Yes, I was a smoker. I quit in 1996. Next question?

Some would say I earned the COPD and I can't argue with them. Just like obese people earn diabetes and people who don't exercise earn a myriad of horrible outcomes. But the truth is that some people smoke, eat and don't exercise their entire lives and nothing shows up for them. Guess I'm bad and they're just lucky. In any case I can always blame it on the tobacco industry for wooing me into it, or my parents for smoking in the house, in the car and every place I was when growing up.
Not sure that would help me with this current situation, however, and I happen to have forgiven them a long time ago.

So it's purely up to me. Not poor me, but glorious me. I was a warrior -- not just a survivor -- of cancer and I will approach COPD the same way. I was diagnosed with Crone's Disease in my early 20s and made a very conscious decision to NOT have it anymore (more on that later).

Instead I will do loving things for myself and those close to me by adopting habits that make me feel good. People will scoff, some people will have difficulty with the new me. But those who really love me will realize that for me, it's a matter of life and breath.

My doctor was surprised when I outlined what I was doing on my own behalf (we'll get to that) and said he wished his other patients would be proactive. I said "why would they NOT be?" 

I love it when Marianne Williamson (one of my favorite authors -- Google her) talks about how we use things like hot fudge sundaes and birthday cakes to celebrate and to show love to each other when in fact we are doing quite the opposite.

I am here to testify that the way I am eating and entertaining now feels much more llike love to me -- even when I'm working hard in the kitchen -- than any kind of food preparation I've done before.

I don't know about you, but when someone gives me a diagnosis of a chronic, debilitating disease, I fight back. With research. With knowledge. With action. And with success. I don't work around the edges; I jump right into the battle.

Are you with me? If we share ideas and knowledge we've discovered about COPD and what we do to fight it...who knows what we can conquer!  Maybe, just maybe, we can prove them wrong!