I recently took a vacation and I decided at the last minute not to travel with my supplemental oxygen. What? Are you crazy man? Yep, you read that correctly. I decided to hop on a plane for a 7.5 hour trip with supplemental oxygen. If you are here for the first time, just a quick…
A Revisit Of “Open Lung Biopsy – My Truth”
Twelve years ago today I officially began this journey with Sarcoidosis when I had an open lung biopsy. Four years afterwards I wrote about it. Once more I give you my experience of the worst operation I ever had, but as bad as the experience was, I never regret doing it. I finally gave in…
The Surprising Effects of Loneliness on Health – The New York Times
Scientists are gaining a more refined — and surprising — understanding of the effects of loneliness and isolation on health. — Read on mobile.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/well/mind/how-loneliness-affects-our-health.html
Try To See The Good In Everything
Change is inevitable. No matter how much we want things to stay or go back to how they were, they never are. So why grieve over the past that can never return. So you were healthy and vibrant a year ago and now you have a chronic illness where you feel like crap most of…
Breathing Easier
When jets are at altitude, the inside of the plane is pressurized to simulate earth at about 8,000 feet. For a person with breathing problems, any altitude above 9,000 feet can cause problems. In the last year I had my fair share of air travel. I have seen the inside of JFK a total of…
Is Everyone Deaf Or Do I Have Super Hearing?
I love music. I like all music except for jazz and rap. I listen mostly to pop music. I love any music with a good beat. I love to play music loudly in my car sometimes when it is a song I especially like. In spite of my love of loud music, there is a…
The Weekend Revisit Of: Doctors For The Other Side
There is a certain specialty doctor that I have heard my other doctors complain about. They call they the “Sell Out” doctors. These are doctors that leave their practice to work for an insurance company. What’s their job there? Do they examine employees of the insurance company at the nurse’s office? Are insurance companies so…
Easing Into Daylight Savings Time
I work weekends so I really don’t like when the clocks spring ahead on Sundays because I lose an hour of sleep, so my wife and I came up with a way to ease into it. Starting on the Wednesday night we set all the clocks ahead 15 minutes and then each next day another…
When Sh!t Hits The Fan, You Either Hold Your Breath Or Count Your Blessings
Last night as I started to doze off, there was a loud alarm sound coming from my bathroom. Instantly I thought it was the house alarm, but just as quickly realized how dumb the thought was as the siren is no where near the bathroom. Then I realized it was my oxygen concentrator. I got…
When You Realize That Life Is Just Awesome
Ever have a day when you wake up and realize just how truly blessed you are? I don’t just mean lucky to be alive. I mean truly and wonderfully blessed! A realization that stuff just falls into place for you no matter what! I woke up this morning and had that realization and it really…
A Conversation at Dunkin’ Donuts
I never go to Dunkin Donuts but I had a mean cravng for coffee and although it is 34°F, I wanted a frozen coffee. I don’t know Dunkin’s menu and this being a kiosk at the airport didn’t have a menu board. Me: “Hi. What type of frozen coffee drinks do you have?” Woman: “Hot…
When You Strike A Nerve You Know That You Are Doing Something Right
I recently put up a post called #Sarcoidosis Tweets Are The Whiniest Tweets There Are On The Planet and boy did I get a lot of direct emails for that one. That particular post received the second most hits of all my posts and the most direct email responses. The negative comments were by direct…
Happy New Year!
Wishing everyone a very happy HEALTHY and prosperous 2018 filled with love, joy and positivity. BR
Gluten Free Cheddar Cheese And Black Truffle Bread
One of the little secrets to improving your health is joy. It doesn’t have to be huge things, but the little things in life that bring you joy. Like a really good cup of latte can give me joy for hours. And a couple of slices of awesome bread as a late night snack is…
#Sarcoidosis Tweets Are The Whiniest Tweets There Are On The Planet
There! I said it and I could care less if you are mad, offended, upset or whatever. You could call me uncaring or cold, mean or nasty, but the truth is I am so fed up with seeing twitter posts in general with the hashtag for sarcoidosis because all they are are just a bunch…
The Weekend Revisit Of “The Power Of Positivity”
When I was first diagnosed with heart failure in August 2007, I was told my ejection fraction was 25% and I needed to have an ICD implanted. That was immediately after having surgery to close a hole in my heart, and during that surgery doctors came to the realization that sarcoidosis had gone into the heart….
Running Silent And Having The Universe Slap Some Sense Up The Side Of My Head
I started this blog April 2010 for myself. It wasn’t meant to help anyone to be honest. I went through a major change in my life when developing sarcoidosis and all the complementary conditions it decided to provide me, such as heart failure and secondary pulmonary hypertension. It was just a way to expunge, and…
Stumbling Is Another Opportunity To Dust Myself Off And Start Over
What can I say about this disease. It seems I make a step forward and then another one back or sometimes even two. For those of you that are now coming across my blog for the first time, I have a disease known as sarcoidosis and in 2007, I found out that it was in…
An Instagram Moment
via Instagram http://ift.tt/2xLxWu2
Clouds On Clouds
Cloud on clouds #clouds #sky #travel #caribbeansea #landscape #nofilter #iphone8plus A post shared by Basil René (@aviewofmyworld) on Sep 29, 2017 at 12:09pm PDT I went back to my birth land to visit my family two weeks ago and took this photo on the way back
They’re Going To Judge You Anyway
I have a friend who is very wealthy and somewhat lives in a bubble where he almost believes that everyone has great disposal wealth and can purchase anything at a moment’s notice. On the other side I have another friend that is not wealthy and seems to struggle. My phone has been giving trouble for…
When “Home” Isn’t Home Anymore
When I was 19, I made my first trip to the US on vacation and fell in love. I drove into New York on a chilly June night from JFK and knew this was my home, this is where I was meant to be. I came back every year for vacation after that and eventually I…
Day 40 Of My Mantra Meditation “Challenge” Complete.
I am practicing meditation for a few years now but mostly guided meditations and not everyday. A lot of the time I would fall asleep during it. Today I finished a “test” (I prefer test over challenge) of doing a mantra meditation for forty days straight and I have not missed a day. I will…
When It Rains, It Storms
I posted last time that my friend was going in for testing and they discovered that he has lung cancer. He is not in a really good place, but that is another story. Last week I got a call that my mother was having trouble breathing and that she was going to the nursing home…
Knowing When To Support Quietly
“I’m having surgery on Monday” were the words that came up on my iPhone screen two weeks ago from a longtime friend. I’m not going into the details of the conversation, but it turns out that he has early stage lung cancer. He hasn’t gotten an exact diagnosis as yet, but he isn’t handling it…
Being Able To See Past Old Mistakes – Appreciating And Respecting Everyone
As a species, we are all very judgmental and anyone who says they are not are just lying to you and themselves. In reality, when you think about it, being judgemental is what keeps us alive. When I meet someone for the first time, I get an instant impression of their personality, and I base…
