Harold Laudien’s April Fundraising Update

April 11,2018

Nine on, one off. As in, nine days of triathlon training, and one day of rest. That’s the training schedule Coach Chris decided to put me on a few months ago. Does it sound difficult? Is it rigid? Yes!

However, I am a numbers guy and to me I see it as getting 10% of the days to rest. Individuals affected by pulmonary hypertension (PH) get 0 days of rest and have already lost the statistical race as only about 1 in a million people here in the United States ever suffer with this disease, that is 0.000001%.

As spring finally reaches us, I am still attempting to tolerate my physical challenges and do my best to match what my #LetMeBeYourLungs partner, Kirsten Braley, will endure for a lifetime. I’m happy to share the photo of my family and Kirsten’s below. Recently Kirsten provided an update from a visit with her doctor.

“Yesterday I had an appointment with Dr. Patel (my interstitial lung disease specialist). We reviewed the results of Friday’s six minute walk and pulmonary function test. I am either stable or slightly worse. The reason for the confusion is that if I am worse it is so slight that it is within the margin of error. So, we decided together that I will reduce the prednisone another 10 mg to see if I get worse in the next two weeks or so. If I get worse, I am supposed to call her office, but if I stay the same I won’t see her until late July. We are forced to experiment on me because a lung biopsy is too risky for me with my PH. Dr. Patel thinks it is possible that I have an autoimmune disease that chose to present first in my lungs. It won’t be until later that it progresses to the point where I have more overt signs to diagnose exactly which autoimmune disease it is. By reducing the prednisone now, I hope that if I am worse it will be more obvious so we can adjust my medication sooner rather than later. I don’t want to risk damaging my lungs further.”

Please continue to share your prayers and support that Kirsten improves and PH research continues to advance in helping all those affected. If you are able to commit yourself to the cause, please donate on my personal page and help us reach our goal of $50,000! The ongoing support and encouraging messages are extremely helpful as well. Thank you!

– Harold Laudien