The Digest - Volume 5.2
Letter from the Publisher
Our slogan
for this year (“It’s our time in 2009”) is rapidly proving to
be a reality.
The focus
on Healthcare Reform and other key legislative and regulatory issues
emphasize the critical importance of organizing ourselves as COPD Advocates
in each Congressional District through our grassroots program Operation
435. Our public policy team has been working overtime advocating
for your interests to include them in Health Care Reform initiatives
on Capitol Hill. Continue Reading This
Actor/Comedian Robert Klein Shares His Own COPD Experience
Funny man Robert Klein has
been giving us “laughter as the best medicine” for years. Yet, these
days he’s more serious about a different type of medicine—the treatments
for his chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
For decades he has entertained
us with the gift of his stand-up comedy, HBO specials and many Broadway,
television and movie roles. But now Klein has something more serious
and personal to share. As the spokesperson for the new “Rethink COPD”
campaign, the 67-year-old comedian/actor is sharing his own COPD experience
and asking others to “rethink” theirs.
“The idea is to get people
who suspect that they may have this, particularly if they have been
a smoker, even if they have stopped smoking, and those that have been
diagnosed, to access all the information they can,” Klein says to
the COPD Digest. “In this case, ignorance is not
bliss.” Continue Reading This
A Pack or Two a Day, a Future of Health Problems: FDA Issues New Warning Label on Cigarettes
For young people who may be
considering taking up smoking, Joe Meeks, from Muncie, Indiana, has
a somber warning.
“I don’t recommend dying
as a way to quit, but it worked for me,” Meeks, 62, says with a slight
chuckle.
Meeks was diagnosed with chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease in 2005.
“I had a heart attack and
I died,” Meeks says. “And they shocked me in the parking lot of
the emergency room and brought me back. Then I went into the ER, and
they lost me again.”
Meeks says he was shocked back
to life a second time before slipping into a coma for four days. Continue Reading This
The Road to the Finish Line
At 9AM on April 20th,
2009, Mike McBride lined up for the start of the prestigious Boston
Athletic Association (BAA) Marathon—the world's oldest annual marathon.
He was the first athlete with COPD to gain entry, competing in the mobility-impaired
group of athletes. The road ahead of him, 26 miles of the marathon course,
wound through eight cities and towns, and features obstacles like Heartbreak
Hill, positioned at a point late into the race.
Changes
The real road to that finish
line started many years earlier. McBride has always been an active person,
working and playing hard. As he says, he was one of those strange animals
who would work out three or four times a week, and then smoke a cigarette
on the way home. In the early 1990's, his workout ethics were already
well established, which would be needed in the years to come.
Continue Reading This
Calendar
August: 20th-22nd: Dallas Trucking Show (Friday 12-6PM, Saturday 10AM-6PM), Dallas Convention Center, 650 South Griffin Street, Dallas, TX. Visit the MSU booth to get free lung testing!Continue Reading This
Top Ten Questions from the C.O.P.D. Information Line
For over two years, the C.O.P.D. Information
Line has helped individuals living with COPD, their caregivers, health
care professionals, as well as members of the general public obtain
information about COPD and the Foundation. Several questions have come
up time and time again, so the COPD Foundation thought it would be useful
to publish a list of top ten questions asked on the Information Line.
Continue Reading This
OXYVIEW® – IMPROVING OXYGEN THERAPY AT HOME AND IN THE HOSPITAL
Paid Advertisement Cost-effective Disposable Oxyview® Now Available To say that we need oxygen to exist is as obvious as saying we need water. But as we all know, water can also be a destructive force. The key, of course, is to having the right amount in the right place at the right time. That is just as important for oxygen, especially for those who require supplementary oxygen.Continue Reading This
The New World of HFA Bronchodilators
Okay, December 31st has passed and reality has set in—no more generic albuterol inhalers are being sold in the United States and it’s time now to switch to an HFA bronchodilator. If you don’t have yours yet, make an appointment with your physician right away to review your asthma management plan and decide which inhaler is best for you.Continue Reading This
The Battle of Capitol Hill: Health Care Reform
Although President
Barack Obama’s proposed plan for health reform attempts to cover people
with chronic disease, experts say it is too early to tell how it will
affect these individuals, or how it will insure them once the legislation
is passed.
“Even though
there’s a lot of discussion about health care reform, is it about
health care insurance reform or delivery reform?” says Sam Giordano,
Executive Director of the American Association for Respiratory Care
and a member of the COPD Foundation Board of Directors. “One thing
we know is that a successful reform to a health care system has got
to do a better job at helping patients with chronic diseases manage
their own diseases.” Continue Reading This
Update Quickies
In the next issue of the COPD Digest, you will find a “mini-toolkit” on how you can be active during November COPD Awareness Month. Be sure to be on the COPD Foundation’s mailing list! If you currently don’t receive emails from the Foundation, sign up by calling the C.O.P.D. Information Line at 1-866-316-COPD (2673).Continue Reading This
© 2009