Doug Dillon's Blog, page 102
July 17, 2014
Bronchial Thermoplasty – A Patient Review
New asthma treatment for adults is lifesaving and a life changer. Orlando, Florida. Orlando Health. Dr. Mark Vollenweider.
Having asthma since age 10 has not been fun. If you suffer from this disease, you know exactly what I mean.
Finally this year, when my lung capacity dipped into the thirty and forty percent ranges, my asthma doctor, Mike Anderson, strongly recommended a new procedure.
“You’ve been feeling so bad for so long,” he said, “that you truly don’t remember what it is to feel good.”
My 61 years of severe asthma had finally caught up with me.
The truth of his statement really made me stand up and take notice.
I wasn’t walking daily anymore, my annual bouts with asthma were getting worse, and working out in my yard was a huge ordeal that not only left me breathless but on the verge of passing out.
Waiting in the wings of course was the knowledge that pneumonia or a bad case of the flu could pose a severe danger.
“This new three-stage Bronchial Thermoplasty (BT) procedure,” Dr. Mike told me, “won’t cure your asthma but it will certainly allow you to pull in full breaths. And the best pulmonary guy to do that, Dr. Mark Vollenwieder, is just down the street at Orlando Health. If I were going to have those three procedures done, he’s the one I would go to.”
Dr. Mark Vollenweider
Within a week, I was in Dr. V.’s office, late in the day, meeting with both him and his physician’s assistant, Amy Stumpf.
The actual probe
What a joy that meeting was. Both those people took all the time needed to review my records, explain the procedures thoroughly and answer all my questions.
By the time we got done, all of the doctor’s staff had left for the day. You don’t get that kind of personal care very often.
In the end, Dr. V. declared me to be an excellent candidate and we set the wheels in motion for my three procedures to happen in March, April and May.
I’m not going to detail what is involved in these events. If you haven’t already explored what’s involved in Bronchial Thermoplasty, I’ve added a bunch of links at the bottom of this post for your review. What I am going to do now though, is to tell you about my experiences.
Orlando Health
First of all, I couldn’t be any happier with my doctor. What a thorough, competent, open and compassionate guy he is. No wonder people come from all over to have him work on their lungs.
Both before and after each procedure, he carefully and warmly explained everything in very understandable terms. My wife, Barbara, who comes from a long line of doctors, was greatly impressed by how he was able to connect with both of us.
I tell you what, if you wish to consider this treatment, and you don’t live in an area with a pulmonologist competent in this procedure, it would be well worth your time and effort to become Dr. V’s patient .
Below you will find a video where he explains BT.
The End Result
During each procedure, Dr. V. worked on an overage of 120 bronchial tubes. So that means somewhere around 360 airways were permanently opened.
It is now early July of 2014 and I am breathing better than I have in DECADES! Amazing. I’m back to walking 1 ½ miles a day and I can work in my yard without feeling like I’m going to pass out.
My lung capacity went from a high of 48% to 79%, a 31% increase! And my blood oxygen level that usually showed 96-97% shot up to a steady 99%. No wonder I now feel more alert and clear-headed.
Yes, I still get a little tightness in my chest and I have to occasionally use my emergency inhaler to help bring up a clot of congestion. But that’s it.
I no longer have to use my nebulizer and I’m not downing Prednisone and antibiotics on a regular basis. What a joy!
In fact, one of our local TV channels did a story on Dr. V. and the value of these procedures, using me as a sample patient. Click here if you would like to see that news report.
Behind the Scenes Details
Now, here is what you need to know about the 3-week time period between each of the 3 one-hour, out-patient events.
Dr. V. and all the literature give fair warning that asthma symptoms will increase after each procedure. That is the main side effect. They say on average, it takes people 3-5 days for those symptoms to fully subside.
But for me, it took the full 3 weeks between each event. I had to use albuterol in my nebulizer 3-4 times a day and after the last procedure, Dr. V. also had me use a saline solution in my nebulizer to effectively bring up all the build-up of congestion. I also had to request addition doses of Prednisone.
Oh, a word about congestion. Be aware that for a number of days you will bring up great clots of the stuff. Mine was very dark. Dr. V. told me that it had been down there a very long time. His opening of the bronchial tubes set in motion a squeezing of the lungs like you would squeeze tooth paste tubes.
Nasty but true
But it isn’t always just congestion you bring up. Dr. V. warned me that old congestion actually congeals in the lungs and plugs up the bronchial tubes. Those plugs can be in there for years.
This I understood but was unprepared for the spider-like thing that popped out of my mouth. It was so large, I even took a picture of it. The branching is simply showing how the plugs had solidified in multiple tubes and were interconnected.
The red color, blood, you see in this picture, simply shows the thinness of the cell walls at that point.
“Unless you’re coughing up cups of blood,” Dr. V. told me, “what you are seeing here may look scary but it’s nothing to worry about.
As difficult as it was having increased asthma symptoms for so long and having to cough up all that old stuff in my lungs, it was definitely worth it to have the procedures done.
One Final Change
For whatever reason, I find that my ability to cough up congestion has changed. Before BT, I expelled congestion in the usual way. But after BT, I have found that doesn’t always work very well.
