Dale Snelbaker and other assorted news

[Guest guest]

Good morning all,

This email is coming to you from the guestroom at Peggy's in Silver Springs Florida. As you know I arrived yesterday afternoon and everything is wonderful. There is a houseful of people already and I know more are coming today to celebrate Princess Peggy's birthday. A turkey has been in the oven all night and the house smells like Thanksgiving. That is a very good smell to wake up to!

On my way down yesterday I received a call from Dale. Unfortunately after a brief stay in rehab he was re-hospitalized because his sats are extremely unstable. He is really having a rough time and is in need of our thoughts and prayers. He has been in the hospital now for about 4 weeks which we all know is 4 weeks too long! Amazingly his doctor told him he could not go home on more than 5 liters of O2 because the doctor didn't think that equipment was made to accomodate that. I gave Dale the correct information which was a huge relief to him. He was going to call Apria right after we hung up. It astonishes me how many pulmonologists are just woefully misinformed about what is available to us patients in the way of equipment.

Dale's situation is a really good warning to me (and probably to many of us) of the danger of a respiratory infection. Dale was doing extremely well prior to this illness. He was not even on any supplementary O2 at all. Now he's on 6-8 and they can't stablize his sats. Scary scary. So please everyone, get you flu shots, your pneumovax and get to the doctor at the very first inkling of any type of infection!

Enjoy your weekend everybody!

Encourage one another!

Beth-Moderator

Fibrotic NSIP 06/06 UCTD 06/08