Last Week...

Well last Monday my SIL Stephanie took me back up to Gainesville for an x-ray to see how my little lungies were doing and he ended up scheduling a bronch for that afternoon and I was admitted again! :(

Steph spent the night with me and then headed home the next morning after we woke up. I am so lucky to have a SIL like her...she is ALWAYS there when I need her no matter what!

Unfortunately, we aren't entirely sure what is going on with me. When he does an xray and bronch it looks like pneumonia in the left lung but I have had no fevers at all (knock on wood!) and my biopsy's keep coming back negative for rejection but for some reason I don't think he is happy with those answers and thinks something else is going on! He said infection/rejection can look the same in a bronch so sometimes its hard to tell. So at the moment I am on IV cefipime twice a day and while I was admitted into the hospital I did 3 days of high solumerol IV and now I am on a prednisone tapper. Oh I am also on coumadin for a month (hello bruise city!) because I had a CT scan last week that showed a small blood clot so they are treating me for that as well! I tell yeah if it isn't one thing its another! :(

Easter was great. Dinner with my family was awesome and I am glad I wasn't in the "Get Well Hotel" as one of my friends calls it! I was there for 4 days last week but was able to leave on Friday to join my parents and little sister in Panama City Beach for the weekend to visit my Aunt and Uncle! It was a nice but WAY to short of a trip....next time it will have to be a longer

visit and maybe Danny can go too!

Our little family at Easter!

Me & Danny! :)

Me & Jessie in Panama City Beach!

Speaking of Danny...while I was away my awesome husband checked some things off his Honey-Do list and painted/added chair-rail to the living room and dining room. I am so thankful to have a husband that is handy AND motivated to actually do the projects that I think up in my head! :)

boring living room from when we first moved in....

slowly getting there...

Dining room from when we first moved in...

Now! :)

Well, thats all I got for now...I am on IV's for the rest of the week and have to go to a clinic appointment on May 11th so we will see what he says then. I have a meeting tomorrow for Jen's Kids so we will see how that turns out. The hospital unfortunately hasn't done a darn thing while I was away so we are meeting to decide where to go from here. I am kind of disappointed in them that they dropped the ball so we will see.

Anyway....have a great week everyone!! XoxoX

Lesson Learned...

Never go up for a "routine bronch" without an overnight bag just in case....that is the lesson I learned yesterday the hard way!

So Wednesday I called my coordinator to say I thought I needed a bronch because I was feeling a little congested as I still have a little hole in my neck and it makes it VERY hard to cough anything up if need be. My energy has been fine, my O2 has been fine it was just at night when I laid down to go to bed did I feel kind of crappy. So they scheduled me for a 8am bronch Thursday morning. I thought ok I will go get cleaned out and then head on home just like I did last time. NOT. SO. MUCH!

After doing my bronch, Dr. Baz talked to Danny saying that something just didn't look right so they were admitting me and that we would know more (whether it is rejection or infection) the next day. Because we weren't expecting to stay we had NOTHING with us...no clothes, no phone chargers, no toothbrushes....all I had was a pillow and blanket from the car ride up and my laptop and thank goodness I thought to have Danny take it so he had something to do during my bronch! So I sent Danny home last night so he could go to work today and pack our stuff and then he was gonna go back up to Gainesville when he got off.

Well, this morning came and luckily I don't have rejection but I do have pneumonia in my left lung. But the good news is its very treatable and my dr let me go home today and do IV's at home! YAY! Shortest hospital stay ever! :)

I do have to go back to Gville on Monday for an xray...if it shows improvement I can go back home and continue my dose of IV's if its not improved he will readmit me and do another bronch on Tuesday to see what else is going on!

Im just glad to be home for Easter weekend and spend time with my family. Let me tell you last night sucked being by myself in Gainesville....I think I cried for like 2 hours after Danny left just because I wasn't expecting to have to stay so I was thrown off...I felt like such a baby after I was done being emotional! lol

Anyway, I will let you all know what happens next week!! Have a great weekend everyone! :)

XoxoX

So...good news and not so good news...

