Tag Archives: Pulmonary
We Can Be Heroes: Patricia George, M.D.
May 18, 2014
Patricia George, M.D., spoke with Community about her work in pulmonary transplant medicine, her HIV-PAH research, and her motivation as a member of PHA’s four-woman Team PHenomenal Hope in the nine-day 2014 Race Across America.
Going into medical school, I had passion for and experience in immunology research, so transplantation was something in which I was always interested. And like many who go into pulmonary medicine, I was initially drawn to it through my medical school and residency rotations in the medical intensive care unit. I enjoyed pulmonary physiology, and the work and pace of critical care medicine.
In addition, as a medical student, I met a patient with cystic fibrosis awaiting a lung transplant in the medical intensive care unit. I got to know her and her mom, and some of her life story, and wanted to be able to help people like her with lung disease. So that led me to pulmonary medicine and pulmonary transplant medicine.
My research involves looking at the mechanisms of HIV-associated pulmonary arterial hypertension (HIV-PAH). Pulmonary arterial hypertension is quite rare, however in patients with HIV, it affects at least 0.5 percent, and perhaps more, according to recent studies. That’s at least one in [every] 200 patients!
Advances in HIV care have changed the landscape for people with HIV, and many now label HIV a chronic disease. So medical complications, like HIV-PAH, become extremely important to study and hopefully help people live longer and live better.
Team PHenomenal Hope came together with people passionate about cycling and raising awareness. As an avid cyclist, it had long been a dream to someday race in the Race Across America (RAAM).
Stacie Truszkowski, one of my close friends in the cycling community, also shared this dream. So, in 2011 and 2012, Stacie and I reached out to our endurance cycling friends whom we thought might be crazy—er—passionate—enough to do this as well, and in 2012, with the addition of Anne-Marie Alderson, Ryanne Palermo, and Kate Bennett as our crew chief, our four-woman cycling team was born.
We organized this Pittsburgh-based team, met with our friends at PHA, as well as our earliest sponsors, and formed Team PHenomenal Hope. Later that summer, we added to this group Greta Daniels, assistant crew chief and alternate racer, and Sara Harper, alternate racer and crew.
Our mission is to dedicate our training and racing to those who live with pulmonary hypertension, to raise public awareness about the disease, and to raise funds to find a cure.
I started biking during pulmonary fellowship. I wanted to get back in shape, and a new women’s cycling team called Steel City Endurance was forming. I joined them in the inaugural year, and became totally enamored with biking and bike racing and met a lot of really neat people.
I enjoy being outside, escaping the stresses of my sometimes hectic lifestyle. As for endurance cycling, I enjoy pushing my body and mind to some sort of limit. It allows you to lose yourself in the present—how you’re feeling at that time.
We’re working with our team coach, who’s helping coordinate our training schedules so that they build and peak at the right time. Training is about consistency—getting the workouts in, getting stronger every day (except rest days). Eating healthy and getting enough sleep are crucial too.
As a team, we’re racing the whole race as a relay. To make the time cut-off and make it to the finish line as fast as we can, we divide up the ride into 20-to-30-minute segments.
On a four-person team, typically two riders will be out on the road, trading places in 20-to-30-minute pulls (one riding, the other in a support vehicle leapfrogging ahead for the exchange to happen). This pair of the four-woman team will ride for four to six hours, while the other pair rests, eats, sleeps, and recovers. It goes 24/7, from the time the gun goes off until we cross the finish line.
From what I hear, mental toughness will be one of the biggest challenges during RAAM. Those who have done it say that, at about day four or five, the sleep deprivation kicks in, and the reality of the Midwest flatlands also hits you. I know there is beauty in rolling plains, but at that point in the race, it may be tough to see it.
During RAAM, the crew is the essential group of people that will get us from Oceanside, California, to Annapolis, Maryland. The crew chief, Kate Bennett, is in charge of coordinating the drivers, navigators, medics, mechanics, nutrition, making sure we’re on course, and that people— including crew—are getting enough sleep, food, etc. A race with this relay between four racers, moving across the country with an RV, two support vehicles, and 13 crewmembers is quite an undertaking.
The greatest source of inspiration is the PH community. When I think about how hard it may be to be on the bike, mentally or physically, I think about what my patients go through on a daily basis.
I get to choose to ride my bike, to push myself through discomfort. My patients don’t have such a choice. They wake up and live with pulmonary hypertension every day, and face whatever that day may bring, and many do so with such grace. So when I’m feeling less than motivated, I often think of people I know living with PH, and it motivates me to get this job done.
