Colorado Vacation

My Sweetie and I got back from week's vacation in Colorado.  My oldest daughter and her family live on the Front Range and we had a great time visiting with all of them.

The altitude in the Denver area adds a degree of difficulty for the IPF patient and I had not been since well before I started supplemental oxygen.  I did visit Deming NM a couple of times and I had difficulty at their elevation of 4300 ft.  So the Front Range in Colorado was out for me.

I was looking forward to seeing how my new lungs would handle the elevation so brought along a Pulse Ox to see where my oxygen saturation ended up at 5000+ ft.  Turns out my new lungs did an awesome job.

I could feel the elevation the first day in CO, it did feel like I wasn't getting enough air.  My Pulse Ox indicated that my sats were 97%+ at all times, so my lungs were doing their job.  After the first day I was pretty much acclimated and enjoyed the reduced humidity of Colorado.

My exercise capacity was slightly reduced at elevation.  I use the Maffetone Method to time the rest periods between sets of kettlebell swings and I noticed that it did take longer for my heart rate to settle down after each set.  I also attempted a set of continuous kettlebell swings and ran out of gas at about 2/3's  normal.  I do continuous by swinging 10 with the left hand then switching at the top of the swing and doing 10 with the right, repeat until gassed.  I only did a total of 44 total swings in CO.

Just about every day we were there we did an 'adventure' with our grand kids.  We went up to Estes Park, to the "Taste of Fort Collins", on walks and to different places window shopping.

I also had the opportunity to teach my 11 year old granddaughter and her Mom how to perform kettlebell swings.  My granddaughter rocks the 25 lb kb swing and her Mom does a good job with th 16 kg 'bell.  I ended up leaving the 25 lb kettlebell in CO for them to continue practice.

Lots of great memories were made, memories that would not have been possible without the wonderful gift of new lungs given by my donor family.  Their gift not only saved my life, but affected the lives of my entire family.  Organ donors, and their families, are Real Life Superheroes.

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