Maybe it’s just me and my lungs’ unique reactions to the procedures, but the easiest way for me to get rid clotted mucous now is to rapidly expel air from my lungs.
And when I say rapidly, I mean just the way you do when you are fully exhaling during the breathing test in your doctor’s office. If you are an asthma patient, you will know exactly what I mean.
So just take that information in as an indicator that everyone reacts differently. Above all else, if and when you have BT done, keep in close contact with your pulmonologist and ask lots of questions.
The Acid Test
I’m a writer of fiction for young adults. This past weekend, I traveled up to St. Augustine, Florida to do some on-site research, take pictures, etc. This is the final stage of completing the third book of The St. Augustine Trilogy.
One of my final stops on the way out of town was the St. Augustine Lighthouse.
Previous to that visit, I definitely avoided going up very many stairs And I shuddered as I looked up that winding staircase of 207 steps.
But then I thought, why not givge it a try? The proof is really in the pudding, right?
I thought I walked up that staircase slow and easy but it turned out it took me only a little over 10 minutes.
Sure, I was somewhat out of breath when I got to the top but I wasn’t exhausted, wheezing, and coughing. To be honest, my legs hurt more than my lungs but I’ll take that trade any day.
Breathing free through BT
Prognosis
As if I don’t have enough good news to report, Dr. V. told me that my lung capacity could even increase more over time. Instead of losing the usual 1% per year, I might bump my 79% up some more. Wouldn’t that be something? To help make that a reality, I have to maintain a good exercise schedule and keep up my allergy shots with my asthma doctor.
The Cost Factor
Make no mistake about it. Even though Bronchial Thermoplasty is an outpatient event, it isn’t cheap. We’re talking about 3 hours of skilled intervention with a full surgical crew. According to Orlando Health, where the procedures were performed, the total cost was estimated in the $18,000 to $20,000 range.
Lucky for me, Medicare in Florida now covers this procedure to some degree but it is so new that how much is actuallycoveraged isn’t completely clear. And even though I have a secondary health insurance policy, so far, most big insurance companies won’t pay for it.
They (he insurance companies) call the procedures experimental, a ridiculous assessment based on how long this treatment has been used in the U.S. and Europe. The good news, Dr. V. tells me, is that because Medicare accepts Bronchial Thermoplasty, the insurance companies are sure to follow sometime soon.
My Estimated Costs
Orlando Health, where my procedures were done, has really been wonderful about the complexity of financing. They have been my advocate with both Medicare and my other insurance company. Way ahead of time, they were able to tell me that the maximum I might have to pay would be $1,800 per hospital visit, down to a minimum of $350. So altogether, my total payments, including Dr. V.’s fees, might top out at $5,400, or go as low as $1,050.
Believe it or not, I am writing this on the 16th of July, 2014 and even though my first procedure was March 25, I have yet to receive a bill. Not bad, eh? I’ve seen paperwork going back and forth between Orlando Health and Medicare, including appeals that Medicare accepted, but that’s it.
What a pleasure it was to arrive for each procedure back in March, April and May and not have to address the money issue at all. Way to go, Orlando Health. You all are great!
OK, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. If you would like to contact me and chat about this some more, just use the contact form on my website and we’ll get together via email or phone. I thoroughly enjoy talking to people about my experiences. In the meantime, here are some website links that you might find useful.
Asthma – Anderson Allergy and Asthma in Orlando
Orlando Health:
• Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine Specialists – Services
• Orlando Health – BT Description
Overall BT Details & Programs
American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology on BT
Are You a BT Candidate? (BT for asthma.com)
National Jewish Health in Colorado
University of Minnesota Medical Center
Keck Medical of the University of Southern California
Mary Parks Asthma Center University of Rochester, NY
Top St. Augustine, FL Fantasy Stories & Books
For young adults and adults young at heart – supernatural, paranormal, time travel adventures inspired by the author’s true-life experiences.
This is for real. Many years ago, after my father died, there were a lot of paranormal events that happened in my family. At the time, my wife and I didn’t believe in the paranormal but that soon changed.
In fact, Barb and I spent several years after Dad died investigating such weird occurrences. In the end, we had so much research material that we wrote a nonfiction book about it all and even did radio interview/call-in programs across the U.S. and up into Canada.
That book, An Explosion of Being: An American Family’s Journey into the Psychic, was published across the world by a division of Prentice Hall.
But more recently though, I decided to write a series of fiction books for young adults and adults young at heart using my paranormal experiences as the inspiration the wild and crazy plots of those books. As an old history teacher, I couldn’t resist creating this fictional world for young people.
Today, the title of that series is The St. Augustine Trilogy and it takes place in America’s oldest and most haunted city in the U.S., St. Augustine, Florida.
Trilogy Description
Told in his own words, this paranormal/historical series is a very personal account of fifteen-year-old Jeff Golden’s explosive coming of age in America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida.
Join Jeff and his girlfriend Carla as they experience mind-blowing events that threaten to destroy their very existence.
Follow the two teens as Lobo, the Native American shaman, tries to protect them from powerful forces beyond understanding. Be there when Jeff and Carla discover the depths of reality as well as their own powers to reshape what they find.
Two of the three books in the trilogy are available in both print and eBook formats at the moment, with the third book due for publication in 2015.
