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Adjusting to Adversity as a Patient with IPF
The weekend just passed was a holiday in Canada to celebrate our country’s 151st birthday. Unofficially, the July 1st long weekend is also the “kick off” to summer for the kids who are now out of school for two months, and the start of many summer holiday plans for many of us working full-time. For me, this long weekend didn’t disappoint!
Despite the extreme humidity (40+ degrees celsius with the humidex), I managed to enjoy some time on the beach with my family, including a huge group of cousins, nieces, nephews and extended family. It was hot, and it was often hard to breathe but with just a few small accommodations from others, and the use of my supplemental oxygen, I was able to overcome the adversity of living with a life-threatening lung disease.
Not only did this make me feel good over the weekend (that I could do everything others could despite my lung disease), it was also an excellent reminder that with a little adjustment we can still live a good life with IPF. This unexpected lesson was a timely reminder for me, as I’d been having a hard time the past few weeks with my lungs not cooperating. My biggest fear is having to miss out on things that I enjoy the most, such as beach days with my family. This will come, I am not unrealistic about that, but the longer I can achieve what I want, despite needing accommodations, the better I feel overall.
My cousin also took the opportunity to capture this moment for me in a photo, and I am very grateful. The back of my shirt in the photo above says “just breathe”, and despite being tethered to my oxygen tank, in this moment I was admiring the sunset and enjoying the fact that today, it felt like I’d won in the fight against IPF. My lung disease did not keep me from enjoying what I love most today, and in my books this is a big win.
Are there specific moments throughout your journey with IPF/PF that you’re proud of?
Times when you’ve done something doctors/specialists thought you shouldn’t or couldn’t due to your lung disease?
Adjusting to the adversity of living with a lung disease is important, and not impossible.
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