John's COPD Survival Blog

Added to my TOT60 page

jhanlon303 — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:42:00 +0000

Scribbled some ideas

Waiting for the phone to ring

jhanlon303 — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:14:13 +0000

Very productive day. I did laundry, folded my socks and sorted my clothes, backed up my home server, read a couple pages of notes from my orientation while waiting for Boeing computers to catchup on paperwork and someone call me. My job is so secret they won’t even tell me what I do.

/end sarcasm
It will get better.

Consultants have to have patience, Senior consultants have to have infinite patience.

I have been asked

jhanlon303 — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:06:01 +0000

I have been asked by people to open up a little and share how I overcome my health problems and actually create what I do. Look for a posting soon where I’ll let you in on the secrets to having a productive pastime while being less productive than younger people. It’s a knack. A planning habit I learned while working inside nuclear reactors while they were running. Think one step ahead, keep the tools at hand, and then think two steps ahead. One mishap inside the reactors was bad. I have not been able to have children since I was 20, an accident in a nuclear facility and not my fault. Life teaches hard lessons.

In case you are wondering

jhanlon303 — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 03:19:44 +0000

Just in case you are wondering what all this computer modding is doing on a blog about dealing with a nasty disease, I’ll tell you.
I refuse to let this disease rule me. I did the whine and moan and feel sorry crap. Non-productive all around. I found an outlet that appealed to my natural tinkering bent and allows me to make friends, be productive, help others, and help myself feel good about ME! I love modding and modders, especially the younger ones just beginning. To share whatever I have gleaned in 6 decades of life and make it easier or better for someone else = WIN! I haven’t done everything but it’s on the list.

Work on this site

jhanlon303 — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:35:26 +0000

I’ll be experimenting with themes, adding pages and links and images and just making this site more representative of the current me and my lifestyle. I really need to address the computer modding forums and the people there who have helped me out immensely psychologically. I have been a very quiet person and carried my own counsel for many years. I need to add pages here for some of my computer modding experiences. I have met many warm, friendly and helpful people and I need to recognize them. Most are quite a bit younger in years than I am but that’s what makes it more fun.
As they are, I once was. As I am, they might become.

It’s been a while

jhanlon303 — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 02:19:58 +0000

I’m back and will update WAY more often. New Year’s Resolution. Promise. New PC and good to go. And I am still inflicted with the dream in “Do Dreams Matter”.

Welcome to my blog

jhanlon303 — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:27:41 +0000

My name is John P. Hanlon and I have COPD with Emphysema worsened by 30+ years heavy exposure to asbestos. The blog is about dealing with disease and the psychology needed to cope.

I was diagnosed with Asbestosis in 1981 just six months after my father passed away from the same disease. That was a traumatic event in my life. I had just buried my father and started my new career in IT at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Denver, Colorado. The industrial doctor at Bell Labs found the disease and had it confirmed by Mt. Sinai Institute. I have pleural plaques, pleural calcification, and interstitial fibrosis from the asbestos. My father was a card carrying journeyman insulator my entire life and I joined the labor union and became a journeyman too. Most people with exposure to asbestos don’t show any symptoms for 20 years or more. I worked for the union from 1968 to 1980. That’s only 12 years. I asked the Dr. about it and discussions with Mt. Sinai about my history revealed that I was BORN exposed to asbestos. 30 years. That sucked.

With a new college diploma – valedictorian – and a new wife, I was set to put the hardhat away forever. I am starting this blog to record what I have gone through and what it takes to survive a disease with zero survivability rate.