Tag Archives: Kitsap County

HospiceCare – Medicare – Patient Care – Collapses for Hospice Patient

HospiceCare – Medicare – Patient Care – Collapses for Hospice Patient, Mike MacDonald last month.

My hospice experiences have been an overwhelmingly positive, including my own mother’s outstanding care from one in Gig Harbor. Mike’s experience happened in Maine – and makes me wonder how many other hospice patients around the country were and are caught in this latest stress fiasco for terminal patients and their family?

Greetings! Last month Mike MacDonald reached his six month Hospice Care and was ‘discharged.” Mike and his wife, Pat, were left hanging without medical insurance, no oxygen, medications, nothing to pay the doctor or hospital should he need one. The EFFORTS COPD community rallied to help.

Mike and Pat managed to work through their failed Hospice system, but the lingering question is will it happen to us when the time comes? Have patient safeguards been set into place?

One day it will be our turn for Hospice – How is Kitsap County Hospice doing? With Harrison’s hospice announcement recently in this newspaper, Kitsap County now has two for choice.
The Hospice patient and family deserve Hospice CARE – not a toss without medical coverage to sink or sink.
Following is Mike’s failed Hospice story update:
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“Hello friends — A quickie note this time.

For those following my odyssey of hospice-care to no-care, I am pleased to post that all of my prior Medicare access has been totally restored as of June 18. My hospice had been “paused” on May 28 with the intention that I would re-enter Medicare on May 29 and return to hospice when I got a little sicker (my doctor’s crystal ball said that date was most likely to be July 23rd lol). We of course had the foul-up where my Medicare/CMS records weren’t properly updated resulting in my having no coverage (prescription, doctor, hospital or DME) for anything related to my lungs. I am still waiting on the wheelchair to be replaced.

Thanks again to all who wrote/called their congress reps, etc. I was touched and appreciative. We see over and over again what a warm community this is where so many of us rise to help each other often in spite of our own illnesses.

We had a visit yesterday from VNA of Southern Worcester County — a small VNA office based here in Webster, MA with a satellite office in Auburn, MA that provides palliative and hospice care services. As of yesterday I entered their palliative care program. My situation is not normal for them…they most typically step in following a hospital admission. In theory, they will evaluate me for re-entry into hospice services when the time is appropriate. In fact, the “in-take” nurse that was with me yesterday wanted to refer me for an evaluation right then but my wife wouldn’t hear of it (more on that below) and I think it’s premature anyway.

My regular VNA nurse — whom I haven’t met yet — will stop in today. Normally, there would be daily visits initially settling back to 3 times a week when appropriate. I’ve already expressed my wishes that we talk more like 2 times a week. They would be responsible for palliative care which is essentially “comfort” care but not quite so much as in hospice. That’s a little murky: while under hospice, drugs are often dispensed in a manner that’s not healthy over the long term with the theory being that the patient is dying already and so longer-term consequences aren’t as important. Under palliative care, they do care more about the longer-term consequences and there isn’t necessarily any assumption about death. In my case, the nurse and the doctor’s office will have to work that out but some of my drug dosages are probably already into the areas of unhealthy.

To my surprise, this *is* being covered under Medicare. CMS has tightened access to at-home services with the goal being of reducing in-home Medicare expenditures by 14% over the next 4 years. Learning that I seem to qualify for a host of in-home services comes as a very pleasant surprise. I can get an in-home health aid to help me bathe apparently — not that I want anyone to help me that way. I am eligible for occupational therapy which I believe for me means learning how to get around the home, how to conserve energy, etc. I don’t know that I need or want those services either but I’ll be open-minded. They also talked about music therapy to my surprise…I would be likely to use that.