On Sunday I woke up feeling VERY congested around my trach. NOT my lungs I just felt like crap was getting stuck in my trach and it was driving me crazy! I was coughing up paper towels full of mucous out of my trach (very gross by the way...you would think after 29 years mucous wouldn't gross me out so much but it does!) Finally I said to Danny should I call my coordinator and of course Danny being Danny says "I don't know"....thanks babe!

So I said for him to grab my thermometer (I check my vitals 9am and 9pm everyday I don't know if that is standard with everyone or not but if my temp is EVER 100 or greater I am to call immediately no matter what time of day) I didn't think I had a fever but I thought I will check it anyway and then decided if I am gonna call the coordinator. That was as 1:30pm and guess what I had a fever 100.4 to be exact! So I called my coordinator and of course they admitted me an hour later.

After x-rays and blood work it was determined that I have a little bit of pneumonia in my right lung. :( I of course was upset I mean I have done EVERYTHING right and worn my stupid mask everywhere how could this have happened? Well apparently I still have Psedomonas in my sinuses and that dripped down into my pretty new lungs and caused the pneumonia. Wonderful.

I was also upset because as you all know I was supposed to go home this weekend and I thought for sure this would delay my home coming by another week or so at least. Well I saw my wonderful Dr this morning and he said that I was going to be released on Friday and that he wanted me to do one more week of home IV's. I said Home, Home or tx-housing home....he says let me think about it.

Well my coordinator JUST called me because she wanted to know who I used for home health cause my Dr wanted her to set up my home health...that means Friday morning I get to go home!!! I haven't been to my house since the beginning of October and I am SO excited you have no idea!!!! :)

So I have to do IV's for a week...big deal I have done them before I get to go HOME!!! WOO HOO!! Thanks to everyone out there who put out all the good going home vibes for me I (and Danny) appreciate it!!!

XoxoX

P.S. Another piece of good news I found out the other day is my dr told me that my latest culture came back that I was sensitive to a bunch of abx which is great news so we can kick this pneumonia's butt! ;)

Finally Feeling Better!

I spent a week with the Dr who shall remain name-less not getting better at all. When in swoops my wonderful Dr on Tuesday tweaked a few things and had me on the path to feeling better almost instantly. Its amazing how having a Dr who knows you and cares to listen what you have to say can have such an impact on how you feel! I truly am blessed to have the CF Dr that I do!

So I am on 3 different abx, 3 days of VERY high steroids, breathing treatments every 4 hours and I just started taking Zen Pep instead of Pancreacarb Ms-8 while in here too. Anyone else on those? I had an overstock of Pancreacarb at my house so I was trying to use all those up before I have to buy the new med but in the hospital they only have the new stuff so we have been trying to get my dosage right. Apparently I am on a "lower" dose than most CFers, I use to take 4 Pancrecarb Ms-8 with meals (or 24,000 units) so thats what's new with me.

I have a newspaper interview that I am doing on Monday from the hospital for Jen's Kids. The 2nd and 3rd rooms are almost complete! Very exciting stuff!!

Well that's all I got for now...sorry that's what a week and a half of the hospital does! Have a great Halloween weekend and everyone stay safe!

Lung Transplant Center Party

Its already almost been a week but at least my post is better late than never!

Last Friday my mom and I went back up to Gainesville (after being there Wed for a clinic appointment) for my transplant centers 16th anniversary celebration. We drove up for the party that was from 2pm-6pm stayed the night in a hotel (its a 4hour drive from my house) and then woke up the next morning to come home. Needless to say I was pretty much exhausted all weekend from the trip!

I was a little apprehensive about going and im not sure really why. I mean I love all the wonderful people I have met and talk to through my blog and you guys have been tons of help to me in any of the questions or concerns I have brought your way but still I wasn't to excited about going. But my mother thought it would be good for us so up we went!

When we first got there they had guest speakers talking about all the different experimental things they have in the pipeline as far as lung transplants go and its all very exciting stuff! I will have to see about getting some of the pamphlets from my mom and maybe doing a couple post on them.

