Pasta in Olive Oil with Pancetta, Shallots and Garlic!!

Well I have FINALLY decided to dust off the old blog and and get back into the habit of cooking and then documenting my food here. Its not that we have been not eating around here, trust me on that one!

It all started with my camera's battery charger deciding it didn't want to charge anything anymore which left me without a working camera. Of course I had my trusty IPhone but unfortunately with all of the meds I am on because of my transplant my hands shake a lot and makes for some VERY blurry pics and I just didn't want to post pictures of my food that tasted SO good but looked SO crappy once I snapped the picture!

Then I had a few months of being in and out of the hospital due to severe nausea caused by a lovely med I am on that just hates me and causes me all kinds of problems! So I literally at one point didn't eat really anything of substance for like a week because everything I ate, smelled,  or even looked at made me sick so the LAST thing I wanted to do was cook and blog about it. Luckily (knock on wood) I am better and working at trying to pack on some of the calories I lost PLUS I got a new camera for Christmas so I am ready to rock and roll!! :)

I have SO many recipes that I have made recently that I want to share with you PLUS I am attempting to channel my inner craftiness and I borrowed my mom's sewing machine so that I can TRY and attempt a few DIY projects around my house. I am so inspired when I read some of these amazing moms out there who can turn nothing into something fabulous and if I can even have a remote oz of that I will take it! LOL I will be trying to take pics of my sewing projects along the way and post about them (good or bad) so keep your fingers crossed for me...

Today, I thought to myself ok today when you make lunch document it so you can get your first blog post of the year up...mid Feb I know but better late than never, right?

So anybody who knows me knows I love to cook but am still pretty terrified if I don't have a recipe and I think its cause I just don't trust myself or something I don't know. My grandma can go into a kitchen, a dash here, a pinch there and out comes a fabulous meal every time! Me not so much.

So when I was hungry this afternoon but didn't want the old stand by of soup and a sandwich I decided I would look through my pantry and fridge and just try and make lunch by "winging it" and I don't mean to pat myself on the back or anything (ok I do!) but I think I did a pretty good job!

Here's the ingredients I came up with:

Spaghetti noodles~ 4oz (about half a box)

Olive Oil~ 2 tablespoons, or more as needed

Parmesan Cheese~ 1/2cup grated from a block of Parmesan

Pancetta~ 4oz (you could use bacon here if you don't have the Pancetta on hand)

1 Shallot~ chopped

4 cloves of garlic~ minced (can you tell I LOVE garlic?)

Fresh Parsley~ about 2 tablespoons....just to add some pretty color! 

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Bring a pot of large salted water to a boil.
2. While that gets started go ahead and put the oil in a medium sized skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot and minced garlic, stirring occasionally. Then add the pancetta and cook until nicely browned (about 10 minutes.) Turn off the heat.
3. Cook the pasta in the boiling water until tender. Drain it (or I just scoop it out and put it right in with the olive oil and pancetta) reserving some of the starchy pasta water.
4. Toss the pasta with the pancetta, shallot, garlic and olive oil. Stir in the cheese and parsley. If the mixture is dry, you can either add a little of the pasta water (which I did) or a little more olive oil. Taste and then adjust the seasoning if needed with salt and pepper.

**You most likely wont need a ton of salt because both the pancetta and parmesan have a salty flavor but I did end up adding a little bit to mine in the end! 

Well, there you have it. Nothing fancy but very flavorful (how could it not be with ALL the garlic...but can you really ever have too much garlic??) and I for one had a second helping!! 

I hope that since I have been away for so long I still have some people willing to check out my little old blog from time to time and I promise that if you come back and read I will post! 

Just heard the hubby pull up so I am off to start dinner! Its the Pioneer Woman to the rescue for tonights menu....more on that later....

Let's Try This One More Time!! Easy Crock Pot Meal...

Well hello. Shall we try this blog thing again?? Every time I (think) am home for good and ready to start cooking again....BAM! Just like that something else happens and I am back in the hospital.

 Last year was AMAZING and I was hardly ever sick and so far this year I have lost count with the amount of times I was admitted to the hospital. If I wasn't admitted I was sick as a dog at home not wanting to cook anything and BARELY wanting to eat anything! Not a good combo I can assure you! 

So I get home on Sunday night with stuff that I have already planned on making once I got home I just needed to go food shopping (I was in the hospital 3 weeks I had A LOT of time to look up recipes!) 