We had entered this with the intention of hiring a “private duty nurse” paying out of pocket to lighten the load on my wife, Pat. I was a little concerned because whereas Pat was talking about 2 hours a week, I suspected 2 hours in-home care was probably more like 4 hours a week after factoring in travel, time talking to my doctor’s office, etc. I could easily see this running $1000 a month. No expense would be too high as far as Pat is concerned…she was really traumatized badly by the disaster with the last hospice organization (VNA Care Network which covers most of central and eastern Massachusetts). Pat actually objected initially when we talked about billing expressing a preference to pay this out of pocket and not involve Medicare at all for fear that they would screw things up so badly again. She’s really quite emotional about this — and understandably so — but I also think there is no danger at this point because we’re not signing away anything (whereas entry into hospice signs away access to care for the terminal illness to the hospice provider).

This does not bode well for when it’s time to go the hospice route. I don’t think Pat will go along with that again but for now I have to wait and cross that bridge when the time comes.

Physically, I’m not doing all that great though I think I am a little better the past couple of days. One of the ironic things about the May 28 discharge from hospice was that I was already sliding into an exacerbation on that date. At times, I’ve been fairly ill since then. Still, I don’t think I am near death. I wouldn’t be shocked if that changed 3 weeks from now but I also wouldn’t be shocked if I was writing the same thing 6 months from now. My doctor feels I am dying but admits that I’m tougher than he had thought. I am definitely progressing in the illness and not happy with how compromised I am in my ability to do much of anything.

By way of comparison, I have a friend who I started working with in 1989. We worked closely for 7 or 8 years and remained in touch since. He’s 54 years old and for 2 years has been battling an aggressive bone cancer. He’s been through 5 surgeries now including the replacement of his right pelvis with a bone from a cadaver. As he expressed to me a couple of days ago via email, he really shouldn’t be alive but he’s taking every day he can get and is planning on getting a tattoo next month. I’m not one for tats but good for him. When I think of my own illness, I have only to compare myself to people like him and realize that I’m still a pretty fortunate person…this could be so much worse. I have the means and the support system to deal with this; beyond that, I don’t have much control except for maintaining a positive attitude. For the most part, I do just that.

Thanks for listening and sorry for my blatant lie at the top of this note…I really *thought* it’d be brief.
Mike”
Michael MacDonald
:::Webster, MA

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Thanks for listening…. Sharon O’Hara, COPDer -familien1@comcast.net

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Lymph Notes Scholarship – National Lymphedema Network

Sharon O'Hara

Lymphedema patients NEED properly trained patient oriented, professional therapists in Kitsap County!

Dr. Melissa Mercogliano of The Center for Orthopedic and Lymphatic Physical Therapy, in Port Orchard, http://colpt.com/mam.html is the person who helped us a few years ago and taught my husband and me how to properly wrap my legs. She is a fountain of patient information and goes out of her way to inform and educate.

Now…a Lymphedema Scholarship is available! . The need is great. So – those interested – please apply!

“Lymph Notes Scholarship – March 27, 2013

The National Lymphedema Network is proud to announce the establishment of the Lymph Notes Scholarship.

In the United States, access to treatment is still a critical factor for many lymphedema patients. Outside of major metropolitan areas, finding adequate treatment continues to be a major obstacle to care.

To help address the need for increases access to care, this annual scholarship, generously provided in honor of Lymph Notes, will cover up to $1,000 tuition for a healthcare professional to obtain specialty lymphedema training and certification.

Applicants are invited to submit an application online at: http://tinyurl.com/lymphnotesscholarship

The deadline for applications is July 15, 2013. Questions regarding this scholarship program should be directed to the NLN office at 415-908-3681 or nln@lymphnet.org.”

Thanks for listening… Sharon O’Hara <familien1@comcast.net>

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Happy Martin Luther King Day 2013! NAACP’s Health Fair in photos – a little late

Sharon O'Hara

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

The recent NAACP Health Fair at Olympic College was fun, a day full of record rainfall, a little snow, great speakers and booths crammed with information.

The program included a delightful parade of kids – tots to teens modeling the latest fashions and we were later served a delicious box lunch.

Thanks to the NAACP Health Fair, I had the opportunity to show and tell about COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and what it can lead to…not good stuff. It was my pleasure, thanks for asking.

