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Health Update

Things are going well after a bumpy period. The good news is I got into the maintenance pulmonary rehabilitation program and so was able to keep my little Inogen concentrator a bit longer (and be more mobile). I am so grateful as it makes a huge difference in my independence and ability to have something more similar to a normal life. I’m also grateful to the pulmonary rehabilitation program at Inova Fairfax. They’ve been awesome!!!!

I had a very nasty upper respiratory infection and double ear infection a few weeks back. That was scary. At this point, any infection in my lungs can cause me to lose ground I don’t get back. I needed to wear oxygen more than is normal for me. Normally I can walk around my apartment without it. When I got the infection, I couldn’t even walk from my bed to the bathroom (a few feet) without oxygen.

Praise be to God I’ve been able to get back as much function as I had before the infection. I’m not sure what my PFTs or CT will show, but as far as what I can tell a functional difference in, we are back to where we were before the infection. That is a huge relief, although the recovery took several weeks.

I know people sometimes think I’m being overzealous about the germs and fearing getting a cold, but this is why. What was for most people a spring cold was very scary and dangerous for me.
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