Yet again, I find some actually useful stuff on Facebook. (I can’t remember the exact post or I would have linked to it.)

Propeller Health was asking for participants to try their app & be part of a study in exchange for one of their sensors.

I had come across their company on Twitter & had hoped to review the sensor because I had heard about it from several online digital health sources & I was curious.

[For more information on their company, please see this link.]

I sent an email asking if they gave out a sensor for review purposes, but didn’t get a reply back, so I was skeptical if I’d actually get a reply.

I did get a questionnaire. I completed it & a few days later I received a notice they were shipping me a sensor.   It came Saturday.

I had downloaded the app while I was waiting for it to arrive. (It is also available for Android users. It does a few push notifications but helpful ones, like prompts to remind me to use my inhalers (compatible or not).

I didn’t log my doses in the past few days because the app installation instructions said to wait to use the app after completing your basic profile until after the sensor had come.

I was still experiencing some shortness of breath this afternoon, so after I put the sensor on my Pro-Air (HFA) rescue inhaler it picked it up (via a bluetooth connection in the sensor itself).  It then started asking me for information to learn about me like what had triggered this, if it was a pre-emptive dose & what symptoms I was having.

It had a series of cards with interesting facts. Some where quite basic for me but I think they’d be good for the newly diagnosed or those with less healthcare knowledge that might prove helpful.  I could rate if they were interesting to me or not.

I will say that I wish I had one for my Symbicort inhaler as well (but they haven’t developed a compatible one yet) but I can already see this is going to give me a lot of useful information.  Plus it also writes to Apple Health Kit, which is great so I can add that to my dashboard of data I track.

I think it will come in very handy while I await transplant.  After transplant, who knows.

I asked my doctor & nurse practitioner about my chances of asthma post transplant because I was told that while it’s controversial, it can happen. It also depends on how much original airways are left in.

They told me that they planned to take out most of my airways that would be affected (the smaller ones) but that there wasn’t really a way to know, plus there could be the chance that my donor could have some undetected or undiagnosed asthma.

I’ll cross that bridge when it comes.   I was curious because for several years now, albuterol has really boosted my function when needed which isn’t as common in LAM as many would suspect. I definitely had some form of mild asthma for years that just wasn’t diagnosed until much later. This was after my LAM diagnosis had been confirmed on imaging & with the symptoms I experienced.  Not all people with LAM respond to these types of medicines, but some of us do.

I wish I would have had this sensor a few years back.  It would have really helped me.  But for however long I use it now, I’m happy to have it.

[Now the trick will be though, when this inhaler runs out to remember to remove the sensor & put it on the new canister.  It’s pretty tiny & low profile, though it did take me a minute or two to get it on the inhaler. ]

(DISCLAIMER: I was not paid by this company.  I found them on my own on social media & was sent one of their sensors for free for participating in a campaign.   I thought doing a profile of this company might be a useful way to share information with others to see if they could benefit from such a tool & an app to manage their own condition(s). This analysis in no way constitutes medical advice or product endorsement. )