and drove another hour and a half to meet that daughter again, drop off the granddaughters and pick up the young fellows (had to bring them back to our town for school), then turned around and drove the three and a half hours home.

Unfortunately for me, traveling anymore seems to take a lot out of me and for two days my back, my knees and my good companion ‘Lenny’ were all moaning and groaning, it is what life is anymore.

Another item that can get ‘Lenny’ to cause some irritation would be stress and these days I do not have to look very far to find some.

Between one adult child still fighting an addiction problem, spending all our weekends and holidays helping take care of that adult child’s eleven-year old son (who has Asperger’s) and now giving up our guest room so our oldest son can have a place to live as he continues to sort out the marriage or divorce thing.

‘Lenny’ has had a lot of things to get agitated about and several times each day will be happy to remind me of that fact.

So, I continue to plug ahead by making sure I get my nebulizer time in every morning, take a deep inhalation of the med they call ‘Breo’, keep my oximeter close by, my rescue inhaler in the pocket and my head on a swivel watching for any and all possible triggers over and beyond the ones that life alone is throwing at me already.

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.