Check out the book descriptions you’ll find here and then click on the active links for each book to see the reviews on Amazon.com.
I’ve also include the book trailers for the two books already in print so you can get a real sense of the characters and the plot.
Below all that, I have included active links to some of the most interesting blog posts I’ve written on the paranormal.
Enjoy.
Sliding Beneath the Surface: The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book I
Description
In America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida, teenager Jeff Golden is in trouble. Horrible dreams won’t let him sleep, and he is up to his eyeballs in terrifying, paranormal experiences.
Finally, Jeff turns to his girlfriend Carla, and Lobo, the mysterious Native American shaman, for help. But what he discovers is a lot more than he bargained for.
A ghostly presence linked to a local historic cemetery is not only threatening Jeff’s sanity but his life as well. And before he knows what’s happening, Jeff finds both himself and Carla pulled into one of the nastiest and bloody events in Florida history. It is a place from which they may never escape.
Book Trailer
Stepping Off a Cliff: The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book II
Description
An otherworldly, evil and dangerous force infests America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida. Everyone living there, or visiting, is at risk in ways too horrible to imagine.
Standing between this invader and the people of St. Augustine are teenagers Jeff and Carla, the mysterious Native American shaman, Lobo, and Lyle, the homeless guy.
In their quest to save themselves and all the inhabitants of this ancient Florida city, Jeff and Carla uncover lost parts of St. Augustine history, push past the limits of space and time, and come face-to-face with what they come to realize are the true walking dead.
Book Trailer
Targeting Orion’s Children: The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book III – due for publication in 2015
Description
In this, the final book of The St. Augustine Trilogy, the team of Jeff Golden, Carla Rodriguez, old Lobo, the Native American shaman and Lyle, the homeless guy, gather once again to join forces.
This time, though, the two teens face a paranormal presence that defies full human understanding and becomes a threat far beyond the oldest city in America where they live.
Overwhelmed by the immense responsibility they hold in their hands, Jeff and Carla make a jaw-dropping discovery that leads them in directions they could never before have imagined.
Now, as promised, here are those blog postings that contain some very interesting paranormal stories:
Haunted Lighthouse in St.Augustine, Florida
Paranormal Experiences: The Skyway Bridge Disaster
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Miss Caroline’s Guest House # 2
Ghost Hunting on the Queen Mary
Infinite Hummingbird Experiences
Paranormal Events in Families: The Car Horn
Dreams of Past Lives? The Russian Revolution
Carl Jung on Coincidences, Synchronicity and the Paranormal
Ghosts of the Castillo de San Marcos
Old St. Augustine, Florida. Unexplained. Ghosts. Paranormal. Supernatural.
The Castillo de San Marcos
As a Florida writer of fiction and nonfiction, I get to explore some of my favorite topics that include both the paranormal and Florida history. And that includes the oldest and most haunted city in the U.S., St. Augustine.
Ghost stories abound in that town as do ghost tours of all kinds. Paranormal investigators make regular stops there and probe every nook and cranny.
One of the most visited places is the city is the stone fort, the Castillo de San Marcos.
Completed by the Spanish in 1695, that site literally swims in legends and myth. Much has been written about the Castillo, both historically and in the paranormal realm, but I won’t bore you with all that old information.
At the end of this article though, I have included some links that you might find of interest.
What I do want to share with you, however, are two quick stories that I stumbled over one day when visiting the fort and doing research for the third book in my young adult series titled, The St. Augustine Trilogy.
Both of these tales come from people directly associated with the Castillo and have asked that I not mention their names or positions within the organization. Gotta protect my sources.
On the day of my visit, I found a person who seemed to be in a position of authority. I was interested in certain aspects of the Castillo’s construction.
We had a nice chat and in the conversation I told him I write about things paranormal as well as historical. “Oh ho,” he replied with a grin, “you need to talk to Alberta (not her name).”
I had no idea who Alberta was or why I should talk to her. And just as I started to ask, she, Alberta, walked up to us, pointed to her watch and said to my companion, “It’s working again. Can you believe it?”
Turns out that every time Alberta enters the Castillo, her watch stops working. It usually remains inoperable for no reason she can discover until she leaves the building.
And on that day, oddly, the watch began ticking away only as she approached me and the other person.
The Castillo gift shop
That’s when the man I was talking to originally took me aside and said, “If you won’t use my name, I’ll tell you about a series of identical experiences a close family member had here a number of years ago.”
Now that is just the kind of comment I love: from someone who is definitely not looking for notoriety and who is in a position to really know something of value.
After I agreed, he said, “This family member used to work in the gift shop downstairs (on the ground floor of the fort). It was her job to open the doors to the shop every morning.
“At times, the air conditioning would create a slick film of condensation on the stone floor, revealing small footprints. Bare footprints, like those of a child, and no others.
“Of course, there was no way that could happen, because the shop is locked up all night and stays locked until the next morning.”
My companion offered no explanation because he didn’t have any. But the gravity with which he revealed this little mystery told me he was indeed, telling the truth as he knew it.
Links of interest:
St. Augustine
Haunted Lighthouse in St.Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Mary Hastings, Part 1
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Mary Hastings, Part 2
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Mary Hastings Part 3
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Ghost Playmates Part 1
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Ghost Playmates Part 2
St. Augustine, FL: Ghost Evidence
St. Augustine, FL: Ghost Animals
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Huguenot Cemetery.
