Pulmonary Rehab

Today's first session went awesome!

Last week I basically did a few machines for a couple minutes just so they could get the right settings for me and I left feeling completely wiped out and went home and fell asleep.

Today, I did all the machines I was supposed to do for the alloted time PLUS the cool down exercises at the end and I have to say I felt pretty good about the whole experience. I'm not going to say I wasn't tired, because I am and I will definitely sleep well tonight and probably be sore tomorrow but over all I feel I did a lot better than last week and I can't wait to go back! It can only get better from here.

I must admit though that I am like the youngest person they have going to pulmonary rehab...everyone around me is like 75 or older and they (the other patients) look at me with that sad face like "oh why is she here she is so young??" Oh well! :)

Tomorrow, I have to go grocery shopping to get all the yummy food I plan on making for the party tomorrow night. The house is already cleaned so the cooking is really the only thing left to do.

I probably won't write anything tomorrow so I hope everyone has a fun/safe New Year's Eve and I will post pictures of our party probably on Thursday or Friday!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Tomorrow

So tomorrow is my first "official" day at pulmonary rehab. I am anxious and nervous all wrapped into one because I know its going to be hard and I will probably be wiped out by the time I get home!

Wednesday night we are having a New Year's eve party at our house. We had one last year too and it was a lot of fun so I am looking forward to that. I will hopefully take a few pictures so I can put them up to share with all of you! I always plan on taking pictures but sometimes I get distracted! :)

Oh yeah....did I mention that the Miami Dolphins are the AFC East division Champions??!! Go Fins!! Now all we need to do is keep it together long enough to survive the playoffs. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Sad day...

Today my whole family is going over to my grandma's house so that we can remember my wonderful papa who passed away a year ago today. He was a great guy and he is missed by everyone who knew him. :(

Christmas Day...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!

Ours was really good. We spent Christmas eve at my in-laws, we ate dinner and then we all played pictionary. That was hysterical...I am HORRIBLE at drawing but we still had a good time.

Christmas day we had breakfast/presents with my in-laws and then we went to my parents house for the rest of the day/presents/dinner.

I got so many great gifts this year, mostly for the house, but I love them all! I got Danny a Play Station 3 for his "big gift" which I am not sure was such a smart move because every time I turn around he is playing it! :)

Brodie had a good Christmas too. He got a stocking full of stuff from us and then he also got presents from my in-laws and Troy & Stephanie (Danny's brother and his wife) it was really cute! Here are a few pictures from Christmas Day...

Brodie hanging out

My Stocking

Brodie checking out the presents

Danny showing Brodie his stocking stuff

Cute boy in his Christmas outfit!! :)

Christmas Cookies!!

Today I spent most of the day baking Christmas cookies and candies. I had SO much fun I think I might make this a yearly tradition (this was my first year.) My sister Jessica was here along with my sister-in-law Stephanie and my niece and nephew, Colin & Delaney. Here are some pictures of today's fun...Enjoy!

mmmm....um

My sister (in the green) with Steph & the kids making Sugar Cookies

me making toffee (please don't mind the pj's!)

pretty...

All done!!

I'm not sure if I will be back on before Christmas so I am going to say Merry Christmas now in case I miss you! I hope everyone has a fantastic couple of days. :)

Orientation

So today was the orientation of my pulmonary rehab that I am starting next Tuesday! I got there at 9:30am and I didn't get home till 1:00pm.

Most of the meeting was me talking with the respiratory therapist about my medications, signing paperwork, getting blood pressure/baseline readings of oxygen, etc. and the second half was hooking me up with the heart monitor (all the patients have to wear the monitor while they work out) fitting me/finding out what my settings where on all the machines and then using all the machines for a couple minutes to see kind of where I am at THEN I had to do a six minute walk!

By the time I got home I was beat!! My little sister is here for few days (we are baking cookies tomorrow) so she made the two of us lunch and then while I was watching General Hospital at 3 I started to dose off a little bit because I was SO tired. I couldn't even keep my eyes open for my favorite soap!

