My One Year Challenge

I recently posted about my commitment to fitness. My goal is to do 2 days of running and 2 days of lifting a week for a one year period. I've been slacking in the exercise department and that has always had negative consequences. It's been quite some time since my last hospital admission and I want to keep it that way!

I've been compliant with my treatments now for over 2 years. I rarely miss a set of treatments. Currently I do my vest twice a day for 30 min (as soon as I figure out how to program it, I'll be changeing it to 45 min), hypertonic saline twice a day, albuterol twice a day, pulmozyme once a day, and rotate months of Tobi twice a day (nebulized) and Cayston 3 times a day. 

In addition to exercise I've been practicing taking better quality treatments. Ronnie from rsbr.com had a post some time back that stuck with me. It's something as an RT I knew, and practiced but had gotten slack on and enjoyed the reminder. He talked about taking quality treatments. 

It's easy to strap on the vest, put the neb in my mouth and zone out in the computer doing whatever waiting for my treatments to finish. However, when I do that, I notice that my breathing is more shallow and I tend to lean over or slouch. 

Shallow breathing is somethin I noticed a long time ago. I could make some educated guesses as to why, but when the vest goes on, if I don't consciously make an effort to take deep breaths I will breath shallow. If I'm shallow breathing, the medicine isn't getting down deep in my lungs where it needs to be. Also, the secretions in the bases of the lungs aren't going to be shaken loose so I can cough them out. That's the stuff that needs to be coughed up too!

So how does one take a quality treatment? Sitting up straight, taking breaks to cough, making sure not to breath shallow and take occasional deep breaths with a slight breath hold. I also like to take 10 minutes or so after my treatments to stand and cough until I feel like I've gotten every little bit of mucus out of my lungs that I can. It takes some concentration and determination but it's 100% doable! If I can do all these things without gagging a bunch and throwing up its a successful treatment set! :)

So what do I hope to accomplish over the next year? 

1. To see a rise in my PFT's ( more specifically my FEV1) hopefully back into the 70's.

2. To see an increase in my weight, hopefully into the 160's. 

3. To run a half marathon

4. To complete the Tough Mudder with a good time

5. To be the best version of myself I can be for my wife and boys! (A phrase coined by the man himself, Ronnie Sharpe)