A true hero and how Tobi is going

Today’s word is hero. I mention the word because it reminds me of someone in my life. Nana Rose, my grandmother who is in her mid-eighties, lives alone in a modest white stucco house in a small neighborhood in Jacksonville, Florida.

She has dealt with various surgeries to repair her shoulder, arm, knees, eyes, etc. That is not why she is my hero though. Despite all of the pain she endures, I get a fresh batch of hamentashen (a Jewish dessert) or a chocolate chip cake several times a year and she gets the thrill of speaking to her great grandchildren. She now has 6!

My grandmother is a superhero, far greater than Superman or Batman or any of those comic book characters. She has courage when most people would not. My grandmother survived the Holocaust. She’s told me stories of living underground and having to kill Nazi soldiers so she and my grandfather, who passed away more than a decade ago, could survive. My grandpa lost his first daughter and wife in the Holocaust and my grandmother lost most of her brothers. Thank goodness, they found each other. If they were caught, they’d be killed. Nana and my grandpa eventually survived by hiding in a truck that left the Nazi territory and they ended up in a displaced persons camp where many of the families ended up who survived the Nazi regime’s hatred.

Soon after the Holocaust ended, Nana was pregnant with her first child who was born in Germany in the displacement camp. That child was Eva Goldberg who eventually became Eva Lipman and my mother. If not for the efforts and heroics of my grandmother, this blog would not exist and many of you would not know what a hero she was. Thank you, Nana.

I strive to be a hero like my grandmother. At times, I have failed but I have learned from Nana that the fight goes on. While we might be graded by chapters in our life, our final grade only comes when we finish our book.

Now Tobi...

I’ve been on Tobi for a few days now and it’s going ok. The night sessions are the toughest because I tend to fall asleep towards the end and wake up at 1:30 in the morning not knowing where I am. I usually wake up to some infomercial about Memory improvement and considering I have no idea why I’m in the basement at 2 a.m., it might be a good idea to purchase the program. The procedure I do morning and night is my nasal draining (takes 5 minutes) and then my nasal antibiotics and inhalers (another 5 minutes), then I do my pulmozyme, vest and hypertonic saline which take about 50 minutes combined. In the morning, I’ll work out for 45 minutes after that. At night, I just clean up or take a rest. Then after at least a 15 minute hiatus between treatments I do the 40 minute Tobi inhaled treatment. That’s how long it takes. You can imagine how easy it is to get tired especially after a full day at work and a few hours with two young energetic children.

Some of you have e-mailed me or told me how brave you think I am for freely talking about my emotional issues. I appreciate your comments but I just hope that after all of this that my experiences help someone else. I have far more information to disclose that will probably change your opinion of me. In time, I will explain. I appreciate the fact that all of you have been supportive and understanding to this point. I know that you are surprised to find out a lot of things about me and you’ll be surprised to find out even more. I’m being honest about my issues. Slowly the skeletons are disappearing from my closet. Slowly you are getting to know the real me.

I wish everyone a good day.

Andy