I was REALLY craving some Shepards Pie that my one good friend Amanda was telling me she makes for her son but unfortunately when I went to cook dinner Monday night my feet where the size of watermelons and there was no way I was gonna be able to stand in the kitchen and make dinner so I called the hubby and told him my dilemma. When he got home from work he quickly showered while I made him a list (a very short list he isn't the best grocery shopper when I am not with him!) of things to grab from the store. On that list was Publix Fried Chicken that we could just eat that night without having to cook anything since it was already so late (and Publix fried chicken is to DIE for!) plus I had decided that since my feet swelling was a problem that was worse in the afternoons I planned to do a crock pot meal that I could throw in the pot in the morning while the feet where relatively "normal" size and not very painful and by dinner time when they were gi-normus (yes that is a word) all I had to do was some last minute touches so I wasn't on my feet very long! Am I genius or what? 

Well, let me just say that the meal I picked which I found on the Crockin' Girls Facebook page (it was one of their Crockin' Monday Videos) was I think the easiest crock pot meal I have ever made. You know how sometimes with crock pot meats they make you sear the meat or cook the chicken first or whatever, well you don't have to do that with this recipe which saves a step and another pot you don't have to clean! Also, everything just gets mixed right in the crock pot I seriously had no clean up except what I was throwing away in the trash. Amazing I tell ya..

So here is the recipe for what I put in the Crock and then I will tell you what I made to go along with it! 

Little Meats and Gravy

Ingredients

• 2 Pounds of chuck or stew beef, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 Package of onion soup mix
• 2 Cans of low sodium cream of chicken soup
• 2 soup Cans of water
• 1 Package of cooked noodles, rice or potatoes for serving

**I served ours over rice cause thats what we had!!**

Directions

1. Step One

   Combine all ingredients into 6 quart slow cooker; stir.

2. Step Two

   Cover and cook on LOW for 8–12 hours or on HIGH for 5–6 hours. If you've frozen this recipe you can cook it for 10-12 hours on LOW.

3. Step Three

   Thicken, if desired, and serve over noodles, rice, or potatoes.
   **I think all said and done mine was in the crock for about 9 hours on low and it was perfect!**

(This was when I was just putting it in and stirring all the ingredients together)

Then as I said before I chose to serve this over rice cause that's what we had available in the pantry and then for the veggie part of the plate I decided on fresh green beans (cause quite frankly I LOVE green beans and could eat them every night) but have kind of gotten in a rut with just throwing them in the oven with some garlic, olive oil, some S&P and roasting them so I wanted to try something new that I made once before when I was in NY on vaca but haven't made here at home yet. So I gave it a whirl tonight to see what the Dear Hubby would think...and luckily he approved! :) 

Green Beans w/ Mushroom and Shallots

Ingredients

• Fresh green beans, ends trimmed
• 2 tsp olive oil
• Button mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 a small shallot, sliced into thin rings
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste

Directions

Add the green beans to a pot of boiling water and cook for 3-4 minutes. 

Drain and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking and to retain the bright green color. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and let them cook (without stirring) for 3-4 minutes; stir and add the shallots to the skillet. 

Cook the shallots and mushrooms for 2 minutes before adding the minced garlic and green beans. Cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute or until the green beans are nice and hot. Season with sea salt and pepper, to taste.

(YUMMY....these where very tasty!)

Then, of course you know me I had to take a picture of my final plate along with my (don't judge) Pillsbury Grand Buttermilk Biscuits from a can which I slathered in honey before eating! :) 

Quick, easy, delicious, and everyone was happy when dinner was finished and the best part is I have lunch for tomorrow that I am VERY excited about! WIn, WIn! 

  

That is all I got for you tonight. I hope you try this meal and if you do try it let me know what you think! I haven't decided if I am going to use the crock pot again tomorrow or if I am going to make that Shepards Pie finally. Either way I am sure to take some pictures and hopefully I can crank out another blog to you guys so you can see what I am cooking up! Good Night!! :) 

Bronch Results

Hi all!

Last week (Tuesday to be exact) I had a bronch done up in Gainesville. I had a regular check-up scheduled for that Wednesday but had been coughing a little bit so I called and had a bronch scheduled just to be on the safe side. On a side note Danny had been sick for like 3 days with coughing/runny nose so I was just hoping I didn't get anything from him. We took precautions and had him sleep downstairs and all but still you never know...

Well I just got the call from my coordinator and I have Acute Rejection! So they are admitting me on Monday and they said plan on being there for 5 days for treatment! :(

I am not looking forward to being admitted...but hopefully whatever my wonderful doctor does will nip this rejection in the bud and I can go back home feeling great!

