Welcome to my blog. I document my adventures in having COPD, bronchiectasis, and competing as an athlete. Hope you have a nice stay!

My name is John Cummings. I was diagnosed with asthma when I was twelve: however, I was able to have a fairly healthy adolescence playing sports and doing what most teens do. In my last year in high school, I began to be gravely sick with a few episodes of pneumonia. My doctors and I have learned through the years that the pneumonia and youth asthma prompted perpetual scarring of the lungs and a sickness called bronchiectasis.

In my last year of college, my condition worsened. After rehashed episodes of pneumonia and infections, my bronchiectasis moved from my left lower lobe to the right lung and spread. In my late forties, I was down to one option with these scarred lungs: perhaps a lung transplant could return me to a normal life.

As I progressed through the lung transplant process, I was disappointed to find out that doctors wanted me sicker in order to finally get the transplant. I was told that I would have to get worse in order to get the transplant I needed.

I don't think there is anyone on the planet who wants to get sicker. Who wants to drag around more oxygen tanks, spend more time in the hospital or take more medicine. I vowed to find another way. I studied my disease, I pushed my limitations and and I started to stick to a strict medicines and treatment regiments. I started to entertain athletics again. I began a progression of 5k's. Following a couple of years of that, I finished the Xterra Mission Bay Triathlon in San Diego in 2007. Through careful attention to my health, I started to recover some athletic achievements which appeared to be outlandish in earlier years.

Today I consider myself a COPD Challenger. I run and bike, stay active in the COPD community and I've returned all of my oxygen equipment to the hospital. Who knows what tomorrow will bring with these lungs, but today I fight, I breath, I Challenge.