After all the speeches were done they had food and drinks and everyone kind of mingled around and talked. I met some really nice people who all have had there transplants at Shands. All of them gave me some "pointers" on what they thought the hardest part of surgery was, what to expect etc. This one gentleman in particular I was really impressed with looked like he just stepped off a golf corse (you know polo shirt, khaki pants, shinny silver hair, sun-kissed skin) he looked FABULOUS and he was 10yrs post-tx!!

I also met a girl there who is around my age with CF and she just had her tx like a week or two before. The crazy thing about her story is after we were talking for a bit we found out that she not only lives like literally 2 minutes away from me we also have the same hair dresser! Small world, right?

In the end I am super glad my mom pushed for us to go. It was really nice. Oh yeah...and I won a necklace and earrings in a raffle and I never win anything!! :)

This week has been ok health wise. I finished my 14 days of Cipro. My cough is better but I am still slightly more SOB than usual. I just started for the first time in years Tobi so maybe that will help!

OK..have a few more good days of the week and a great weekend!!

Almost There!!

Less than a week to go and I will home and IV Free!!! WOOO HOOO!!

This will be my 6th and final week on abx and while I am feeling better and my PFT's are actually higher than they have been in like 2 1/2 years (only by like 5% but hey I will take it!) This hospital admission hasn't come without its problems.

It started out with my blood work being all out of whack because of the merrem. But a change of abx helped that out and got me on the right track of feeling better.

About half way into my stay we noticed that I was having some elevated blood pressures. So my doc had me get a EKG and an Echocardiogram. The EKG came back fine but the Echo showed that I have moderate Pulmonary Hypertension. Which if left untreated could cause the right side of my heart to become enlarged. As of right now my heart is fine but I am now taking a med 3 times a day to help and you are never going to guess what it is....VIAGRA!! LOL Apparently Viagra was made to help heart patients originally and it was an accident that they found out what other side effect it has in men...

One of the main symptoms of Pulmonary Hypertension is SOB. So once I started taking the meds my breathing eased up almost right away.

I go to Gainesville Aug. 25th and they are already aware of the hypertension (my doc called them last week to see if they wanted a cardiocath done) which will more than likely raise my score. So while its not a good thing this developed its good that it will raise my score.

The last couple of days I have been taking a diuretic because I was retaining a little bit of fluid so I have been peeing like crazy. I usually have an awesome bladder so this is highly annoying!

This hospital stay has also been smooth as far as nursing goes since I have my "primary care nurses." I basically gave them a list of nurses I trusted and they made them be the ones to take care of me. So I haven't had any issues which is a nice change! :)

I can't wait to get home to Danny and Brodie...I hope these next few days go by fast I miss my boys!

feeling better

Monday afternoon I was re-admitted into the hospital after trying home IV's at home for 2 weeks without much change in the way I felt. I did 10days in patient and two weeks at home and I still didn't feel up to par so I decided to come back in because clearly what I was on wasn't doing the trick! At home I was on Merrem, Fortaz and Amikacin.

On Monday when I got to the hospital my Dr switched my IV abx to Merrem, Cipro and Azactam. Plus I am doing Colistin breathing treatments twice a day.

On Tuesday some of my lab work came back saying that my liver enzymes and my eosinophil levels were high, which he thinks is from the Merrem so he discontinued that all together.

On a cool side note...the first room that Jen's Kids remodeled was finished today so they moved me into it and I am officially the first patient to use it! Its SO nice, I can't wait till they finish all the rooms its such am improvement! :)

Other than that I am just trucking along trying to get better. Oh yeah, my family is coming up here tonight so I can say goodbye to my little brother. Him and my parents are leaving on Saturday to take him up to Ohio for college. I am probably gonna cry cause I am a big fat baby but we are all going to miss him! :(

Bye Jordan I hope you learn lots and I can't wait to see you at Christmas! I miss you already....thank goodness for Skype so at least we can keep in touch that way! Love You!!

