9 -- Gasp of Summer / NAP
July 1 - 15, 2018 July arrived, gasping for breath. Actually, that was ME, gasping for breath. As the next couple of weeks passed, I got weaker and weaker. Breathing became increasingly difficult. I couldn’t walk from the bedroom to the den without having to stop halfway and sit down to catch my breath. Just a few months ago, I was walking 3 miles a day. How can this all be happening? I felt like I had aged from 61 to 90 in 2 months‘ time. Eating and swallowing became a problem because I choked easily. My diaphragm muscles were too weak to cough. Often David would have to pound my back so I could overcome a choking episode. Oddly, I discovered that when he’d hit my back, it actually relieved some of the discomfort in my lungs as well. We joked that it was odd foreplay. Dark humor, not really funny. Talking also became difficult. Not only because I couldn’t breathe, but be...