In The Beginning...

July 1999-  I remember going to work this particular morning feeling great.  By mid-morning I climbed up and into the middle shaker for my hourly rotation at that position on Crew C's  Pattie Deck, at Cavendish Farms.  It was beginning to get warm, not unusual for the time of year.  Temperatures had been reaching 93-100 degrees F, on the deck for the past couple of weeks, just routine.

Today was different, during the course of my rotation something happened.  I began feeling very warm and nauseous and then " BAM" Not understanding what was happening to me. "What the hell was that." There was some kind of swoosh within my body, almost feeling like something just entered or left me. STOP! right here, No, I'm not crazy. and  no, I'm not talking about spirits. Similar, mind you but this is exactly how it felt.  Today, being more educated that feeling would have be called by the medical community as an Exacerbation *or a worsening of a disease. I didn't know any of this at the time and thought I was having a heat stroke. I landed up going home sick that day and over the course of the next couple of days managed to dropped my body weight from 143 lbs to 105 lbs. I know people can have a tenancy to lose weight while ill, but I wasn't ill, just nauseous, no sickness, no fever. Weird.

COPD

Flare–ups: What to do

A COPD flare-up happens when COPD symptoms get worse, or when new symptoms develop. Flare-ups are also called exacerbations.
Flare-ups are one of the biggest reasons why people with COPD become disabled or have to be hospitalized. They can be deadly.