Sweet 16

This past week my baby sister turned "Sweet 16." I can't believe she is 16 already, I remember just like it was yesterday when my parents told me I was going to have another little brother/sister. I also remember praying it was a little sister because I already had 2 little brothers and did NOT want another one! LOL I was there in the Dr's office when mom had the ultra sound and we found out together that I was gonna have a sister and we both were thrilled! So, I hope you had a great birthday my Messy Jessy...I love you! :)

Danny & I

Opening a little Blue Box from her Big Sis!

Me & Jess

On a side note I definitely think I will be going back in the hospital on Monday. I would rather go back in for a week and be good and healthy then stop my antibiotics and have to be re-admitted in a month anyway because I stopped to soon.

Also, I think part of my problem why I haven't felt better while being home is because my home nebulizer compressor hasn't been working properly so it wasn't smoking like it should have been! I just realized that yesterday...jeez! I am all good now with a new compressor but its like I have been doing no treatments for the last week and half. Ridiculous!

Tomorrow I am going shopping with my mom. Hope everyone has a great Sunday! :)

:(

Today I had to go to the hospital as an outpatient to get my port re-accessed and the dressing changed (happens once a week.) I usually never have to do this because I have wonderful nurse friends who come to my house and do it for me but they were both busy today and I needed it done, so in I went!

I could have home health come to my house and do it...but believe me when I tell you that was a SCARY experience I never want to have again. The nurse new nothing about accessing a port, down to she touched the needle itself with her BARE HANDS!! Um...hello ever here of sterile precautions when dealing with a medi-port? Jeez...needless to say I don't deal with home health anymore I do everything myself. Maybe that's why I am so tired all the time?

Anyway, once I was done at the hospital I decided to pop into my Dr's office since it is right next to the hospital to see if he could just take a quick listen to me since I am still not feeling to great. It just so happened that it was my lucky day and there was no one in his office and it was a clinic day too! So he actually gave me a full check-up which was really cool since I just showed up.

He says that I have a little bit of wheezing in my right upper lobe and a few crackles in both my uppers which is where I usually have my congestion. He ended up giving me another inhaler to do twice a day like the Advair hoping that will help out without me having to go back on prednisone since today was my last day (thank god!)

We both agreed that if by Monday I am still not feeling up to par I need to be re-admitted to the hospital. I am kinda bummed about this so please think positive thoughts that the next 4 days these antibiotics preform some sort of miracle and I miraculously feel a million times better or its back into contact isolation I go....oh joy.

One more week...

Boy did I call it. One more week of abx for me!

My doctors office called me this morning and said that yes I was to continue with home IV's and oh btw I needed to get to a lab by 4:00 to get drug levels and a bmp done.

Well that's all fine and dandy except Danny took my car to work with him today because we thought I didn't need to go anywhere (my Honda gets WAY better gas mileage than his Ford Lightning SVT!) today and oh yeah he had his keys too!

So I had to call my super awesome SIL and she came and saved the day and took me to get my blood drawn. When it comes to SIL I have to tell ya I got lucky in that category! Stephanie is there every single time I have needed her and I don't think I will ever be able to "re-pay" or give back all that she has done for me, even though I will try! :)

Anyway...I hope this last week of abx does the trick. I need to start feeling better already!!!

UGH...

Well its Saturday and I am supposed to be done with my abx either Monday or Tuesday (can't remember) but I don't think that is going to happen...

I called my doctors office yesterday and of course my doctor wasn't in the office. I love my doctor and wouldn't trade him for anyone in the world but man does that man seem to take a lot of vacation days!!

Anyway I get side tracked...so I called his office yesterday to tell him that I still don't feel 100% and that I think I need to continue my IV's at home for another week. So I am waiting to hear back from him on Monday to see what he is going to do.

I know he will keep me on abx if thats what I think (he is really good about listening to what I think) is necessary, I just don't know if he will keep me on the same abx or switch it up since after 2 1/2 weeks I am still not better...maybe I need another drug cocktail or something to kick this bugs butt!

