Oxygen Dependant Cyclist to Ride 816 Mile Journey

This story captivated me immediately; as an avid cyclist, who has used the bike to raise money and awareness for cancer research and funding, as well as the owner of a company that provides home oxygen systems, solutions, and guidance for so many in the region, I was immediately drawn to the story of Mark Junge - which is below, excerpted with Mark's permission from the 10/12/09 Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
I have had some correspondence with Mark and I hope to at least offer an update upon completion of his journey, if not a few updates along the way...congratulations Mark and thank you for raising awareness about all that can still be accomplished with the right passion, clinical guidance, and a high tech O2 system.

At the age of 66 my life’s patterns and those of my wife, Ardath, have become fairly obvious although I’m not sure of their relative importance to Cheyenne or Wyoming history. One of those patterns has emerged during the past five years, during which we have made four, long-distance trips, she driving our van and I riding a bicycle while breathing supplementary oxygen. The geographic pattern of those trips nearly forms the letter “H” draped across a map of the U.S.A.

In 2004 we followed the Lincoln Highway 3500 miles from Lincoln Park in San Francisco to Times Square in New York. In 2006 we picked up the trail in Times Square, squiggling along the Atlantic coastline of New England and the Canadian Maritime Provinces for 1,785 miles to Cape Spear, Newfoundland. Two years ago we followed U.S. Highway 1 north along the Pacific coastline for 1,200 miles from San Francisco to Vancouver, B.C. and last year we turned south from San Francisco and followed the same highway 650 miles to the Mexican border.

Another pattern that seems to be emerging is that the trips are getting shorter. But that will change this week when we leave Times Square and begin an 800-mile Atlantic coastline tour to Charleston, South Carolina –– or until the money runs out, whichever comes first. Next year we’ll attempt to complete the last leg of the “H” from Charleston to Key West, Florida. Thus, we will have traveled from coast to coast and border to border. That claim and a nickel, as they say, might get us a cup of coffee at Wall Drug.

Is that all? Are there no other patterns in this odyssey? Some of our cynical friends might reply, “Yes, the obvious pattern is insanity”. Maybe so, but it depends upon your point of view. These trips are not such a big deal, logistically. Keep in mind that, following the Trojan War, Odysseus wandered around the Mediterranean for ten years before he found his way back to his throne and scepter in Ithaca. On the other hand, it has taken Ardath and me less than a year to travel 7,000 miles, and each of our adventures has ended conveniently in Cheyenne sitting in our recliners holding our TV remotes. All Odysseus wanted to do was get back home to Penelope, while Ardath goes with me wherever I go. Furthermore, we don’t just wander. We have a purpose. Our mission is to alert the public to the problem of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, a catchall term for lung ailments that many people do not recognize.

Ever since that first transcontinental bicycle trip I have noticed another pattern emerging. The number of COPD victims is increasing. New York pulmonologist and past president of the American Lung Association, Dr. Neil Schachter, writes in his book Life and Breath that in little more than a decade COPD will be the third deadliest disease in the world, topped only by circulatory problems and cancer. Dr. Schachter estimates that COPD already affects 35 million Americans. Tom Petty, a Denver pulmonologist and portable oxygen pioneer, says that the number of Americans affected by COPD may be closer to 40 million. More than 20 million people in Europe are affected by it, almost 30 million in Latin America and a nearly unbelievable 258 million in Asia.

In 2002, I was rudely thrown into the COPD mélange with a diagnosis of blood clots in the lungs. For the rest of my life those scarred lungs would require supplementary oxygen. My God-given and American right to breathe freely had been compromised. The good news was that oxygen had become portable.

Portability in the life of an oxygen-dependent person can mean the difference between normalcy or depression and productive or unproductive living. Not that every day is happy and productive for everyone, of course. But the days that aren’t so productive for oxygen-dependent people are made better by portable oxygen. In my case portability is necessary for exercise, including riding a bicycle.

Beginning Thursday morning at Times Square, I’ll field test Invacare’s XPO2 Portable Oxygen Concentrator. My heart will be pumping blood through a Cryolife homographic, or human, aortic valve that has kept me alive for the past 16 years. The young person who donated his valve has been with me, materially and emotionally, for 7,000 bicycle miles across America. No doubt for him it would have been better to be alongside me on his own bike.

Another pattern that I have noticed since 2004 is one that is difficult to perceive unless you are oxygen-dependent and you travel. By that I mean that most of the time you won’t see oxygen-dependent people. Awareness of COPD comes when you see older men and women walking around with canulas attached to their noses, carrying oxygen bottles in backpacks or pushing carts with metal tanks. Some oxygen-dependent people are not so obvious because they have transtracheal tubes implanted in their necks. Others camouflage their oxygen-dependency with custom eyeglasses.

However, I suspect that most oxygen-dependent folks are hidden from public view in homes or healthcare facilities, apart from the daily rush. They are a segment of the population that is out of sight and out of mind except to those who care for them. Mobile or not, members of the COPD underclass do not take for granted their next breath. For them, breathing is an effort and for some the breath they have is a technological blessing.

It’s pretty obvious that people who would benefit by portable oxygen do not receive enough encouragement to be mobile in their lives, but that problem is not due to a lack of human kindness. It is a problem of profitability and national policy. Home healthcare providers struggle to make a living, partly because theirs is a private enterprise in which there is little profit incentive for providing portable oxygen to everyone who would benefit by it. A glance at Medicare law reveals that federal policy discourages these healthcare workers from promoting oxygen portability.

These are the patterns and issues that have become obvious to me as I bicycle around the country. It’s no longer surprising when I stop to talk to people about oxygen portability that they have parents, relatives or friends with lung problems. It’s also no surprise that many of these people are not aware of the latest technological improvements, such as portable oxygen concentrators that improve lives.

Mobility means freedom. Freedom means improved physical and mental health that lead to productivity. Individual productivity leads to societal productivity and so forth and so on, ad infinitum, like a ripple expanding from a pebble cast into a pond. The pattern is not complicated. It’s as easy as riding a bike.

Mark makes some extremely salient points about the disease state as well as some of the federal policies that serve as a roadblock for some to investing in innovative solutions for their patients and customers. At Cape Medical Supply we have long believed that the damage to short term profits is far outweighed by the positive impact of doing the right thing in the community and investing aggressively in new technologies for our patients. We have over 10% of our home patients currently using portable concentrators like the one Mark will be using, and another 40% using trans-filling systems; both of these systems are incredibly expensive and there is very little in the way of additional reimbursement for them - however our patients have becoming raving fans of our company because we provide these solutions and we feel strongly that we are adhering to our mission of providing the highest levels of service and care possible by doing so.
My heartiest congratulations and thanks again to Mark for what he is doing in raising awareness, thanks for a job well done!