Harrison Medical Center was not able to attend to offer early detection COPD Spirometry testing – this time.

A quick glance around when I arrived showed a who’s who of Kitsap County, including Bremerton’s Mayor, Patty Lent.

Hey, mom – I found you!

Let’s go THIS way – there is my mom!

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thanks for reading… Sharon O’Hara (familien1@comcast.net)

Martin Luther King, Jr. DayWikipedia: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a United States federal holiday marking the birthday of Rev. →

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Annoying Azithromyicin Z Pacs – what to do?

Sharon O'Hara

Why does a 6-day supply of Azithromyicin tablets individually encased inside a tough to open Z Pac cost the pharmacy less money than getting the medication in bulk and dispensing it 30 or 60 tabs to a container?

Above – so called cheap packaging…

Instead, Costco pharmacy has to pay more for less packaging. The Z pacs hold only six tablets in each bulky booklet form and I have to battle to get each one out. I was only able to punch one tab out of the Z Pac – before getting the scissors out and cutting my way around each tab…Not an easy task …my fingers are not working right.

I wonder why a package so difficult to open, obviously costing more to manufacture than plain tablets, costs the pharmacy less than getting it in bulk form.

The patient pays the penalty.

Above – so called expensive packaging….

Has Obamacare arrived in Kitsap County?

Does anyone know what is going on and how I can get the Azithromyicin in bulk form?

Express Scripts did not.

Thanks for reading… Sharon O’Hara <familien1@comcast.net>

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Does a tumor mean Cancer? Part 3 of 4

Sharon O'Hara

Does a tumor mean Cancer? Part 3 of 4

Glimpses of a patient’s life and the medical folks who helped save my life. The University of Washington Medical Center(my lung doctor is here) and the Cancer Alliance of Seattle worked together to give me a life again.

One of the cheeriest technicians I have been around is right there at the University of Washington Medical Hospital. Washington State first class teaching hospital. The U – students and staff – alike is loaded with inquisitive, open minded, brilliant medical doctors teaching students to seek answers to patient’s medical woes.

Of the tremendous group of my tumor surgical medical team, this superb doctor stood out by his mention and appreciation of my first iPad covered Otter when he spotted it at my bedside table. I appreciated his comments and conversation about a non-medical related product. Btw… I think younger people are generally surprised many of us older folks appreciate and use new technology.

The view from my window was of one of my favorite bridges, the Montlake Bridge by the U. Beautiful views helped lessen the pain.

Need you ask? This is without doubt the best-arranged toilet area of any I have had the privilege to know and love. The shower is just on the other side of the low wall. The toilet was at a comfortable height and I let go of the walker, hung on to the low wall, and grasped the support bar on the other side. I gently lowered myself and my new equipment onto the throne.

The day I was standing by the bathroom door when my incision opened and the blood flow began through the popped seal to the machine. The bloody fluid flowed through the fingers I had pressed against the gaping open belly wound trying to hold stuff in where it belonged. Instead, bloody fluid flooded the floor and formed running rivers downhill through my room.

The professionals who answered my call light moved swiftly to stem the bloody flow and no one raised a voice in alarm – not one. I was immobilized in place hanging on to the pole with one hand and feeling the warm blood rush through the fingers of the other. The warm blood flowed on down my legs while they quickly, quietly told me where to move. They did their job with aplomb and took care of a horrified patient…like another normal day. I had an incredible feeling of well-being in spite of the thought other belly parts and stuff might flow past my open fingers over the wound trying to hold back the blood flood.

Checkout day… the dried remains of one of the bloody flows remain under my soon to be vacated bed.

…Inhalers are important to lung patients. The order we take them is also important. I mention it here because my inhalers are rarely dispensed in proper order for the full benefit of my lungs. Luckily, I know the right order to take them and do pass on that information.

I take Foradil first – a fast acting inhaler few nurses have heard of. It is one of the best for me – opens my airway fast. Spiriva is long lasting and second, while Qvar (inhaled steroid) is third.