I have one more day left of prednisone, hallelujah!! That day couldn't come soon enough I am about DONE with it. I am ready to stop being puffy/moody and I am sure Danny is too! :)

Tonight we are going to dinner with a big group of our friends. We are going to Buca di Beppo its an Italian restaurant served family style. Kind of like Carmine's in NYC if anyone has ever been there (I have its delish!!) So I am sure I will have pics to post later.

Have a good weekend everyone! :)

8 days down!

Tonight marks the 8th day of me being on abx! The good news is my O2 is lowered and I am "good enough" to be discharged Friday afternoon to finish my IV's at home. WOO HOO!! :)

This works out perfectly since its my mom's birthday is Saturday and we had always planned on my whole family coming over to my house to hang out and have dinner. So I am glad I won't miss that!

Still don't know what if anything is going to happen with the nurse who gave me the wrong insulin (read my last post for this info)..but you should see how the nurses are double and triple checking everything they do now. Its kind of funny....but im sure it wont last long. They are all being careful now because something just happened but give it a few weeks and im sure it will become more lax again.

I am just gonna be glad to get out of here and try and shed this solumedrol weight. Sure I have gained weight because I can eat anything in sight...but instead of it being good calories for good weight I am eating because I am starving and ALOT so its going right to my belly! Not a very flattering thing! :(

Oh yeah, and I wanted to ask anyone who has a port or a picc....do you still do normal exercising while they are accessed? I usually wait until I am completely done with my meds before I start working out again and I was just wondering if I could go to my yoga class with my port accessed next week. That way I will have only lost 2 weeks of classes and not over a month. Let me know!

Thanks~~Jen

Week 2 finished!!

Today marks my 2nd week of abx with one more week to go and I am feeling great! I just finished my last dose of prednisone today so I am looking forward to the blood sugars stabilizing a bit and being able to go to sleep at a descent hour! ;)

My first weekend home was fabulous. Friday night Danny and I enjoyed dinner and a movie night in with his parents. We watched The Stepfather, it as ok very predictable though.

Saturday, Danny worked all day and I relaxed at home and then we went to our good friends Cat and Eric's house for there engagement party. They had a pig that they roasted and LOTS of yummy food. I was so glad to be able to attend the party...I hate missing out on things like that because it seems I am always stuck in the hospital!

Sunday I met up with my mom, brother and sister at Coconut Point mall (its in the middle of their house and mine) and we did some shopping. I got some cute shirts from Express but that was it. I have been looking for a long time for a pair of capris but I haven't been successful and with it getting hotter by the day I hope I find some soon...I have been slowly growing out of ALL my old ones! (which is good for the weight gain, bad for the wallet!!) :)

I have to get some blood work done tomorrow but other than that I have no plans. I hope everyone has a great week!!

Love Weddings!

I love weddings! Everyone is all dressed up nice having a good time and there is love in the air! :)

Our good friends Holly and Eric got married Saturday night and it was beautiful. She looked fabulous, the food was delicious and everybody had a great time! We have a great group of friends and you can pretty much take us anywhere and we would have a good time so its always fun when we all can get together minus everyones kids (which doesn't happen often!)

Here are a few pics from the night!

Us and the Newlyweds!

Me and the Bride Holly

<3>

Me and my BILs Troy & Tony (Love them...they are the best!)

Me and my handsome husband! :)

I finished all my IV meds on Tuesday so I am extremely happy about that! I was SO over having my port accessed and the part of my skin that was under the tegaderm was over it too!

I go back in a week I think to see Dr. Faverio and do a dreaded PFT so we will shall see. Maybe I should take a page from Sara's book and start visualizing the numbers I want now so by the time my doctors appt rolls around it won't be such a dreaded test for me...it couldn't hurt that's for sure! :)

I did get some bad news though at the end of last week. Me along with 10 or 11 other people got laid off from the bank I work at. For the past 18 months (pretty much since I have been activated on the list) they have been extremely supportive and allowed me to work from home via a work laptop and I always in the back of my mind wondered how long that was gonna last and with all the trouble banks have been having in this economy I wasn't to shocked that this happened it just sucks. June would have been my 7th year working there and I feel like this is just one more thing that stupid CF is taking from me because if I was an actual employee who could be a more productive team member and go into work and not be in the hospital every 2 months maybe I wouldn't be one of those people getting laid off. Who knows...all I know is now I have to figure out what I am going to do. I have to go into the social security office Tuesday so we will see what they say. I tried calling on Friday and got nowhere! The phone would just ring and ring and ring and then it cut off....VERY irritating!!