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Tolomoto Cemetery
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Ancient City Inn
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Old Lighthouse
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Old Jail
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt :Miss Caroline’s Guest House Part 1
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt :Miss Caroline’s Guest House Part 2
The Castillo de San Marcos website
Paranormal
Ghost Hunting on the Queen Mary
Infinite Hummingbird Experiences
Paranormal Events in Families: The Car Horn
Dreams of Past Lives? The Russian Revolution
Carl Jung on Coincidences, Synchronicity and the Paranormal
Afterlife Communications in Dreams
Florida Nonfiction: supernatural; ghosts; dreams; visions; telepathy; ESP; after-life; spirit contact; mediums; auras.
An Explosion of Being: An American Family’s Journey into the Psychic.
The paranormal has been a part of my life for so long now that I’ve almost forgotten what it was like during the days when I regularly pooh-poohed such things.
To be perfectly honest, it took the death of my father many years ago to jump-start my transition from skeptic to believer. When our family lost Dad, really strange things started happening.
In the process, my wife Barbara and I had some fascinating experiences, learned a great deal and wrote about is all in the book you see here. This journey of ours included our children.
Published originally by Prentice Hall, this publication stirred up enough interest back in the day for Barb and me to do radio shows across the United States and in Canada.
To help others on a similar path of exploration, Barb and I ended our book with a chapter titled, “Revitalizing Your Natural Psychic Heritage.” In that chapter, we offer readers step-by-step suggestions, the kind of thing we wish we had had back when we first started probing into the unknown.
Our book may be ordered from any bookstore or on any large online book outlet. Again, here is the link to find the book on Amazon.com: An Explosion of Being: An American Family’s Journey into the Psychic.One more thing. As a former educator, I also publish a series of novels for young adults and adults young at heart that focus on the paranormal and historical. The setting for these books, titled The St. Augustine Trilogy, is the oldest and most haunted city in the U.S., St. Augustine, Florida.
I’m delighted to report that Book I of the trilogy, Sliding Beneath the Surface, is now being used in secondary school reading programs for motivation and skill building purposes.
If you would like to learn more about the trilogy, click here.
For some interesting blog posts on paranormal activity, see the links below:
Carl Jung on Coincidences, Synchronicity and the Paranormal
The St. Augustine
National Cemetery
Haunted Lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida
Cassadaga, a Spiritualist Community
Infinite Hummingbird Coincidences
Weird But True Stories for Halloween
Upcoming presentation. Paranormal. Life after death. Ghosts. supernatural. Orlando, Florida area. October, 2014.
Dave Lapham
Come join me and fellow author Dave Lapham as we spin strange tales of the paranormal for families and friends in Central Florida.
Like me, Dave writes fiction and nonfiction in this literary arena and also like me, he writes books for young adults.
We’ll both be sharing true stories that come not only from our own research and ghost hunting but also from our personal experiences over the years.
After the presentation, Dave and I will have our books available for sale and, of course, we will sign them as usual during such events. At the end of this article, I show some of the books that will be available.
Once people who desired to buy books have what they want, Dave and I will stick around for a short time to speak with anyone who wants to chat about our presentation.
Dave is a former Marine Corps officer and I am a former Central Florida Educator.
Program Title: Weird But True Stories for Halloween (A family friendly program. Recommended for age levels 10 & above)
Date: Saturday, October 18, 2014
Time: 4 PM (a one-hour presentation)
Location: The downtown Orlando Public Library, 101 East Central Blvd., Orlando, FL
Parking: There is a city parking garage opposite the library on Central Blvd.
Phone: 407-835-7323
Library Contact Person: Christine Lindler, Program Coordinator
July 16, 2014
Best Young Adult Realistic Fiction – Authors Writers
YOUNG ADULT, SUPERNATURAL, PARANORMAL, TIME TRAVEL ADVENTURES inspired by the author’s true-life experiences.
This is for real. Many years ago, after my father died, there were a lot of paranormal events that happened in my family. At the time, my wife and I didn’t believe in the paranormal but that soon changed.
In fact, Barb and I spent several years after Dad died investigating such weird occurrences. In the end, we had so much research material that we wrote a nonfiction book about it all and even did radio interview/call-in programs across the U.S. and up into Canada.
That book, An Explosion of Being: An American Family’s Journey into the Psychic, was published across the world by a division of Prentice Hall.
But more recently though, I decided to write a series of fiction books for young adults and adults young at heart using my paranormal experiences as the inspiration the wild and crazy plots of those books. As an old history teacher, I couldn’t resist creating this fictional world for young people.
Today, the title of that series is The St. Augustine Trilogy and it takes place in America’s oldest and most haunted city in the U.S., St. Augustine, Florida.
Trilogy Description
Told in his own words, this paranormal/historical series is a very personal account of fifteen-year-old Jeff Golden’s explosive coming of age in America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida.
Join Jeff and his girlfriend Carla as they experience mind-blowing events that threaten to destroy their very existence.
Follow the two teens as Lobo, the Native American shaman, tries to protect them from powerful forces beyond understanding. Be there when Jeff and Carla discover the depths of reality as well as their own powers to reshape what they find.
