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Happy birthday Owen William Davies!

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Wilkes-Barre and police union still in talks over unfair labor complaints

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Andrea Vomero of West Wyoming used to work two jobs, take Zumba classes and lift weights, but now, she says ruefully, &#8220;I can just barely walk around a track.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;People try to talk to me when I&#8217;m walking up steps,&#8221; she added. When they see how she&#8217;s struggling for air, &#8220;They keep asking, &#8216;Are you all right? Are you all right?&#8217; &#8220;</p><p>Though she looks fit and healthy, Vomero, 50, suffers from pulmonary hypertension, a medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries that connect her heart to her lungs is too high.</p><p>Fatigue, dizziness, chest pain and swollen ankles can all be symptoms, but the big one is shortness of breath.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like trying to breathe through a straw,&#8221; said Katie Tobias, 29, of Swoyersville, explaining how a person who is free of the disease can get an idea of what it&#8217;s like by putting a drinking straw in your mouth, holding your nose shut and trying to make do with the stream of air you can pull through the narrow tube.</p><p>Tobias, who was diagnosed three years ago, met Vomero, who was diagnosed in 2009, through a support group Vomero started. She&#8217;s helping her friend organize a fundraising bowling event set for Aug. 20 at Chacko&#8217;s Family Bowling Center, and both women are hoping local businesses or individuals might help their cause by donating raffle baskets.</p><p>&#8220;We want to raise awareness and raise money for pulmonary hypertension research,&#8221; Vomero said.</p><p>&#8220;So we can all breathe again,&#8221; Tobias added.</p><p>Both women said pulmonary hypertension can be difficult to diagnose.</p><p>&#8220;People might be told they&#8217;re overweight, or they have asthma, or they need to exercise,&#8221; Tobias said.</p><p>But what&#8217;s really happening, with pulmonary hypertension, is that arteries are hardening or narrowing, perhaps due to a birth defect, a genetic mutation, lung disease, heart valve disease or as a side effect of a drug.</p><p>In Vomero&#8217;s case, she&#8217;s been told the cause is idiopathic, or unknown, and that the right side of her heart is enlarged.</p><p>Her symptoms became so severe she had to give up the job she&#8217;d held for 25 years as an ICU nurse and forgo much of the exercise she loved.</p><p>Tobias&#8217; symptoms were so bad she temporarily gave up her studies at Luzerne County Community College &#8212; but now she&#8217;s returned to the classroom to study computer graphics.</p><p>Both women take medication to dilate their blood vessels, and Tobias uses portable oxygen.</p><p>Proceeds from the bowling tournament, which will take place 1 to 3 p.m. Aug. 20 at Chacko&#8217;s Family Bowling Center on Wilkes-Barre Boulevard, will benefit the Pulmonary Hypertension Association, which is based in Silver Spring, Maryland.</p><p>Vomero is also helping to organize an Aug. 27 seminar on pulmonary hypertension and scleroderma, a connective tissue disorder that sometimes afflicts the same patients. The free seminar will be held at Geisinger/Wyoming Valley. For more information about the seminar, or the bowling tournament, call 570-498-1792.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Andrea Vomero, left, of West Wyoming, and Katie Tobias, of Swoyersville, both have pulmonary hypertension and are organizing an Aug. 20 fundraiser at Chacko&#8217;s Family Bowling Center in Wilkes-Barre to help raise awareness of the medical condition. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_TTL080216hypertension1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Andrea Vomero, left, of West Wyoming, and Katie Tobias, of Swoyersville, both have pulmonary hypertension and are organizing an Aug. 20 fundraiser at Chacko&#8217;s Family Bowling Center in Wilkes-Barre to help raise awareness of the medical condition. </caption0><photoCredit0> Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_TTL080216hypertension2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Katie Tobias and Andrea Vomero (left) explain how pulmonary hypertension has affected their lives, making it difficult to perform everyday tasks. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/web1_TTL080216hypertension2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Katie Tobias and Andrea Vomero (left) explain how pulmonary hypertension has affected their lives, making it difficult to perform everyday tasks. </caption1><photoCredit1> Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Women plan bowling fundraiser to fight pulmonary hypertension</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>IF YOU GO</strong></p><p><strong>What:</strong> Bowl-A-Thon</p><p><strong>When:</strong> 1 to 3 p.m. Aug. 20</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> Chacko&#8217;s Family Bowling Center, 195 N. Wilkes-Barre Blvd., Wilkes-Barre</p><p><strong>Admission:</strong> $20 for adults; $10 for children 12 and younger</p><p><strong>Proceeds:</strong> Benefit Pulmonary Hypertension Association</p><p><strong>Info: </strong>570-498-1792</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Aug. 20 event at Chacko’s Family Bowling Center planned to help fight pulmonary hypertension