Well its almost midnight...Danny is snoring away and I myself am just starting to feel tired so I should probably go quickly with that feeling before it goes away and I am awake till 2 or 3!! :)

Goodnight Y'all!

Valentine's Day

Well we had another fabulous Valentine's day!!

My little sister came Saturday to stay a few days with us since she had Presidents Day off from school so that was nice.

Sunday me and her just hung out and watched some movies (Precious...very good but sad at the same time) together while Danny worked in the morning at a friends house. When Danny got home we watched Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian. Its a really cute movie plus I like the fact that I have been to not only the Museum of Natural History several times but also to the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. I get a kick out of things like that!! I know I am dork... :)

Sunday night Danny and I went to dinner with his brother and our SIL to a restaurant called Rum Runners. It was SO yummy. I of course had seared tuna appetizer cause if it is on a menu I have to have it and then I had prime rib for dinner...it was all very good!

Here are a couple pictures of us at dinner...






Tomorrow I have a doctors appt but I don't think anything is gonna change other than I am going to see if there is anything he can give me for this crazy itchiness that I have other than stupid Benadryl. Keep your fingers crossed for that please! :)

I have two movies left to see out of all 10 best pictures nominated for an Oscar. Up and A Serious Man...I am kind of slacking in wanting to watch the second one because our friend Josh says he doesn't think I will like it so I am already going into it with a feeling of dread so we will see. I know Brothers isn't on the 10 best picture list but I also watched that this weekend and it was REALLY good. Definitely should check that out if you haven't already.

2 more weeks...

Well I went to my appt and just like I thought my doctor is extending my abx to 2 more weeks! I thought it was going to be for just one more week so I was a little surprised when he said 2 but I'm fine with it as long as I feel better.

He did switch up my schedule a little bit so I could get more sleep which I appreciate! Plus he added an abx so now I am on 3 total. Ceftazidime and Azactam every 8hrs and Amikacin every 24hrs. So its a really do-able schedule and I am not anywhere near as tired as I was last week.

After the first day of all 3 abx I already felt tons better and noticed a vast improvement to my SOB! The only con to this whole 3 abx thing is it is really making me itchy and I HATE being itchy!! When I am in the hospital I get IV Benadryl if I am itchy and at home I don't. Unfortunately PO Benadryl doesn't help at all so I am kind of just stuck here being miserable! :(

I got to visit with my cousin Maria the past few days cause her family was in town from NY so that was really nice. I hadn't seen her in over a year. I am used to seeing her a couple times a year with her coming here and me going there and this whole can't go anywhere cause I am on the transplant list is seriously putting a damper on my traveling schedule! I can't wait till I can once again go on vacation other than somewhere in the state of FL!! :)

I only have 3 more movies to go and I will have seen all 10 best picture nominees!! The Blind Side was amazing (knew it would be) and I really enjoyed Up in the Air (love me some George Clooney!) I didn't like The Hurt Locker really at all which is surprising cause I heard it was a good movie...it just really dragged on and I honestly was glad when it was over.

Well I am almost done with my last abx so I am going to bed soon. Danny and I and his brother and his brother's wife are all going to dinner tonight at a restaurant called Rum Runners. We have only been there once before on our first wedding anniversary but really liked it so it should be nice. I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day and that you all spend it with someone special!! :)

Good Night!