Two of the three books in the trilogy are available in both print and eBook formats at the moment, with the third book due for publication in 2015.
Check out the book descriptions you’ll find here and then click on the active links for each book to see the reviews on Amazon.com.
I’ve also include the book trailers for the two books already in print so you can get a real sense of the characters and the plot.
Below all that, I have included active links to some of the most interesting blog posts I’ve written on the paranormal.
Enjoy.
Sliding Beneath the Surface: The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book I
Description
In America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida, teenager Jeff Golden is in trouble. Horrible dreams won’t let him sleep, and he is up to his eyeballs in terrifying, paranormal experiences.
Finally, Jeff turns to his girlfriend Carla, and Lobo, the mysterious Native American shaman, for help. But what he discovers is a lot more than he bargained for.
A ghostly presence linked to a local historic cemetery is not only threatening Jeff’s sanity but his life as well. And before he knows what’s happening, Jeff finds both himself and Carla pulled into one of the nastiest and bloody events in Florida history. It is a place from which they may never escape.
Book Trailer
Stepping Off a Cliff: The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book II
Description
An otherworldly, evil and dangerous force infests America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida. Everyone living there, or visiting, is at risk in ways too horrible to imagine.
Standing between this invader and the people of St. Augustine are teenagers Jeff and Carla, the mysterious Native American shaman, Lobo, and Lyle, the homeless guy.
In their quest to save themselves and all the inhabitants of this ancient Florida city, Jeff and Carla uncover lost parts of St. Augustine history, push past the limits of space and time, and come face-to-face with what they come to realize are the true walking dead.
Book Trailer
Targeting Orion’s Children: The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book III – due for publication in 2015
Description
In this, the final book of The St. Augustine Trilogy, the team of Jeff Golden, Carla Rodriguez, old Lobo, the Native American shaman and Lyle, the homeless guy, gather once again to join forces.
This time, though, the two teens face a paranormal presence that defies full human understanding and becomes a threat far beyond the oldest city in America where they live.
Overwhelmed by the immense responsibility they hold in their hands, Jeff and Carla make a jaw-dropping discovery that leads them in directions they could never before have imagined.
Now, as promised, here are those blog postings that contain some very interesting paranormal stories:
Haunted Lighthouse in St.Augustine, Florida
Paranormal Experiences: The Skyway Bridge Disaster
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Miss Caroline’s Guest House # 2
Ghost Hunting on the Queen Mary
Infinite Hummingbird Experiences
Paranormal Events in Families: The Car Horn
Dreams of Past Lives? The Russian Revolution
Carl Jung on Coincidences, Synchronicity and the Paranormal
Bronchial Thermoplasty (BT) – A Patient’s View
New asthma treatment for adults is lifesaving and a life changer. Orlando, Florida. Orlando Health. Dr. Mark Vollenweider.
Having asthma since age 10 has not been fun. If you suffer from this disease, you know exactly what I mean.
Finally this year, when my lung capacity dipped into the thirty and forty percent ranges, my asthma doctor, Mike Anderson, strongly recommended a new procedure.
“You’ve been feeling so bad for so long,” he said, “that you truly don’t remember what it is to feel good.”
My 61 years of severe asthma had finally caught up with me.
The truth of his statement really made me stand up and take notice.
I wasn’t walking daily anymore, my annual bouts with asthma were getting worse, and working out in my yard was a huge ordeal that not only left me breathless but on the verge of passing out.
Waiting in the wings of course was the knowledge that pneumonia or a bad case of the flu could pose a severe danger.
“This new three-stage Bronchial Thermoplasty (BT) procedure,” Dr. Mike told me, “won’t cure your asthma but it will certainly allow you to pull in full breaths. And the best pulmonary guy to do that, Dr. Mark Vollenwieder, is just down the street at Orlando Health. If I were going to have those three procedures done, he’s the one I would go to.”
Dr. Mark Vollenweider
Within a week, I was in Dr. V.’s office, late in the day, meeting with both him and his physician’s assistant, Amy Stumpf.
The actual probe
What a joy that meeting was. Both those people took all the time needed to review my records, explain the procedures thoroughly and answer all my questions.
By the time we got done, all of the doctor’s staff had left for the day. You don’t get that kind of personal care very often.
In the end, Dr. V. declared me to be an excellent candidate and we set the wheels in motion for my three procedures to happen in March, April and May.
I’m not going to detail what is involved in these events. If you haven’t already explored what’s involved in Bronchial Thermoplasty, I’ve added a bunch of links at the bottom of this post for your review. What I am going to do now though, is to tell you about my experiences.
Orlando Health
First of all, I couldn’t be any happier with my doctor. What a thorough, competent, open and compassionate guy he is. No wonder people come from all over to have him work on their lungs.
Both before and after each procedure, he carefully and warmly explained everything in very understandable terms. My wife, Barbara, who comes from a long line of doctors, was greatly impressed by how he was able to connect with both of us.
I tell you what, if you wish to consider this treatment, and you don’t live in an area with a pulmonologist competent in this procedure, it would be well worth your time and effort to become Dr. V’s patient .
Below you will find a video where he explains BT.
