About Me

Please Note: I am reposting my old blog on this site including old posts that were previously published on another site.  After I finish putting up all the old posts I will bring the new blog up-to-date with some new thoughts and posts.  Thanks for your patience. :)  Also, I am not adding all the previous comments from the old blog because I can't figure out how to add them however I appreciated each and every comment and have saved them all so I can go back and read them every now and then.  Thanks to everyone who signed the old blog.

About Me

October 2012

Hi.  My name is Gale.  My husband Eric

and I have 2  lovely daughters and three

wonderful grandchildren who are our

greatest treasures.

Last year (2011), I was diagnosed with a

rare lung disease called Idiopathic

Pulmonary Fibrosis and I’ve been told

that my only hope for survival is a

double lung transplant so read along as

I blog about this wild ride I’m on. For

the sake of clarification, ‘idiopathic’

just means of unknown origin, when

you see the word ‘pulmonary’ that

means it’s related to the lungs and

‘fibrosis’ simply means scarring.

I’m calling this blog  ‘Every Breath I

Take’  because recently I was listening

to an old Gene Pitney song by that

name (boy am I dating myself!) and I 

realized that since I got sick with a lung

disease I focus almost constantly on

every breath I take and how to breathe

easier.

Writing about my thoughts and feelings

is a good outlet for me because it gives

me a sense of purpose to document and

try to express my feelings as I go

through all this.

I was diagnosed last year so let me take

a couple minutes to explain just how

this illness attacks the lungs.  For some

unknown reason, my lungs are forming

scar tissue and the more scarred each

area of my lungs become the less pliant

and the more brittle they become. and

will ultimately lead to respiratory

failure.   This also puts extra work

on my heart as it tries to pump  blood

to my lungs through the scarred lung

tissue.  Eventually this extra pressure

will weaken my heart as well. I am on

oxygen all the time now and the

amount I need depends on how

strenuous an activity is.

I would like to share one of my

favourite quotes with you.

“Life is not measured by the number of

breaths we take but by the places and

moments that take our breath away.”

~Anonymous

Lately it’s my illness that has been

taking my breath away, so every now

and then I have to stop and remind

myself of those moments in my life that

were so special and so wonderful and

so exciting that they took my breath

away.  Lucky lady that I am, there have

been many!

Gotta run for now so take care and

check back often.  I tend to talk a lot

and since that’s become harder,

perhaps I’ll fill the void by writing a lot.

LOL!