Well first off, nobody intentionally goes out of their way to acquire chronic health issues. Having asthma is in no way your fault. Nobody can tell you how to feel but I hope by being open about your personal experiences as you are here, it lessens that feeling a little. I can empathize with not surviving very long in another time; I joke that I would have either been lobotomized, burned at the stake, or my personal laundry list of chronic health issues would have contributed to a short life. It's incredibly frustrating that with all of the technology that is being developed, somehow we are only causing more harm to the planet. I don't have any issues to contribute, just felt like a little empathy wouldn't hurt. Summer is brutal when you're chronically ill on any level. Hang in there!
I hear you, friend. Asthma has always been a wheezy secondary character in my personal essays until finally, after the pandemic, when I finally wrote about it in an essay called "How Art Thou Out of Breath." Medicine and Meaning was kind enough to publish it:
Although I don't mean to be one of those writers who puts my writing on another writer's substack. Which I have just done! Anyway, I have boatloads more to say about asthma, if you can believe it!
Thanks for sharing! I wasn't aware of 'Medicine and Meaning'. Looks like they publish interesting work.
I **can** believe you have boatloads to say about asthma.
I have started to talk about it more. Over the years, there are mentions in my poems... I've talked about how my cadence, in my poetics, is likely impacted by my breath (which would make sense). Lots of short, staccato lines.
There are references to asthma in my most recent collection Meatless (Plan B Press)
Here's a poem in The New Verse News I published in 2023 after dealing with my personal respiratory impact of the Canadian wildfires while visiting Chicago... and then back in Philadelphia.
Well first off, nobody intentionally goes out of their way to acquire chronic health issues. Having asthma is in no way your fault. Nobody can tell you how to feel but I hope by being open about your personal experiences as you are here, it lessens that feeling a little. I can empathize with not surviving very long in another time; I joke that I would have either been lobotomized, burned at the stake, or my personal laundry list of chronic health issues would have contributed to a short life. It's incredibly frustrating that with all of the technology that is being developed, somehow we are only causing more harm to the planet. I don't have any issues to contribute, just felt like a little empathy wouldn't hurt. Summer is brutal when you're chronically ill on any level. Hang in there!
Thanks for the kind note, Katie :)
And, yeah, sometimes you just have to take it one day at a time.
I'm sorry you are suffering so much. You can also install your own device and search on https://map.purpleair.com/1/m/i/mAQI/a10/p604800/cC4#9.55/43.6452/-71.3772 to see the Air quality from individual sensors. This might help you decide where to spend time.
Thank you, Carla. Purple Air is news to me. Seems cool. Thanks so much for sharing.
We have two devices. One in Carlisle Massachusetts, at the outskirts of Boston, and one on Bear Island in lake Winnipesaukee.
I hear you, friend. Asthma has always been a wheezy secondary character in my personal essays until finally, after the pandemic, when I finally wrote about it in an essay called "How Art Thou Out of Breath." Medicine and Meaning was kind enough to publish it:
https://tinyurl.com/mub8dnwp
Although I don't mean to be one of those writers who puts my writing on another writer's substack. Which I have just done! Anyway, I have boatloads more to say about asthma, if you can believe it!
Thanks for sharing! I wasn't aware of 'Medicine and Meaning'. Looks like they publish interesting work.
I **can** believe you have boatloads to say about asthma.
I have started to talk about it more. Over the years, there are mentions in my poems... I've talked about how my cadence, in my poetics, is likely impacted by my breath (which would make sense). Lots of short, staccato lines.
There are references to asthma in my most recent collection Meatless (Plan B Press)
https://www.planbpress.com/store/p68/Meatless_by_Mark_Danowsky.html
Here's a poem in The New Verse News I published in 2023 after dealing with my personal respiratory impact of the Canadian wildfires while visiting Chicago... and then back in Philadelphia.
https://newversenews.blogspot.com/2023/06/gray-haze.html