The End Result
During each procedure, Dr. V. worked on an overage of 120 bronchial tubes. So that means somewhere around 360 airways were permanently opened.
It is now early July of 2014 and I am breathing better than I have in DECADES! Amazing. I’m back to walking 1 ½ miles a day and I can work in my yard without feeling like I’m going to pass out.
My lung capacity went from a high of 48% to 79%, a 31% increase! And my blood oxygen level that usually showed 96-97% shot up to a steady 99%. No wonder I now feel more alert and clear-headed.
Yes, I still get a little tightness in my chest and I have to occasionally use my emergency inhaler to help bring up a clot of congestion. But that’s it.
I no longer have to use my nebulizer and I’m not downing Prednisone and antibiotics on a regular basis. What a joy!
In fact, one of our local TV channels did a story on Dr. V. and the value of these procedures, using me as a sample patient. Click here if you would like to see that news report.
Behind the Scenes Details
Now, here is what you need to know about the 3-week time period between each of the 3 one-hour, out-patient events.
Dr. V. and all the literature give fair warning that asthma symptoms will increase after each procedure. That is the main side effect. They say on average, it takes people 3-5 days for those symptoms to fully subside.
But for me, it took the full 3 weeks between each event. I had to use albuterol in my nebulizer 3-4 times a day and after the last procedure, Dr. V. also had me use a saline solution in my nebulizer to effectively bring up all the build-up of congestion. I also had to request addition doses of Prednisone.
Oh, a word about congestion. Be aware that for a number of days you will bring up great clots of the stuff. Mine was very dark. Dr. V. told me that it had been down there a very long time. His opening of the bronchial tubes set in motion a squeezing of the lungs like you would squeeze tooth paste tubes.
Nasty but true
But it isn’t always just congestion you bring up. Dr. V. warned me that old congestion actually congeals in the lungs and plugs up the bronchial tubes. Those plugs can be in there for years.
This I understood but was unprepared for the spider-like thing that popped out of my mouth. It was so large, I even took a picture of it. The branching is simply showing how the plugs had solidified in multiple tubes and were interconnected.
The red color, blood, you see in this picture, simply shows the thinness of the cell walls at that point.
“Unless you’re coughing up cups of blood,” Dr. V. told me, “what you are seeing here may look scary but it’s nothing to worry about.
As difficult as it was having increased asthma symptoms for so long and having to cough up all that old stuff in my lungs, it was definitely worth it to have the procedures done.
One Final Change
For whatever reason, I find that my ability to cough up congestion has changed. Before BT, I expelled congestion in the usual way. But after BT, I have found that doesn’t always work very well.
Maybe it’s just me and my lungs’ unique reactions to the procedures, but the easiest way for me to get rid clotted mucous now is to rapidly expel air from my lungs.
And when I say rapidly, I mean just the way you do when you are fully exhaling during the breathing test in your doctor’s office. If you are an asthma patient, you will know exactly what I mean.
So just take that information in as an indicator that everyone reacts differently. Above all else, if and when you have BT done, keep in close contact with your pulmonologist and ask lots of questions.
The Acid Test
I’m a writer of fiction for young adults. This past weekend, I traveled up to St. Augustine, Florida to do some on-site research, take pictures, etc. This is the final stage of completing the third book of The St. Augustine Trilogy.
One of my final stops on the way out of town was the St. Augustine Lighthouse.
Previous to that visit, I definitely avoided going up very many stairs And I shuddered as I looked up that winding staircase of 207 steps.
But then I thought, why not givge it a try? The proof is really in the pudding, right?
I thought I walked up that staircase slow and easy but it turned out it took me only a little over 10 minutes.
Sure, I was somewhat out of breath when I got to the top but I wasn’t exhausted, wheezing, and coughing. To be honest, my legs hurt more than my lungs but I’ll take that trade any day.
Breathing free through BT
Prognosis
As if I don’t have enough good news to report, Dr. V. told me that my lung capacity could even increase more over time. Instead of losing the usual 1% per year, I might bump my 79% up some more. Wouldn’t that be something? To help make that a reality, I have to maintain a good exercise schedule and keep up my allergy shots with my asthma doctor.
The Cost Factor
Make no mistake about it. Even though Bronchial Thermoplasty is an outpatient event, it isn’t cheap. We’re talking about 3 hours of skilled intervention with a full surgical crew. According to Orlando Health, where the procedures were performed, the total cost was estimated in the $18,000 to $20,000 range.
Lucky for me, Medicare in Florida now covers this procedure to some degree but it is so new that how much is actuallycoveraged isn’t completely clear. And even though I have a secondary health insurance policy, so far, most big insurance companies won’t pay for it.
They (he insurance companies) call the procedures experimental, a ridiculous assessment based on how long this treatment has been used in the U.S. and Europe. The good news, Dr. V. tells me, is that because Medicare accepts Bronchial Thermoplasty, the insurance companies are sure to follow sometime soon.
My Estimated Costs
Orlando Health, where my procedures were done, has really been wonderful about the complexity of financing. They have been my advocate with both Medicare and my other insurance company. Way ahead of time, they were able to tell me that the maximum I might have to pay would be $1,800 per hospital visit, down to a minimum of $350. So altogether, my total payments, including Dr. V.’s fees, might top out at $5,400, or go as low as $1,050.