My Weekend

Friday night was my big birthday dinner with all my friends. We had a group of about 20 at Chilli's and it was a great night! The best part was my 3 girlfriends from like middle school came too so it made my night even more special. They all live about 45min to the south of where Danny and I live (where we all grew up) so even though I talk to them all the time we only get together ever so often so it meant a lot to me that they all came up for my b-day!

Danny and I at Chilli's

Me, Amanda & Eva

Saturday night was another celebration for my birthday at my parents house. It was just a family thing and my mom made country fried steak with country gravy...my favorite! :)

Sunday was our friend Curt's birthday so we went out to lunch with him and his parents who are visiting from Minnesota (that's were Curt and Danny are from) and then went over to Curt's house to watch the Super Bowl. IM sad to say that the team I was rooting for didn't win...(the colts for anyone who didn't watch) but it was a good game anyway and the Colts aren't my team anyway (The Dolphins are!) I just picked them to win cause I think Peyton Manning is a cutie no matter what Curt says about him having a huge forehead...LOL!!

What did you all think of the commercials? I think the funniest one was the Doritos commercial with the little kid telling his moms date to 1)keep his hands off his momma and 2)keep his hands off his Doritos...very funny should youtube it if you haven't seen it!

A quick health update: I am supposed to end my abx on Wednesday but I just called my doctor today and told him that I am still not feeling 100% yet. I still feel like I have a lot of chest congestion and small things are making me short of breath that usually don't. So when the nurse called me back she said he wanted to see me. So I am going in tomorrow morning at 10 and my guess is he will keep me on for another week of abx. I just don't know what he will do different if he will change up my abx again or add a something new to the mix. I will let you know tomorrow afternoon.

Oh yeah I almost forgot...we went an seen Avatar tonight. We saw it at the IMAX theatre in 3D! I almost didn't see this movie because the previews did nothing for me. But EVERYONE I know said how good it was and that if I was going to see it at all I had to see it on IMAX.....and boy am I glad I did! I urge anyone who hasn't seen it yet to go see it you wont be disappointed!

Now that's 4 out of the 10 best picture nominated movies down...only 6 more to go before Oscar night!! :)

Health Update..

I know I haven't posted anything lately but honestly I haven't been in the mood to and the darn Internet at the hospital is so slow its annoying!

Today was 2 weeks from the time I was admitted from the ER. There isn't any more pain in my stomach (thank goodness) so now I am working on getting the old lungs up to speed so I can feel better and go home.

So, the 2 test I had on my stomach came back and they think they have the problems narrowed down.

The first one was to see if my gallbladder contracted like it was supposed. Well shock of all shockers mine is "dysfunctional." They do some sort of calculations to see if your gallbladder contracts like its supposed to with 30% or higher being considered "normal." Mine is 25% so its not that bad that I need to risk surgery.

The 2nd test I had to eat scrambled eggs that had contrast in it and then lay under a camera for two hours so they could watch my food being digested. What they found out is that my stomach was emptying to slow and that's what was causing my pain (they're pretty sure)
so they gave me Reglan via IV while I was still under the camera and my stomach emptied right away. Reglan increases muscle contractions in the upper digestive tract increasing the rate at which the stomach empties into the intestines. So now they have me taking it by mouth 30 min before I eat lunch and dinner. I haven't had any pain since late last week so I'm glad for that.

As for my lungs my Dr just switched one of my abx yesterday and started me on 50mg of prednisone so I am sure I will be feeling up to par soon. I am most likely going home Tuesday so I will be home for my bday but will probably be going home with one last week of IV's.

OK well I am gonna go try and find something to watch on TV...I just finished ALL 3 seasons of Mad Men and now I have to watch normal television again! Thanks Sara for recommending it to me I LOVED it and I am going to have my mom watch it next!

ER Visit

A week ago I started having stomach/back pains but thought it was because of PMS so I just took Motrin and dealt with it thinking it would be over in a few days.

Well when Wednesday came around and by then I was still in ALOT of pain and meds and a heating pad didn't even dull the pain I started to get worried. So by like 9:00pm I knew I wasn't going to make it through the night because I couldn't get comfortable...nothing helped it, not sitting, not standing, not laying on my side I was miserable! So I decided I should go to the ER.