Harrison Medical Center, University of Washington Medical, and Martha and Mary in Poulsbo – none dispense Foradil…and I do not understand why.

I hope patients and med dispensing folks using other inhaler combinations see they are taken properly.

One nurse told me she did not know there is a proper order to taking inhalers. Why not? One possible answer… If I were in the cancer area recovery, the nurses would be cancer oriented, not lung patient oriented for inhalers.

One of the terrific and friendly docs from my informative medical team. Another super University of Washington/Seattle Cancer Care Alliance doctor that I cannot name due to misplacing my notes/business cards.

Kristin, physical therapist…

Meet Gretchen, one of the outstanding nurses I had and now, my discharge nurse. She is putting together the little vac machine that will collect the fluid from the tube sealed inside the unstapled lower belly surgery site. I will wear it day and night for the next few months…while Harrison Home Health nurses will change it out every three days, per doctor orders.

Gretchen showing how the vac – the entire devise works.

Gretchen read directions and showed me how to change the container when it got full of the bloody belly fluid. I was told an alarm would sound first giving me plenty of time to take care of it.

…Goodbye Nurse Gretchen …another patient going home – another patient tomorrow. Thanks for your care and kindness.

Thank God for nurses like you…and…your detailed instructions on the belly vac came in handy the very next evening at home.

I am very lucky. They found no wingding blooming cancer – only some strange looking cells that bear watching every four months for a while.

Please understand – Kitsap County has first class cancer docs and treatment – I’ve talked to enough cancer survivors to know it.

That said…My first and primary medical condition involves my lungs – COPD first and Sarcoidosis second. I will not do any surgical procedure that involves anesthesia without my pulmonologist as part of the discussion as a consultant. While Karen Eady, MD, is my wonderful primary doctor, right here in Kitsap County, Christopher Goss, MD is my lung doc at the U . Thanks to you all!

Harrison Home Health. Part 4 of 4, next time.

Thanks for reading… Sharon O’Hara

Good-bye and thank you, Lisa Marie. You’ve moved on to a fabulous person and forever home, and we’re grateful for the eight years we had with you. Mom S

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Does a tumor mean Cancer

Sharon O'Hara

Yesterday I graduated from Harrison Home Health services; an organization I didn’t know existed two months ago and where I learned firsthand that Kitsap County has the greatest group of RN’s and LPN’s on this planet for medical home care.

My June 11, 2012 belly tumor operation at the University of Washington was a rip roaring success, thanks to surgeon, .Renata R. Urban, MD and her superb medical team.

Six days after the operation I returned home to husband and dogs and into the caring, capable hands of the Harrison Home Health services team.

The Harrison Home Health services team followed doctor’s orders exactly – a team care RN or LPN came every three days to change the dressing, including weekends. The vacuum machine hooked to and inside my belly became my best friend 24/7.

At 73, I am lucky to be alive. I’ve learned several health lessons along the way since 1997 – the key one being to continue to do whatever I can to promote early detection Spirometry testing for COPD.(Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer.

Getting COPD for many of us means taking a nosedive into the immune system and developing other unpleasant medical conditions. COPD is slow developing, taking about twenty years to develop symptoms enough to tell your doctor. By then usually 50 % of the lungs have flipped from the healthy state – they are destroyed.

The fact is I was a healthy physically fit person until I was hospitalized with COPD in 1997. Since then I have gathered one disease after another.

This latest – a fluid filled belly tumor squeezed my lungs making it harder to breathe. It squeezed everything in its path and seemed to shut down my system with a growing hard belly and pain especially in my bone on bone left hip until I reluctantly shuffled from place to place. I canceled and rescheduled doctor appointments thinking the pain would ease with time.

As time passed and my ability to get around decreased, Chuck called various agencies in Kitsap County thinking Kitsap County must have public transportation with a lift available for patients trying to get to medical appointments. The problem was I could not lift my left leg to step up and couldn’t use the right leg either – too painful on my left hip. I could not lift it…only pull it after me.