Believe it or not, I am writing this on the 16th of July, 2014 and even though my first procedure was March 25, I have yet to receive a bill. Not bad, eh? I’ve seen paperwork going back and forth between Orlando Health and Medicare, including appeals that Medicare accepted, but that’s it.
What a pleasure it was to arrive for each procedure back in March, April and May and not have to address the money issue at all. Way to go, Orlando Health. You all are great!
OK, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. If you would like to contact me and chat about this some more, just use the contact form on my website and we’ll get together via email or phone. I thoroughly enjoy talking to people about my experiences. In the meantime, here are some website links that you might find useful.
Asthma – Anderson Allergy and Asthma in Orlando
Orlando Health:
• Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine Specialists – Services
• Orlando Health – BT Description
Overall BT Details & Programs
American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology on BT
Are You a BT Candidate? (BT for asthma.com)
National Jewish Health in Colorado
University of Minnesota Medical Center
Keck Medical of the University of Southern California
Mary Parks Asthma Center University of Rochester, NY
Best St. Augustine Fantasy Stories and Books
For young adults and adults young at heart – supernatural, paranormal, time travel adventures inspired by the author’s true-life experiences.
This is for real. Many years ago, after my father died, there were a lot of paranormal events that happened in my family. At the time, my wife and I didn’t believe in the paranormal but that soon changed.
In fact, Barb and I spent several years after Dad died investigating such weird occurrences. In the end, we had so much research material that we wrote a nonfiction book about it all and even did radio interview/call-in programs across the U.S. and up into Canada.
That book, An Explosion of Being: An American Family’s Journey into the Psychic, was published across the world by a division of Prentice Hall.
But more recently though, I decided to write a series of fiction books for young adults and adults young at heart using my paranormal experiences as the inspiration the wild and crazy plots of those books. As an old history teacher, I couldn’t resist creating this fictional world for young people.
Today, the title of that series is The St. Augustine Trilogy and it takes place in America’s oldest and most haunted city in the U.S., St. Augustine, Florida.
Trilogy Description
Told in his own words, this paranormal/historical series is a very personal account of fifteen-year-old Jeff Golden’s explosive coming of age in America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida.
Join Jeff and his girlfriend Carla as they experience mind-blowing events that threaten to destroy their very existence.
Follow the two teens as Lobo, the Native American shaman, tries to protect them from powerful forces beyond understanding. Be there when Jeff and Carla discover the depths of reality as well as their own powers to reshape what they find.
Two of the three books in the trilogy are available in both print and eBook formats at the moment, with the third book due for publication in 2015.
Check out the book descriptions you’ll find here and then click on the active links for each book to see the reviews on Amazon.com.
I’ve also include the book trailers for the two books already in print so you can get a real sense of the characters and the plot.
Below all that, I have included active links to some of the most interesting blog posts I’ve written on the paranormal.
Enjoy.
Sliding Beneath the Surface: The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book I
Description
In America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida, teenager Jeff Golden is in trouble. Horrible dreams won’t let him sleep, and he is up to his eyeballs in terrifying, paranormal experiences.
Finally, Jeff turns to his girlfriend Carla, and Lobo, the mysterious Native American shaman, for help. But what he discovers is a lot more than he bargained for.
A ghostly presence linked to a local historic cemetery is not only threatening Jeff’s sanity but his life as well. And before he knows what’s happening, Jeff finds both himself and Carla pulled into one of the nastiest and bloody events in Florida history. It is a place from which they may never escape.
Book Trailer
Stepping Off a Cliff: The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book II
Description
An otherworldly, evil and dangerous force infests America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida. Everyone living there, or visiting, is at risk in ways too horrible to imagine.
Standing between this invader and the people of St. Augustine are teenagers Jeff and Carla, the mysterious Native American shaman, Lobo, and Lyle, the homeless guy.
In their quest to save themselves and all the inhabitants of this ancient Florida city, Jeff and Carla uncover lost parts of St. Augustine history, push past the limits of space and time, and come face-to-face with what they come to realize are the true walking dead.
Book Trailer
Targeting Orion’s Children: The St. Augustine Trilogy, Book III – due for publication in 2015
Description
In this, the final book of The St. Augustine Trilogy, the team of Jeff Golden, Carla Rodriguez, old Lobo, the Native American shaman and Lyle, the homeless guy, gather once again to join forces.
This time, though, the two teens face a paranormal presence that defies full human understanding and becomes a threat far beyond the oldest city in America where they live.
Overwhelmed by the immense responsibility they hold in their hands, Jeff and Carla make a jaw-dropping discovery that leads them in directions they could never before have imagined.
Now, as promised, here are those blog postings that contain some very interesting paranormal stories:
Haunted Lighthouse in St.Augustine, Florida
Paranormal Experiences: The Skyway Bridge Disaster
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Miss Caroline’s Guest House # 2
Ghost Hunting on the Queen Mary
Infinite Hummingbird Experiences
Paranormal Events in Families: The Car Horn
Dreams of Past Lives? The Russian Revolution
Carl Jung on Coincidences, Synchronicity and the Paranormal
Castillo de San Marcos – Paranormal Adventures
Old St. Augustine, Florida. Unexplained. Ghosts. Paranormal. Supernatural.