I will update while I am there also to let you all know how I am doing...talk to you soon!

XoxoX

p.s. any good movies or whole seasons of shows u suggest that I could bring with me??

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

Im Home! :)

Friday morning at around 7:30am I officially had my trach removed and before lunch I was discharged from the hospital!

We had some loose ends to take care of at the apartment (equipment pick-up etc) but were on the road and made it safe and sound to our house at around 4:00pm!

Friday night Danny and I went to my favorite pizza place for dinner and then on Saturday we went to Target in the morning and then spent the whole rest of the day deep cleaning (I say we loosely because I kind of sat there and "supervised") the house and putting away the Halloween decorations that were still up...yes thats right I said Halloween because I haven't been home since October!!!

My kitchen looks so pretty! When I was in the hospital I did a little shopping on Amazon (I tend to shop online when I am in the hospital...oops) and got new kitchen knives (which are FABULOUS by the way I have never cut an onion so well in my life!) and a really cute bottle to hold EVOO....that extra virgin olive oil for anybody who doesnt watch Rachael Ray on the Food Network! I will have to take some pictures of my kitchen tomorrow when I am downstairs and post them so you all can see. We have lived in the house 3 years and its just now starting to come together with the decorating for the longest time there was nothing on the walls and I didnt know where to start but its all coming together nicely!

This weekend I am re-doing the downstairs bathroom....3 years of palm trees and I am over it. I am gonna have my mom paint the bathroom this really pretty blue color and then I am going to do a beach theme in there! I found this shower curtain with flip flops on it thats really cute...I can't wait! :) I will take before and after pics of that as well....

Next week on the 24th and 25th I have to be in Gainesville for a bronch/biopsy and then see the vascular doctors as well and have the pressures in my leg tested to see how that is doing. Lets keep the fingers and toes crossed that its a CLEAR bronch and everything goes well!

Ok well its midnight so I SHOULD probably turn off the computer and try to go to sleep......wish me luck! Good Night :)

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! ;)

Half way there...

Well its taken 2 weeks but the other day I FINALLY started to feel better thanks to some 3% saline treatments! Along time ago I used to do 7% hypertonic saline treatments but they would cause me to have horrible bronco-spasms and wheezing so I stopped doing them. With this admission I was finding that my left upper lobe was just not getting the junk out on its own no matter what I did so my doctor suggested I try the 3% to see how well I tolerated it. Luckily it went well and almost instantly I was feeling less sticky in my lobe and I was able to clear the mucous out easier! Have I mentioned that I love my doctor and am thankful he is back?? :)

Yesterday, I had another interview with the newspaper for Jen’s Kids. I think its gonna be a really good article I am just going to have to get used to the fact that they want to take pictures of me with my oxygen on to put in the paper. I know that thats really me but I just hate the fact that I even have to wear it all the time let alone be put in a paper that everyone in the town I grew up in is gonna see. I guess that’s just me being vain but I can’t help how I feel.

I got to go out on pass on Sunday. I went with my SIL and we got pedicures and I got my haircut. It was so nice getting out of the hospital for a little bit and the pedicure was complete bliss! Definitely what the doctor ordered.

I missed Oktoberfest this year which was a huge disappointment but hopefully this time next year I can go and not be on O2!! Let me rephrase that...next year I WILL be going without oxygen!!

Well, I guess that’s all I got for now. Monday is 3 weeks I have been in the hospital but I have strong feeling that I won’t be going home then. Especially since the whole first week I was here was basically a joke thanks to the Dr who shall remain nameless. But we shall see.

Have a good weekend everyone!!!

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!

Am I being ridiculous?

Well for those of you who don’t know. I was admitted on Monday like I predicted! I had a horrible night of no sleep Sunday night so first thing Monday morning I called my doctor.

Of course as my luck would have it, he was leaving the very next day to attend the CF Conference for a whole week! Ugh! Well I knew I couldn’t wait a whole week for him to return and I didn’t want to chance getting even sicker so I was admitted and will be seen by the Dr who is on-call. Which happens to be the Dr I have had issues with in the past and who isn’t my favorite person in the world to begin with. :(

So, I have been here 3 days and already I have some issues...so please let me know if I am being ridiculous....

Like I said I have been here 3 days and I have only seen the Dr once. The other two times I have been seen by a Physician Assistant STUDENTS. Now I have no problem letting a student come in and do there thing but I would still expect to be seen by the Dr.