I am sure once I get going with the program I am going to feel tired at first but I know in the long run the positives WAY out weigh anything else...I am just excited to get started and hopefully start feeling better and stronger! :)

Also, I can't remember if I told you already but I thought my abx were done today but the place that delivers my meds said my last dose wasn't till Wednesday evening so I still have a couple days....I can't wait until it is done, I am SO over getting up before it is light outside!! :D

Just a few pictures....

So tonight Danny and I went to Target and finished up all of our shopping for our family so now we are done....and its all wrapped and under the tree. BTW, I finally got around to taking a picture of our very first Christmas tree!!

We also bought a brand new bed for Brodie....I think he likes it!!




This last picture is a wall decal that I had bought a Kohl's weeks ago and while I was in the hospital Danny put it up for me!! Its above our bed and I LOVE it....I always say we have to kiss goodnight so when I saw this I had to buy it.

Almost done!

Well, I have finished all my shopping for Danny I just need to get him a few things for his stocking and then I am totally done with him!

This Holiday season I have completely fell in love with Amazon.com, not only are things cheaper than if I drove to the store to buy them but they have free shipping too! You can't beat that...

All I need is a few more items for a couple people and then we are done and then I am not going to the store again until AFTER the holidays because its like a mad house there and I hate that.

Brodie is home with us now, we picked him up on Sunday from my parents house. He was SO excited to see us he almost jumped right out of my moms arms when he saw me walking up the side walk...that made me feel really good because I thought he would forget about me! He was following Danny around all day he was probably thinking "you aren't gonna leave me this time buddy!" It was really funny.

I am still on my abx....its going ok I guess, I just hate the morning dose because it is so freaking early!! Its only till Monday though so I should be able to handle it! :)

IM Home!!

I got home last night around 8. It feels SO good to be home!

Last night we had a fire (we have a fire pit in our backyard) and some s'mores. It was perfect weather for a fire. I think the low was supposed to be 44 last night, whatever it was it was chilly!!

We were outside till almost 1 o'clock in the morning so needless to say I was just a little bit tired when my alarm went off to start my 6am dose of abx!

Tomorrow we pick up Brodie!! :)

What's a few more hours....

Well, I thought I was going to be going home tomorrow sometime early afternoon and now I can't go home till AFTER my 6:00pm dose of medicine because of yet another hospital screw up!

A couple days ago my doctor came in my room and he told me that the one abx I was on (Azactam) is back ordered and that he has me and another CFer who is here on that med and there is only enough abx for 1 patient for the next 6 days and because she has other problems with any other med he puts her on she gets the 6 days of medicne and he is going to put me on something else effective this morning. Fine.

So today I specifically asked my nurse this afternoon when she was hanging my med if that was my new abx and she said no that it was my last does of Azactam and that my new abx, Amikacin wasn't going to be till 6:00.

Well at like 6:15 my doctor came in to see me and see how my day went and he asked me how I felt with the new abx....and I told him I didn't know that I was just getting it as we were speaking. He said "no, that is supposed to be your second dose" and I said "well, its not its my first" and he says "call your nurse."

Let me just say that my doctor is the sweetest nicest man in the world and I had always heard that he can get mad at the nurses and is kinda scary at times but I have NEVER seen it until now...he laid into that nurse, so much so that I felt awkward watching!

Anyway...I get side tracked.

Basically what happened is he wrote for me to start my abx this morning so that my 3rd dose was tomorrow morning before I went home so he could get the proper levels done (because remember he leaves for peru or something tomorrow night so he won't even be in the country) and now my third dose isn't till 6:00pm so it throws everything off!

The reason he was so mad at the nurse is he specifically wrote that I was to d/c the one abx and start the new one this morning and the nurses for whatever reason didn't follow them. I don't think he would have gotten that mad if it hasn't been like one thing after another and not just with me there have been problems with his other patients and I think he is really getting fed up.

