By Mr. William

Wow, it is the year 2019 already – how the heck did that happen.

That means it has been a full six years and six weeks since I survived a massive ‘widow maker’ heart attack only to be diagnosed with late Stage III COPD to go along with an already life long condition of severe asthma. That also means I have a lot to feel blessed about even beyond my wonderful supportive wife Linda, my kids and in-laws of Lisa, Jason, Tony, Alicia, John, Teresa and Johnny, plus my delightful nine grandkids (Denise, Keller, Erika, Jaiden, Korbin, Connor, Colton, Tanner and Ezra) that give me daily reminders of why life is important to keep going.

But despite all that I still have my own battles to fight, including many beyond my daily battle with breathing thanx to my lifelong severe asthma and late stage COPD.

Which brings us to the most recent holiday season for which I seemed to have found a perfect ‘bad’ recipe. You may know the recipe that starts with some major weather changes, adds in a few healthy teaspoons of depression, a heaping handful of family stress and then several cups of good, quality holiday food.

The bad recipe for the holiday time of 2018 started out with the extreme changes of weather. You know the kind I am talking about, when you have 3-5 days of temps in the 30’s followed by a rapid rise to 3-4 days with temps in the high 50’s or even over 60.

I for one have never had much success with roller coaster temperatures, one because my severe asthma would be affected and now it causes an oxygen level problem for my COPD going from hot to cold and back to hot in just days or even hours. Unfortunately for me the trend looks to continue into the first month of 2019 as we are going from 30 degrees and wind chills in the single digits to maybe a chance of hitting 60 degrees within 48-72 hours of each other.

No wonder I have been sucking wind without having to make much movement the last 24 hours.

Next up for me is the tablespoons of depression for which I battle often at the holidays, most folks call it the holiday blues. Much of it comes from not handling the changes of traditions and routines for Christmas, much of what comes from having five adult kids and nine grandkids to work around for time together. Then of course because I had a very blessed childhood that was full of family, church and traditions – I get melancholy over missing those traditions, missing my Mom and her love for the Christmas season.

Those handfuls of family stress, well much of that comes from beginning year four of taking weekends and non-school time and giving them up to care for our almost teen-age grandson who has Asperger’s/Autism while also having to deal with a father who only wants the kids during holidays and when it’s convenient to him (plus he has transportation issues which means we end up driving a lot more to get our grandson from one point to another), and his mother who continues to take baby steps in trying to overcome drug and alcohol addictions while putting her life back together. On top of all that, I have an ex-wife, whom I have not been married to for 32 years, that can’t deal with letting me share in holiday stuff with our two adult kids and grandkids when all of us doing something together is the best possible solution.

The final and possible the most frightening part of the ‘bad’ recipe for a holiday with health issues is the holiday food. From my wife’s special lasagna, to lots and lots of properly cooked ham, to way more sips of eggnog than I should have ever considered, to the numerous amounts of holiday cookies and my daughter’s perfectly, like grandma (my mom), banana bread. All those food ingredients alone add up to trouble for those of us who much of the time have trouble getting proper or enough exercise due to breathing issues.

The concern for me was that I weighed in at 270 when I had that massive, ‘widow maker’ heart attack six years ago and after wading through all the holiday events – my weight on the final morning of 2018 hovered between 266 and that 270 mark which scared the hell out of me. Plus, I know that when I get above 260 the weight does cause problems for my oxygen levels and COPD, so I must now double up on my efforts to change those eating habits.

Finally – the most important thing I can say is, it is now 2019 and only I can control what daily recipe of life will affect my life of the future.

And that my friends, is where ‘Lenny’ and Me are 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.

ALWAYS REMEMBER > A person without good breathing, is a person with a life of constant caution’, so let’s do what we can, to learn what we can, to improve what we can.

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

(Copyright@2019, 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.