Because it was so late already and I knew Danny had to get up super early for work I called my sister-in-law and she came and picked me up. While on the way to the ER I texted my friend Felicia who works on the hospital floor I usually get admitted to to see if she was working and luckily she was! She also had a friend working in the ER that night so she called downstairs to let them know I was coming in so when I got there I got brought right back and didn't have to wait in the waiting room at all (thank goodness!)

Right away they got IV's started and blood work drawn. I got an EKG done, xrays done, and an ultrasound done. They thought at first maybe I was having gallbladder issues. All while doing this they were giving me morphine for my pain which helped right away.

6 hours later and my wonderful SIL STILL with me they still didn't know what was wrong with me except that my gallbladder looked fine and so did all my other test except that my WBC was up to 25,000. So they called my doc and they admitted me which I figured they might do so luckily I packed a bag and my laptop! :)

Once upstairs my doctor had them xray my lower back and my stomach and then my SIL went home at like 4:30am and at around 6 I finally got to bed!

When my DR came in the next morning he told me that he looked over my xrays and the problem I was having was that I was full of crap...LITERALLY!! So he put me on a full liquid diet for 2 days (I was starving!!) and I had to drink tons of mirolax along with them giving me reglen (sp??) all to help me go...

The weird thing about this whole thing is that I was going fine at home so it shocked me to hear that I was "backed up" but apparently that can still happen in people with CF. I am telling you if something weird is gonna happen to someone...it WILL happen with me!

So now I am still drinking the miralax twice a day (which miralax is just fiber) and apparently its something that I might have to drink all the time now which I am not looking that forward to. Oh well.

In the mean time I was planning on coming in today anyway for a "tune-up" before my birthday so looks like I am here for awhile. I am still having a little bit of stomach pain but its definitely not as bad as it was. I will keep you posted!

Weekend Plans

So glad its Friday!! Yesterday was my last day of home IV's and today I went to my doctors office to pick up my 28days of AzLi.

I am feeling good so I have know doubt I will make it through the New Year without needing abx again. My weight is still really good, the last time I got weighed I was 115 pounds which for me is AWESOME. I can remember is high school it seemed like such a chore just to keep my weight above 100 pounds! In the last couple of months I have gone from being a size 0 jean (which I have been since high school) to a 1, then 2 and now today I just bought a size 3!!

I don't know how to explain all of a sudden being able to gain weight AND keep it on but its kind of nice. I just wish it would spread out to my legs and arms...no matter how much I weigh I have super skinny arms and legs and I hate that.

To switch topics a bit...I know I have talked a little about wanting to start yoga and that there was a class at the gym I wanted try, but I kept hesitating since I know NOTHING about yoga at all. I don't want to go in there and be completely lost and look like an idiot. So I have been doing tons of research online reading reviews from people who have purchased DVDs and I finally decided on an at home beginners yoga to buy. Its called Yoga Zone: Premiere Collection for beginners and its specifically for someone like me with no prior knowledge of yoga. I figure I can work on these for awhile until I feel somewhat comfortable and then when I need more of a challenge I can sign up for the classes! Wish me luck!! :)

I went to the grocery store the other day and I bought all my ingredients for Thanksgiving. I am making 3 pies (apple, pumpkin, and english toffee pecan!) and green bean casserole (my fav.) In the words of Rachael Ray...YUMMO! I can't wait, oh and the day before TG my mom, little sister and my SIL Stephanie are going to see NEW MOON...I have been so excited for this movies release I can hardly contain myself its going to be so good! All four of us are MAJOR Twilight fans.

Other than that I did a little more Christmas shopping today. Can you believe I am almost done already? I only need a few more items and I can officially say I don't ever have to step inside a mall/store in the whole month of December and I am very happy to be able to say that! I hate stores during the holidays way to many people.

Well I hope everyone enjoys there weekend. We have our nieces birthday party tomorrow but other than that we have no plans. We just started the first season of Dexter tonight. Very interesting show...anyone watch it?