Chronic Wellness

Life feels like I'm in a pressure cooker. Some of these issues are short lived, while others are long and ongoing. Have you heard about The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Steven Covey? In that book, he teaches about the sphere of influence. In evaluating what my next steps are, it's helpful to consider what things are within my sphere of influence. It helps me prioritize how to expend...

How do we handle undue burdens and chronic illness? Life is feeling like it's all too much, how do we proceed? What can we do in times of great difficulty? Whether or not you have a chronic illness, the maxim holds true that we mus put on our own oxygen mask before assisting other passengers. Don't add to the burden of stress by neglecting self care. Self care has to be the priority in the midst o...

Have you seen a multi-car pile up? What a nightmare, weeding through who is at fault and who pays. What a frustration. How is this metaphor similar to my life right now? 2020 has gotten off to a rough start for me. Here's a bit about what's going on in my life. From my wife's livelihood to managing aging parents to what's happening in my marriage things have been really tough. How do we navigate t...

Have you considered a prescription service like Pill Pack? If you allow Amazon to fill your prescriptions this way they will prepare your pills over the course of the day for the whole month - including vitamins and other pills. For someone who has difficulty sorting their pills, this service can be a real asset! I expect other companies may be getting into this game as well. When combined with al...

Are you taking a lot of pills everyday? Keeping track of all the pills and finding the right pill keeper is important. Do you need pills on the go? Are you going to be traveling? What reminders do you need to know whether you've taken your pills? Here's another option of how to keep track of the pills you take each day.

Are you taking pills to manage your health? Have you found the perfect pill box? Here is the pill case I use, it has generous compartments for twice a day administration and I use a separate pill case on my night stand for my night time pills. Do you try to camouflage your medical devices? The interior pocket of this pill case an interior pocket that also holds small items that are useful to carry...

Are you taking more than 3 pills a day or taking pills more than one time a day? If so, do you have a pill box? What is your method of pill management? One of the simplest designs is the Sunday - Saturday, single compartment pill boxes. This could suffice if you are taking pills only once per day or only a few pills per day. Why is is a lot easier to manage pills when using a pill container? These...

Self love can unlock so many parts of healing, wellness, and peace. I do not deny how difficult this work is for so many of us, but there is no work more worthwhile. A fake it 'til you make it method that can help drive messages of love home -- affirmations. Key to finding the right affirmation, they feel like a balm to your spirit. It's critical that they meet a need inside you. This is the antid...

How can we know our own intrinsic worth and value? One way might be through our food choices. Do you know what foods make you feel best? How do I kill my resolutions most often? What are realistic expectations/ways to make change? The more loving and gentle we are with our goal setting, the better opportunity we have to be successful. When we build on our success, we can acknowledge that we're doi...

How can we learn to love ourselves? Is this key to unlocking health and wellness? There is a lot of science supporting my health, and yet, I believe that the turning point in my journey toward wholeness happened when I learned how to love my self. I have changed my own epigentics by learning to love myself. Self love is the way home. There are many ways to begin this journey, in upcoming broadcast...

In the lead up to Valentines Day I want to talk about self-love. Self love is essential. It is the way home. It is our purest nature It is the way the way to health and wellness. While not simple, there is no pursuit that will better serve us than loving ourselves. When we were born, before anyone messed with us, self love was our default setting. Finding our way back to that can be the hardest an...

Dry mouth is worse overnight. What can we do to curb it's negative impacts on our mouth, teeth, and breath? My dentist introduced me to a product that helps with dry mouth overnight. XyliMelts helps curb the effects of dry mouth overnight. Promoting salivation, and enhancing dentin because of xylitol, my dental health has improved. Dry mouth really takes a toll on our teeth and gums, XyliMelts mak...

Whether it's digestion, dental health, oral health/hygiene, or our breath, dry mouth takes a toll. Dry mouth is caused by many things from autoimmune diseases, to medications. Here are some ways to manage dry mouth with xylitol-based products. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol has been sweetening our toothpaste for decades. Xylitol strengthens teeth. Here are the brand names of the products I mention on...

Why is dry mouth a serious concern? How does it impact dental health? Why can this be life threatening? What can be done about it? Here are some products you may not know about.

What is Sjogren's Syndrome? Tissues need to stay hydrated and lubricated, when they don't it can have serious impacts. In order to keep our eyes lubricated, eye drops are key. My optometrist recommends using an eye drop without preservatives. What's the difference between mild, moderate, or severe eye drops? Why should eye drops be on your meds list?

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Do you remember swimming a bit too fast? Do you know what it feels like to exert too hard and not get enough of a breath? These are a bit of the experience of lung disease. Being always short of air, unable to inflate my lungs can lead to feeling panic. Panting, burning, always hungry for more oxygen has caused me to become more anxious. When left alone, in the dark, trying to go to sleep, the fea...

This was a cannula game changer for me! I'm a fairly fidget-free sleeper but sleeping with a cannula is tricky. By putting the cannula behind my head, cinching it and suspending the cord on the headboard, the rest of the tubing is out of the way and off the covers. It's also useful to remember at other times that the cannula can be worn down the back instead of hanging in front at other times like...

How do you make it easier to live with a cannula? Have you considered a child size cannula for smaller nose? Does your nose or face get irritated from the cannula? Here's what helps for chaffing. Have you ever had trouble getting your cannula caught on things? I've got a tip for you to manage that!

While I have complaints about living on oxygen therapy, I'm so thankful that there IS oxygen therapy. Without it, I might not be here today. Getting nosebleeds almost everyday it was difficult and frustrating figure out how to still get a supply of oxygen while treating the bleeding. Working with my doctor I was referred to an Ear Nose and Throat Doctor to have my nasal capillaries cauterized. Any...

With supplemental oxygen came nosebleeds. Excessive nasal dryness, I get nosebleeds. I had epic nosebleeds and so I have some tools for dealing with them. As we learned in first aid, pressure staunches bleeding, so here's a pro tip for dealing with a nosebleed: it involves a square or two of toilet paper and a bit of water. Things you should have readily available if you're suffering from a nosebl...

Lung disease makes you appreciate what requires oxygen. From laughing to crying, it all requires a lot of oxygen. Living with supplemental oxygen, I learned that not all cannulas are created equal. Having increased comfort when wearing oxygen matters a great deal. SoftHose is the brand of oxygen tubing that I prefer over others I've tried for quality and comfort. Thank you lungs for pumping away e...

How do I maintain lung capacity? Today I walk you through a breathing exercise. Sometimes called "square breathing" we try this practice together. How do we work our diaphragm and fill the whole lung? What do you do to exercise your lungs?

Take a deep breath and appreciate your lungs. It is easy to take autonomic responses for granted until they go offline. Loosing 70% of my lung function in less than 6 months. The experience of being unable to catch my breath was scary. I'd just cultivated a meditation practice where I focused my attention on the breath. Now my place of refuge was scary. What arose was to find a replacement, to tun...

Are you one of the millions impacted by lung disease? This week we'll be talking about how to live better with lung disease. Today I'm sharing an interesting detail about one way that lung disease, over time, changes other physical structures in our body. With poor circulation and lung problems, comes structural change to the fingers and toes. How remarkable!