I am free of the oxygen hose that I used to need to keep me alive. No more fish flopping around out of water unless I do something really stupid like vacuuming or cleaning house. Ha Ha. Just kidding. Ok, well, not really. I have used the vacuum cleaner several times. Especially since we got a couple of new cats; one of which has long black hair. I still resist dusting because it affects my breathing when there are particles in the air.
I have even climbed staircases a couple of times. Sure, I huffed and puffed when I got to the top the first time, I even had to sit down for a spell, but after a couple of minutes I was able to stand up and walk away.... right to a restaurant where I sat down and ate a nice delicious meal. I have taken a couple of long steep stairways, short wide stairways, groups of stairs.
I can go out at night now and not have to worry about running out of oxygen. I have color to my skin once again! I actually grew my hair out and can now reach up with my arms and ponytail it up high on my head once again. Reaching up with both arms has been an issue of mine for a long time before surgery, and of course after surgery it wasn't even allowed for a while.
Before surgery I could have cared less whether I had brushed my hair, and because I was a hairstylist for about 30 years prior to this, it was a huge issue for me, and a very depressing situation for someone that likes to appear "put together" at all times.
I even wear real clothing now, during the daytime hours (most days, that is). No longer are sweat pants and T shirts my staple wardrobe. I even bought pants with a placket front rather than elastic all the way around. Sounds weird but when a person can't breathe one thing that becomes apparent is comfort and anything that is binding becomes the devil, and that includes bras, too. And no one wants to see that....believe me. Not even myself. I still think of myself as a svelte woman in a tiny basic black (or red) evening dress in 5" heels. Not happening.
ok, I really don't look like this on the outside, but I still do, on the inside.
I have worn heels (boots with 1.5"heels) several times, but I have found that heels take the breath out of me, even today. It is much better than before, when just standing and holding my own weight upright for any length of time left me breathless.
So many things I take for granted these days. And that is good, because even though most people consider taking things for granted only leaves a person susceptible to a let-down later, for me, it is a boon! If I am taking things for granted, it means that I am no longer constantly having to adjust my life for my oxygen intake.
Don't get me wrong, I am not completely free. I still have an oxygen tank here at home, but my consumption has dropped considerably, and the only time I use O2 continually is when I am working out at the gym, because the very last thing I want to do is to rob my body of good clean oxygen when I am exercising, especially since my form of COPD is the type that causes my oxygen saturation to drop in direct relationship to my activity level.
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It's January 9th 2014, I am now finishing this post because time has elapsed and something new has come up.
It is time to pay it forward. A colleague of mine has received some information regarding her own pulmonary adventure, and now she's about to start her roller coaster ride...
...And I want to be there for her when the ride comes to it's first resting point. I didn't mention that this roller coaster, keeps going, did I? Well it does. The ride goes on, there's just no get-off points. Sometimes its those small, smooth long humps (and those are our goal), sometimes it dips and drops in a nice even undulating fashion, then there's those high ups and downs, the ones we crank up our oxygen for, and then there's the Gforce types, the ones that twist and turn and sweep your breath, leaving your head in a spin.. For those, we have Zithromax......!
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