Lam Unfiltered

We have made it to August - and it has been a hot summer. Forests are burning in Northern Ontario, communities are on alert for evacuation. It is difficult to imagine down here, where we dwell in the smog and humidity. My mind feels smoggy this week. The aftermath of the gathering for my sister, the intense activity of painting the majority of our house in four weeks. The sadness that comes when things end. The year to date has been a flurry of big tasks. Now the activity has stopped, and I find myself  annoyed and impatient. I am suddenly irritable and very terse. I have had to walk a lot this week. Physically, I am doing pretty well. I am maintaining my core strength I earned carrying 18 lbs across Portugal and Spain. I am walking at least 20 km a week, and have introduced Yoga to help regain some of the flexibility I know I have lost. Desk jobs are the worst for your body. Many workplaces take into consideration that sitting for 8 hours a day is terrible for your core, f...

My sister recently died from an incurable lung disease - Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. She was diagnosed the autumn of 2014. The average person lives around four years after diagnoses, with the lucky ones being approved for and surviving a lung transplant. Although I think ALS is still the most terrifying disease I can imagine living with, Pulmonary Fibrosis is a close second. It progresses in steps. One day you can for example - get in the tub yourself, bathe and get out, and then the next day, you don't have enough energy to get out. Once the disease has progressed there is no backtracking. After coasting for a few years with very little disease advancement, this time last year she began to use oxygen when out and about. Marilyn and her partner were not Internet savvy. They did not have a computer and she had stopped working just around the time that it all became mainstream. If she had been able to research her disease - she would have lived longer. If she had been able to ...