Its now shortly after getting my lung cancer diagnosis, and my breathing is still not improved. Anything more strenuous than walking made me breathe heavy. My pulmonologist prescribed oxygen therapy.
So we headed over to the medical supply company and they sent us home with a portable oxygen concentrator, and said they would be delivering another one to our house that could fill portable tanks. An oxygen concentrator takes in regular air and removes almost all of the nitrogen out of it. The result is near pure oxygen that it put out from a flexible tube. You wear a cannula and breath in the extra oxygen.
We also had a decision to make. My diagnosis was on Thursday, August 4th. On Saturday, we were supposed to leave on vacation. Most summers, we spend a week in Holden Beach, North Carolina with my parents and siblings.
We knew this year, though, it would not be a good idea. As hard as it was for me to breathe, it was even worse outdoors in the hot summer weather. I would be stuck in the rental house most of the day and not real close to a hospital.
So it became a “staycation”. My wife and I had scheduled the week off of work, of course, so we stayed home. It gave me a chance to get some rest and come to grips with our new reality.