Breathing Better

April 13, 2023

PHOTO: my vibrating PEP device (left) and my favorite incentive spirometer

I am happy to announce that today, I have begun to finally feel physically normalized. I have been struggling in recent weeks with severe breathing issues and infections in both of my feet due to diabetic ulcers. I was hospitalized for both from March 25 to 28, 2023. I started to go downhill hard on April 9, 2023, when I fell at my mother's home. I fell again two days later at home, spraining my right ankle. I was superficially scraped from my falls.

Over the past several days, I have been able to do little more than sleep: most of the days and most of the nights. I have been barely eating. I was taking aspirin, asthma pills, and antibiotic capsules, plus I have been constantly inhaling an asthma medication (medicated mist) through a nebulizer, plus using an emergency asthma inhaler. I also have been constantly sniffing on supplemental oxygen, using an electric oxygen concentrator.

My breathing was so bad that I was unable to speak. Constant coughing made me dizzy.

Well, this morning, I happily awoke with a returned appetite and breathing that was noticeably better. I will continue this part of my extensive medical regimen, plus I can now restart my breathing exercises, using my favorite incentive spirometer and my vibrating PEP (positive expiratory pressure) device.