[Randi]

Hi Charlene!

What a great idea! I have NSIP, more fibrotic than cellular, and my motto is not to grieve over what I can’t do, but to celebrate what I can. NSIP has provided me with an opportunity to explore various creative avenues including sculpting and watercolor painting. I would love to post pictures, but I can only see a possibility to post videos. Wishing us all the ability to live our best lives possible!

[Randi]

Hello Charlene,

My name is Randi. I am 68 years old, and was diagnosed with NSIP about a year and a half ago, and I have been attending pulmonary rehab sessions twice a week since then.

• Without a doubt, it has been instrumental in reducing dyspnea, increasing exercise performance, and improving health-related quality of life (HRQL).
• It’s hard to say which exercises were difficult and which were easy. When I began, I could do only a few minutes on the treadmill. Now I can do 20 minutes on the elliptical machine and another ten on the treadmill, in addition to breathing exercises, strength and resistance exercises, and stretching.
  I had severe COVID and was hospitalized for over a week in January 2021 (diagnosed two days before my vaccine appointment). When I returned to the rehab program, nearly two months later, I obviously had to work to recoup cardiopulmonary endurance, but I am sure that the work I did before the COVID helped me to overcome it, and I have since surpassed where I was before.
• I find the breathing exercises enable me to expectorate much more successfully.
• I would recommend a pulmonary rehab program to anyone with a chronic lung disease. In fact, I think with the exception of my lungs, I’m probably in better shape now than I have been in years.

Thank you for sharing the article.

Best,

Randi