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Short of breath [1]

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Date: 2022-08-30

‘Been putting this off…

It was sometime during the summer of 2014 that I noticed something different was going on. There was a marina that W (25 year business partner) and I sometimes went to that was at the bottom of a 99 step, multi-platform staircase. Going down was a little rougher than I had remembered it, but when it came time to go back up, it took multiple stops to catch my breath, and I was whipped by the time I made it to the top. In the past, W and I were about equally pooped, but he was fine and I was a wreck. (of course, he’s a spry 56, I’m 71)

After a few more years of doing nothing and it still getting worse, I finally relented and mentioned it to my doctor during my annual physical. A year of total work-up followed, discovering a long list of ailments I didn’t have. My lungs, however, were a different story. I was diagnosed with emphysema about three years ago. During the exams, I was asked the usual questions about smoking tobacco (never have), drug use (long time weed smoker), and occupational hazards; 50 years carpentry and woodworking, exposure to dusts as diverse as dried rat shit to sheetrock sandings and too many solvents to remember. My parents were both chain smokers and I was raised in a continuous cloud of Camel smoke. The teachers smoked. My friends smoked. There was cigarette smoke in barbershops, boys’ rooms, restaurants, grocery stores, buses and airplanes. We boomer kids were just about marinated in the stuff. After high school when the Vietnam draft inspired me to join the US Coast Guard, everyone there smoked practically everywhere. It wasn’t until I got to college in 1974 that I finally got some clear air. I’m sure fifty years of smoking the weed didn’t help, but that’s another story. I doubt I’d be alive if I hadn’t had cannabis to treat my depression.

So it all adds up over time. I now have a good case of emphysema, and if you don’t know what it is, take the time to look it up. It’s a fascinating disease, as it is entirely a reaction to the environment. At last test, I was pushing about 27% capacity, which explains the difficulty I now have with any exertion at all. Walking more than a hundred feet takes planning and recovery at best, and in the evening when it is at its worst, a trip to the bathroom leaves me panting like a hound. Mornings and most of the afternoon are good, though, and I can still get out and about with care. I recently purchased an ‘ebike’, making it possible to chase my wife J around the neighborhood when she’s riding her bike, though we both agree it’s cheating. Good times. E-bikes rock for old folks with breathing issues.

Anyway, that is the official short story about my emphysema, likely to remain close by in conversation for the foreseeable future. We try not to dwell on it, and to keep a sense of humor about the increasing limitations. We got out in the camper a couple of times this season, exploring the seacoast and getting away from the Willamette Valley heat. ‘Expect more once the motorhome comes back from the shop.

I’d be interested to hear any other stories about this stuff. The doctors are all over the place as to the causes of this; parental smoking, bad air, da’ weed, sanding dust, etc. There appears to be no consensus except ‘it’s all bad’.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/30/2119755/-Short-of-breath

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