We discovered one source in Kitsap but it would cost us over $400. to drive around from Poulsbo through Tacoma to the University of Washington Medical Center for my lung appointment.

It felt like something was growing in my belly but the only possibility was impossible so I shrugged it off to imagination. I never imagined a tumor nor mentioned it to my doctors.

Funny thing, a complete physical might well have discovered the hard as a rock-growing belly and tumor, had I not sworn off getting physicals.

It was only when I tried to cancel and reschedule my third week canceled appointment in a row with my pulmonologist, Christopher Goss, MD at the University of Washington Medical Center that I was told ”…couldn’t reschedule for the foreseeable future…” ( the doctor was off to Europe the end of the week)

I told my husband we had to make that appointment no matter what happened because I didn’t think I could manage much longer. We HAD to make that appointment and I asked him to get what I thought would help get me into the Suburban.

It included tying a rope across the back of the front seats to pull me into the back seat once I shuffled my way up the dog plank and it should balance me into turning to sit down. The plank was supported by the borrowed Poulsbo Wal-Mart milk crates he placed underneath the plank.

I shuffled up the plank aided by my walking sticks but the rope failed after I pulled myself inside and let go of one end. The rope wasn’t tied off and I fell forward and twisted with my neck strained across the top of the back seat.

As soon as I could talk, I asked Chuck to get in and drive “We’re making my lung appointment…we’re going to Seattle and ferries don’t wait.”

At the UW’s parking garage, Chuck ran to get a wheelchair and I pulled myself out of the car and into the chair. He raced us to my appointment on the third floor.

I told Dr. Goss about my hard belly and the pain. Thank heavens he looked. When my hard belly wouldn’t budge, Dr. Goss scheduled an x-ray and blood testing. The x-ray showed up black and by the time Chuck wheeled me out of the blood lab, Dr. Goss was there and told us I had a room and that an ultrasound was scheduled in a few hours..

Most medical folks are cool about letting me take photos and allowing me to use them here once I explain about my purpose – COPD and Other Stuff.

Its important that people understand that COPD is only the beginning – an opening door to really nasty, painful medical conditions that follow for too many of us.

Ask your doctor for an early detection Spirometry test. Please.

COPD itself is a long slow smother – not painful. Some of the medical Other Stuff can be really nasty.

Renata R. Urban, MD – Assistant Professor

Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology – Division of Gynecologic Oncology

Seattle Cancer Care Alliance

Following are the photos Dr. Urban sent taken during the operation.

Tumor weight: 1,881 grams

Tumor weight: 1,881 grams

Somehow, I thought of operations as messy and bloody – see the tumor?

The pain from the tumor and the 1.5 gallons of black fluid they drained out twice had taken over my life.

The wonderful team of doctors – and their ability to verbalize with patients was superb…

Great doctors and teamwork

Dr. Urban and team – thanks!

I think this was the pain medicine machine that was available to me checked by a helpful nurse.

I had super docs with a great patient connection. The gowns were worn by everyone who came into my room – MRSA.

Molly Blackley Jackson, M.D. – Attending Physician

Medicine Consult Service, Division of General Internal Medicine. UW Medicine

Dr.Salahi will be a wonderful Radiologist if patient rapport matters. He did a super job of making me feel at ease during an intensive pre-patient interview. I am glad for the opportunity to meet him on his last day in Internal Medicine.

Dr. Jackson was a bright spirit this day and every time she visited after the operation. She and the other docs were incredibly verbal, friendly and informative…Just what this patient would order.

Thanks for reading…Sharon.

Part 2 of 4 Next time… the machine that acts like a sump pump was inserted into my belly and more ….

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Olympic College Nursing Class of 2012 Pinning Ceremony

Sharon O'Hara

Olympic College pinned their 2012 Nursing School graduates Saturday, 9 June 2012 at Bremerton High School auditorium. Enthusiastic family and friends filled the school and I was surprised to see the number of nursing volunteer mentors of our Kitsap County new nursing graduates as they were called to stand up in recognition of their two-year scholastic efforts.