Its just a few more hours but I thought I was going home earlier so I am a little bummed!! Oh well.

Burning Up!!

This is my second day on steroids...and I feel like I am in a sauna!!! But I am feeling WAY better than I have even after being on IV's for 2 weeks so it is well worth the hot flashes! :)

My sugars have been a little high in the afternoons but that is to be expected from the solu-medrol, nothing a little insulin can't fix.

Just waiting on the hubby to bring me a milkshake! Man I love ice cream....

Friday

So...Friday is the day I get to go home!! I will still be doing a week of abx at home but at least I am getting out of here!!

My doctor is going on vacation (he leaves Friday night) and there is no way I am staying here without him. I am just looking forward to being home so I can finish up on my Christmas shopping and pick up my dog from my moms house (she is dog sitting for me!)

Once I am home I have it already set up to start pulmonary rehab twice a week at the hospital by my house so I am really excited about that. I think it will be really beneficial for me to get out of the house and working to get strong!

Nothing to do....

Its Sunday...there isn't anything on TV, I finished the 2 books my mom brought me and I have nothing else to do!! I am SO ready to go home, tomorrow is day 14 on abx and I probably have another week left. I am feeling much better than when I came in but not 100% yet.

Dr. Faverio (my wonderful Dr.) wasn't on call this weekend so I had to deal with the evil Dr. who was on call. I hate him and wish he didn't even have to come in my room...every time he does he pisses me off by something he says. OK enough of my rant... :)

I think everyone at home is sick right now so its probably a good thing I am here so I don't get there nasty colds!

p.s. I MISS MY PUPPY!!! :)

Update...

So...I know I haven't written anything since Thanksgiving, but a lot has happened and I knew I would have tons to write about! Let me start off by saying that I am back in pediatrics and I have it straight from my doctor that I will NEVER be going to the 6th floor again! So here it goes...

Thursday night my husband dropped me off to my room (on the 6th floor) at 5:30pm and then he had to leave right away so he could go to his mom's house for their Thanksgiving (I had to be back for an abx so I couldn't go we just went to my mom's house to eat.)

So I get back to my room, I got up to use the rest room and to get my laptop out of the bag and plug it in when I was feeling a little short of breath so I sat on the bed. After a few minutes I still wasn't breathing easy so I bumped up the oxygen from 3 to 4 liters and that didn't help either.

At this point I decide to hit the call light so that I could get my nurse to help me and to call respiratory so that I could get a breathing treatment. This was at 5:45pm.

As I sit there and wait for someone to answer the call light I still can't catch my breath and at this point I am starting to really get scared because I just can't catch my breath. I start to get really light headed and start dripping beads of sweat off my face all while nobody is answering to help me! I start thinking of alternative ways to get someones attention from trying to open the room door and yelling to just pushing the code blue button which I know has everyone come running but I didn't...I just waited.

FINALLY, at 6:05...20 MINUTES later a CNA just happened to be walking in my room to see if I needed anything (not because my call light was on) by this time I am gasping for breath completely white with blue lips and I tell him I need my nurse and respiratory because obviously I am having trouble breathing. He runs and get a nurse and of course they rush in throw up the O2 as high as it can go and check my Sats which were 75/76 on the 4 liters I had put myself on! Respiratory comes in and starts my treatment and I start calming down almost right away. After 2 treatments I was back down to 3 liters of oxygen and breathing fine and thank goodness haven't had an issue since.

Both my doctor and my mother were LIVID at the thought that my breathing was allowed to get that out of hand because a call light was left unanswered that long. Luckily I was ok but it could have been much worse and that kind of care is unacceptable and that NEVER would have happened to me if I was left on pediatrics where I was. My mom is going to be writing a very lengthy letter on my behalf and my doc is going to be going to whoever he goes to, to make sure something like this never happens again.

I am feeling better now but not good enough to go home yet....in the mean time I have work I can do and 2 books my mom got me from the library to read.