Likewise, in my practice, I am regularly reminded of the need for a cure. I often evaluate patients with pulmonary hypertension in need of a lung transplant. For this group of patients, they often no longer are responding to medications. It is a reminder that, while we have come so far, and many patients do respond to medical therapies, we still need a cure.
In my job, I also conduct PH research, and know firsthand how important funding is to exploring the frontiers in science. It makes it all the more important to me that Team PHenomenal Hope is raising money for PHA to fund grants and help other scientists have funds needed to find a cure.
We have something truly special with our partnership with the Pulmonary Hypertension Association. PHA launched a Race of Our Lives campaign, and we have been amazed how people in the community have organized their own Unity events, walking, riding their bikes, doing whatever they can to raise awareness about PH and join us in raising funds to find a cure.
Team PHenomenal Hope is bigger than four of us on bikes, or the 17 of us crossing the country. This is actually a huge team that spans coast-to-coast.
Pulmonary hypertension is a rare disease that can affect anyone, from children to adults, men and women, and people of all races and ethnic backgrounds. Initially, it is often misdiagnosed as another pulmonary condition, taking on average over a year to make the correct diagnosis and get the proper treatment.
Although it is a rare disease, it is important for doctors to at least think about pulmonary hypertension in their differential diagnosis when faced with a patient with shortness of breath, because without considering it, the diagnosis won’t be made.
Fortunately there are many medical treatments on the market, changing the prognosis for many who have this disease; however there still are people who do not respond to therapy, and to date there is no cure. Team PHenomenal Hope is working with PHA to do something to try to change that.
Posted in About Us, Diseases, Featured | Tagged anne marie alderson, bicycle, bicycling, bike, biking, chronic disease, cycling, cystic fibrosis, greta daniels, hiv-pah, hivpah, kate bennett, lung disease, pah, patricia george, patty george, PH, PHA, phenomenal hope, Pulmonary, pulmonary arterial hypertension, Pulmonary Hypertension, Pulmonary Hypertension Association, pulmonary medicine, pulmonary physiology, raam race, race across america, race of our lives, ryanne palermo, sara harper, stacie truszkowski, steel city endurance, team phenomenal hope, transplant, transplantation | Leave a comment
Jewell’s Story
October 5, 2012I would have to say my situation started back in the ’90s. I was experiencing a shortness of breath and would be sick with bronchitis a lot. I decided to go see an allergist and he put me on shots, I took them for about 10 years. It did help me but I still had the shortness of breath. My internal medicine doctor back then decided to do a chest x-ray and when she saw the results she decided to send me to a Pulmonary Specialist.
They diagnosed me with mild asthma and also did a lung biopsy. They said I had scar tissue on my lungs but never really told me how bad it really was. I was treated by this doctor for a number of years with steroids, antibiotics and breathing treatments. As the years went on I became sicker more and more often. I would have periods in which when I would cough I would black out for a few seconds, however the doctor didn’t make a big deal about it.
Fast forward to 2010, I started to have a lot of weakness and fatigue. One day while driving home I began to choke on some water and I blacked out while driving. When I came to I was making my way over to the next lane on the interstate. I know that the Lord was with me that day because otherwise I would not be talking to you today. I didn’t go to the doctor until about a week or so later when I began having severe headaches and weakness. I thought it maybe was a toothache so I made an appointment with the Dentist.
On the day of the appointment, I had to climb a flight of stairs and by the time I got up those stairs I was gasping for breath. My dentist told me he would treat me for my toothache but he said I needed to see a doctor becayse he believe I had something very serious going on, pointing out that my hands were blue!
I called my Internal Medicine doctor and she ordered tests on my heart and blood tests. They would not let me go home because of the severity of my condition. They also conducted a CT scan of my lungs. The doctors came in and told me I had Pulmonary Hypertension.
They immediately started me on medicine (this was in July of 2010) and then in October of that same year I started to see a pulmonologist who put me on medicines related specifically to Pulmonary Hypertension. I am now also on oxygen pretty much all the time and I am doing Pulmonary Rehabilitation to help build up strength and endurance for my body.
It has been very encouraging and inspiring to do. I would like to say it has affected my life in many ways. It has affected my physical relationship with my husband who does not always understand and who is also dealing with his own health issues. It has affected my daughter and grandchildren as they were very worried about me. But, I am a fighter and refuse to give up because I know my Lord Jesus Christ is my healer, my rock and my shield and He will heal me.
I would like to say to all who are battling this disease or anyone who has a loved one who is battling it, to always support them, love them and pray for them and know that the Lord is with you and with them. I hope that I have been able to help or encourage someone today.
Posted in Diseases, Events, Featured, Media Center, Uncategorized | Tagged Asthma, Pulmonary, Pulmonary Hypertension, Shortness of Breath | 6 Comments
