Just found out that one of the guys I used to take trainings with back when I was at the ILC all the time has died.He was actually a very effective advocate(rather unlike me, honestly) and was great at encouraging newly injured people...those will be big wheel-tracks to stand in.(Of course, because the news made me sentimental and I'm feeling like I lost direction in a lot of ways, for a hot second yesterday, I could picture myself offering to, you know, carry the banner, or whatever, despite having one mentee for, like three months, whose mother blamed me for all the divisions in their family--It wasn't personal, just some families don't handle discussions of independence well--maybe that's why there usually aren't 22-year-old mentors. So, I guess it's not my banner.) In some ways, I wish it could be, but in others, I suppose there's more than one way to be a contributing crip. At one time, we saw each other a lot, but we didn't get close, I suppose the age difference seemed like a chasm in my twenties, but I respected his commitment.

Sorry for your loss, Erika. As we've often noted, it's always sudden.

With the loss of my friend earlier this week, I've also been thinking about ways I could try to step up a bit - I could never be as active (and as much of a blessing to as many people) in as many communities as him (not false modesty, I'm just built different - not worse, different). But maybe lots of us stepping up in small ways can help to fill in for the suddenly missing.

Well, I haven't seen him myself in many years, but it is certainly our community's loss. That's a good thought, Epic.

I'm not big at stepping up in big ways, except in cases of organizing parties, but I find it quite satisfying to do a few small things every day that I think might make either someone's or everyone's life a little better: letting someone into traffic, picking up something they dropped, at work making a pot of regular coffee when I drink decaf (because I know just how desperate they are.) I believe in greasing the wheels in small ways. Sometimes all it takes is a grain of sand to bring things to a halt and if I can remove that grain of sand it gives me a feeling of achievement.

I think you'd be an awesome mentor, erika.

I went to the doctor again, and got some new prescriptions for this cough. My doctor is calling it asthma, though doctors can't seem to agree on whether I have asthma or not -- if I do the test when I'm feeling OK, then it says I'm normal, but once I get a cold or my allergies start acting up, my lungs react as if I did have asthma, so doctors tend to kind of shrug and not know what label to put on it. But this one is calling it asthma, so, sure. I don't really care what the label is, as long as the treatments work.

Hil, FWIW, I have sometimes "passed" the asthma test, even though I definitely have asthma. If it looks like asthma and feels like asthma, might as well consider it asthma, and see if the treatments work. Good luck!

What Zen said - neither my GP nor my allergist has ever seen me in a real asthma attack, because mine are triggered by bad allergic reactions. Nonetheless, very real. But like you said, what label's stuck on it is much less important than whether the treatment works. Lung-ma.

my sisters and I present abnormally -- we cough and choke, but still can get a full breath in. I am also seeing asthma treatment used more and more for bronchitis- because inflamed lungs are inflamed lungs -

I forgot to ask her about getting a nebulizer to use at home (her office was running really late, so by the time I saw her, I was kind of rushing to get to work on time), so I sent her a message through their website. I think I sent it too late in the afternoon, though, so I might not get a response until Monday.