From personal experience, I know the caring, giving nature of the nursing staff at Harrison Medical Center but had not realized so many Kitsap County nurses gave heartwarming volunteer involvement with the nursing students at OC.

The class of 2012. Pinning, Chris Stokke, RN, MN

Proud brother, Uriah Hawkins and his son, Gabriel watches the ceremony. Wife Christine and mother of Gabe could not attend – she was working with patients at Harrison Medical Center.

Josh Peglow and son, Malachi. Health care runs in this family. Josh works with patients at Martha and Mary Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Poulsbo as did his wife, Shantie before she entered the nursing program at Olympic College.

Gabriel and Aunt Shantie

Laughing new graduate and her new nursing pin

Shantie and Josh Peglow and children, Cheyenne and Malachi join good friends, Deborah and Wayne with children Chris, Nick, Rebecka and Caroline

Glen and Kim Peglow and Shanties Aunt Julia Booth

The Nightingale Pledge

“I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly to pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully.

I will abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug. I will do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession, and will hold in confidence all personal matters committed to my keeping and all family affairs coming to my knowledge in the practice of my calling. With loyalty will I endeavor to aid the physician in their work, and devote myself to the welfare of those committed to my care.”

Congratulations Graduates!

Thanks for reading … Sharon O’Hara

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Karen Eady, MD and What Can Happen If …

Sharon O'Hara

Greetings!

This is a public thank you to my primary doctor, Karen Eady, MD and a story of what can happen when a patient refuses their doctors advice.

I’ve never liked full physical exams, mostly because of the vulnerable feeling I had with my feet in the stirrups and my bare bottom edging over the end of the exam table and some years ago (after gaining all the weight after COPD and quitting a forty year smoking habit) I said NO to more physical exams.

I told my doctor I didn’t want to have another pap smear or physical, nor did I want my two memories squeezed in a mammogram vise any longer. Year after year, she asked and I said, “no, thank you, Dr. Eady.”

It doesn’t matter how I justified my refusals, year after year I made the choice not to have them.

The trouble is- I now have a huge mass, cyst, tumor, whatever you want to call it that didn’t grow overnight. The chances are a physical exam would have caught it earlier.
“tumors are often found during routine gynecological exams”

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-required-for-an-ovarian-cancer-diagnosis.htm

Karen Eady, MD is an Angel on Earth right here in Kitsap County – Bremerton to be exact –and is my primary doctor. Dr. Eady was kind enough to take me when I asked her after Dr. Steele died over a decade ago. She has kept me on and advised me ever since even though her specialty is Diabetes and I don’t have it.

Wasting time in regret is pointless. I’m writing this here to suggest that sometimes the consequences of our medical choices become chickens coming home to roast.

I am also thanking Dr. Eady for all the years she has put up with me – not always a good patient or a prompt one.

God Bless you, Dr. Eady.

Thank you for all the years you have helped me move from one medical thing to another. Additionally, thank you for the great people you recommended who have helped guide me through this COPD and Other Stuff.

With love and heartfelt thanks, your grateful patient and friend, Sharon O’Hara

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World COPD Day,2011 and the Governor’s Proclamation meet in Bremerton’s City Council TODAY

Sharon O'Hara

Happy World COPD Day today – 16 November 2011! (Local recognition activity follows….and Bremerton’s Mayor Patty Lent leads the way) Sorry, I’m running a little late.

In addition – a new lung connection in the newly completed 20-year study found that COPD patients are five times more likely to develop lung cancer than normal lung folks are. The warning is to offer Spirometry to detect COPD in the early stages to cut cancer and COPD deaths. The investigative paper gave the shout-out in the prestigious European Respiratory Journal.

“It comes as an exclusive investigation by GP found a lack of PCT investment in the gold standard treatment for COPD is undermining patients’ quality of life and increasing practice workload.

Around one in 100 patients with the chronic disease developed cancer, compared with one in 500 without lung impairment.