The Castillo de San Marcos
As a Florida writer of fiction and nonfiction, I get to explore some of my favorite topics that include both the paranormal and Florida history. And that includes the oldest and most haunted city in the U.S., St. Augustine.
Ghost stories abound in that town as do ghost tours of all kinds. Paranormal investigators make regular stops there and probe every nook and cranny.
One of the most visited places is the city is the stone fort, the Castillo de San Marcos.
Completed by the Spanish in 1695, that site literally swims in legends and myth. Much has been written about the Castillo, both historically and in the paranormal realm, but I won’t bore you with all that old information.
At the end of this article though, I have included some links that you might find of interest.
What I do want to share with you, however, are two quick stories that I stumbled over one day when visiting the fort and doing research for the third book in my young adult series titled, The St. Augustine Trilogy.
Both of these tales come from people directly associated with the Castillo and have asked that I not mention their names or positions within the organization. Gotta protect my sources.
On the day of my visit, I found a person who seemed to be in a position of authority. I was interested in certain aspects of the Castillo’s construction.
We had a nice chat and in the conversation I told him I write about things paranormal as well as historical. “Oh ho,” he replied with a grin, “you need to talk to Alberta (not her name).”
I had no idea who Alberta was or why I should talk to her. And just as I started to ask, she, Alberta, walked up to us, pointed to her watch and said to my companion, “It’s working again. Can you believe it?”
Turns out that every time Alberta enters the Castillo, her watch stops working. It usually remains inoperable for no reason she can discover until she leaves the building.
And on that day, oddly, the watch began ticking away only as she approached me and the other person.
The Castillo gift shop
That’s when the man I was talking to originally took me aside and said, “If you won’t use my name, I’ll tell you about a series of identical experiences a close family member had here a number of years ago.”
Now that is just the kind of comment I love: from someone who is definitely not looking for notoriety and who is in a position to really know something of value.
After I agreed, he said, “This family member used to work in the gift shop downstairs (on the ground floor of the fort). It was her job to open the doors to the shop every morning.
“At times, the air conditioning would create a slick film of condensation on the stone floor, revealing small footprints. Bare footprints, like those of a child, and no others.
“Of course, there was no way that could happen, because the shop is locked up all night and stays locked until the next morning.”
My companion offered no explanation because he didn’t have any. But the gravity with which he revealed this little mystery told me he was indeed, telling the truth as he knew it.
Links of interest:
St. Augustine
Haunted Lighthouse in St.Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Mary Hastings, Part 1
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Mary Hastings, Part 2
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Mary Hastings Part 3
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Ghost Playmates Part 1
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Story: Ghost Playmates Part 2
St. Augustine, FL: Ghost Evidence
St. Augustine, FL: Ghost Animals
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Huguenot Cemetery.
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Tolomoto Cemetery
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Ancient City Inn
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Old Lighthouse
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt: Old Jail
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt :Miss Caroline’s Guest House Part 1
St. Augustine, FL Ghost Hunt :Miss Caroline’s Guest House Part 2
The Castillo de San Marcos website
Paranormal
Ghost Hunting on the Queen Mary
Infinite Hummingbird Experiences
Paranormal Events in Families: The Car Horn
Dreams of Past Lives? The Russian Revolution
Carl Jung on Coincidences, Synchronicity and the Paranormal
Signs of Afterlife Communications in Florida
Florida Nonfiction: supernatural; ghosts; dreams; visions; telepathy; ESP; after-life; spirit contact; mediums; auras.
An Explosion of Being: An American Family’s Journey into the Psychic.
The paranormal has been a part of my life for so long now that I’ve almost forgotten what it was like during the days when I regularly pooh-poohed such things.
To be perfectly honest, it took the death of my father many years ago to jump-start my transition from skeptic to believer. When our family lost Dad, really strange things started happening.
In the process, my wife Barbara and I had some fascinating experiences, learned a great deal and wrote about is all in the book you see here. This journey of ours included our children.
Published originally by Prentice Hall, this publication stirred up enough interest back in the day for Barb and me to do radio shows across the United States and in Canada.
To help others on a similar path of exploration, Barb and I ended our book with a chapter titled, “Revitalizing Your Natural Psychic Heritage.” In that chapter, we offer readers step-by-step suggestions, the kind of thing we wish we had had back when we first started probing into the unknown.
Our book may be ordered from any bookstore or on any large online book outlet. Again, here is the link to find the book on Amazon.com: An Explosion of Being: An American Family’s Journey into the Psychic.One more thing. As a former educator, I also publish a series of novels for young adults and adults young at heart that focus on the paranormal and historical. The setting for these books, titled The St. Augustine Trilogy, is the oldest and most haunted city in the U.S., St. Augustine, Florida.
I’m delighted to report that Book I of the trilogy, Sliding Beneath the Surface, is now being used in secondary school reading programs for motivation and skill building purposes.
If you would like to learn more about the trilogy, click here.
For some interesting blog posts on paranormal activity, see the links below:
Carl Jung on Coincidences, Synchronicity and the Paranormal
The St. Augustine
National Cemetery
Haunted Lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida
Cassadaga, a Spiritualist Community
Infinite Hummingbird Coincidences