Testing the lung function of former and active smokers would identify COPD earlier, thereby improving early detection of lung cancer and improving survival chances, it found.

Lead author Yasuo Sekine, of Tokyo Women’s Medical University, said: ‘The findings from our analysis suggest that early detection of COPD in addition to lung cancer screening for these patients could be an effective detection technique for lung cancer. However, further research is still needed to determine the selection criteria for COPD and lung cancer screening.’

Monica Fletcher, chairperson of the European Lung Foundation, said millions had COPD but it was often undetected.

‘People frequently ignore the symptoms of lung disease and leave it too late before going to the doctor,‘ she said. ‘This research highlights the need for routine lung function tests, known as spirometry, to help improve quality of life and identify other conditions that could be present.’

Professor Klaus Rabe, president of the European Respiratory Society, said ‘On World COPD Day, we would also urge European governments to improve early detection of respiratory diseases, such as COPD.’

Meanwhile, patients’ respiratory associations across Europe said governments must work harder to reduce the £28 billion annual cost of COPD.

Proposals from the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations to reduce this burden include listing COPD as a warning on tobacco products, improving access to spirometry and funding research on how to avoid exacerbations.

http://www.gponline.com/News/article/1104308/detect-copd-cut-cancer-deaths-experts-urge/

The Better Breather’s Respiratory Support Group meets today at Harrison Silverdale -in the Rose room from 1:00pm – 3:00 pm. Pam O’Flynn will introduce Harrison’s new Respiratory Clinical Practice Educator, Martin Robin. I know the meeting will be informative and lively no matter the topic and hope to see you there!

http://www.harrisonmedical.org/home/calendar/4903

“We welcome any community member with asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, sarcoidosis, asbestosis, pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary fibrosis and the many more lung diseases affecting our population, pediatric or adult.”

Harrison Silverdale – 1800 NW Myhre Road – Silverdale, WA 98383

Pamela O’Flynn – 360-744-6685 – respiratorycare@harrisonmedical.org

Today – at 5:30 pm – Bremerton’s Mayor Patty Lent makes COPD, Kitsap County and Washington State history. She is the first mayor in Washington State to present Governor Christine Gregoire’s Proclamation declaring November 2011 State COPD Month, to my knowledge. Her generosity in recognizing the 3^rd leading cause of death in the US is precious by recognizing today, 16 November 2011 as World COPD Day!

District 3, Manette’s hard working effective and beneficial city council member, Adam Brockus will present the Proclamation to Karma Foley of Seabeck who lost both parents to COPD. Karma’s mom had the inherited type of COPD and with her oxygen tank, went out of her way to help me with several COPD/EFFORTS public meetings we put together a few years ago.

This COPD historic event happens at 5:30 pm in the Norm Dicks Government Building city council chambers. I will be taking pictures for y’all and trying not to let my eyes leak. Thank you!

I will ride a recumbent trike from Evergreen Park to the NDGB or walk it instead…very cold and wet out there.

Thanks for reading… Sharon O’Hara

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Governor Christine O. Gregoire’s Proclamation – COPD Month November 2011

Sharon O'Hara

Governor Christine O. Gregoire has proclaimed November 2011 COPD Month.

Thank you, Governor!

What low, no cost plans are in place for November’s COPD Month?

What plan of remembrance and activities does the medical community who serves COPD plan for patient/public awareness events during November 2011?

World COPD Day is Wednesday, 16 November 2011.

What medical groups have activities for COPD recognition, education and early detection Spirometry testing for the citizens of Kitsap County?

Harrison Medical Center’s partnership with the Better Breather’s Lung Support Group meets monthly in the Harrison Silverdale’s Rose Room.

Harrison Medical Center and Hazelwood YMCA in Silverdale have a superb lung/heart patient rehab agreement – what are they planning for November’s COPD Month 2011.

I am walking, triking or riding a scooter in recognition of World COPD Day 2011. More later.

Thanks for reading… Sharon O’Hara

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