Especially because today I was having a little bit of the SOB come back. My nurse told me that the Dr would be back in the afternoon so I could see him then and let him know how I was feeling.

Well around 7:30pm the nurse comes in and tells me that the Dr had ordered a chest x-ray for the morning and some PRN treatments if needed but that he wasn't coming in to see me. I mean WTF?? I felt like I wanted to cry.

I am here to get better but if he never actually comes in to see me what’s the point of being here? And its not like these are PA students who are like almost ready to graduate they still have like another 10 months to go out of a 2 year program!

I just don’t want to be here all week basically twiddling my thumbs waiting for my awesome, wonderful, caring super Dr to be back when I could be getting better instead!

Please tell me...am I being ridiculous? and if I am not being ridiculous what should I do? I don’t want to say something and then have him be rude to me the rest of the week cause god forbid I make him actually come in and do his job! Grr...he makes me so mad!

I think its almost that time...

Yesterday and today I have been feeling a little more SOB than usual. Its almost at the 2 month mark of me being off abx so its not unusual that this is how I am feeling. It just sucks that its like clock work...

I have been feeling so good lately too. I have been going to yoga, I have been out almost everyday with my SIL "window shopping" (wink, wink) cooking dinner every night, doing all my treatments like usual so why oh why do I have to wake up and feel this way? and why can't I stay out of the hospital for more than 2 months??!!

I had planned on going into the hospital Nov. 1st that way I was for sure out by Thanksgiving and Danny's birthday and I would be well through Christmas. Plus I have plans the next couple weekends that I really don't want to miss so me not feeling good is totally cramping my style!!

I know, I know...if I don't feel good I shouldn't push to stay out because that never goes well so I will see how I do today and tomorrow and if I have to call the doctor I will. Just know that I won't be happy about it! :(

Anyway..other than that I am totally loving the cooler weather (when I say cooler I mean its 78! lol) and the lower humidity we are having here in SWFL! I can't wait till we can bust out the sweaters and have some bon fires!! :)

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!

Front Entryway

Christmas will mark the 3 year Anniversary of us being in our house and it is just now starting to feel put together like a real house. Anybody who owns a home knows it takes awhile to get it the way you like it because unless you have an endless cash supply (which we don't) you can't just go out and buy everything you want in one day. Plus if I am being honest I am not the greatest at piecing things together!

I have always known that in my my front entryway I wanted some sort of table/mirror combo but both are pretty expensive plus I never saw anything I just had to have. Well, a few weeks ago I noticed JCPennys was having a great sale (I go on there periodically just to window shop) and one of the tables I had been eyeing was lowered quite a bit so I knew I had to snag it before it either went out of stock or the sale was over.

Then once it was delivered and Handy Danny put it together I went on the hunt for the perfect mirror. I didn't know exactly what I wanted but I knew once I saw it I would! My SIL and I found the mirror and the two accessories at Pier 1....LOVE that store! Everything in there is super awesome....so without further delay here is my new and improved entryway...its not done but it is a major improvement to the blank space that has been there the last 3 years! :)

p.s. I am being re-admitted tomorrow when ever the hospital calls me and tells me there is a bed available. Lets hope nobody screws up this time and its a relatively calm admission and I am in and out in no time! :)

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.

Im Home!

After all day of trying to get home health situated because of an apparent Amikacin shortage I was finally discharged at around 7:00pm to go home. Lets just say they are lucky I got to come home because I would have been one unhappy camper if I didn't!

Tomorrow is my mom's birthday so my whole family is gonna come up for dinner and cake! :)

On a little side note...the nurse who gave me the wrong insulin resigned today. I feel kind of bad that she is now out of a job, I didn't want anybody to lose there job but at the same time what she did was VERY serious...I am very lucky I woke up!!

Can you imagine after all these years of having CF, being compliant with all my meds and taking care of myself, waiting for a double lung transplant and the thing that finally does me in is a nurse who can't read a chart? I don't think so!!

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

its the weekend...

Well, its been an interesting week for me here in the hospital. The one thing I have been trying to get a hold of the most is my uncontrollable blood sugars due to the Solumedrol that I have been getting every 6 hrs. They have been crazy hi but I need the steroids so what can you do?

Last night I had a little "incident." I take 2 types of insulin Lantus which is the 24hr insulin and Novolog which is the fast acting insulin I take right before meals when needed.

Well last night at 10:00pm when I am getting my bedtime blood sugar checked and my nighttime dose of Lantus (my blood sugar was 117 which was really good for yesterday btw) my nurse says that I was to get an additional 10 units of novolog. I questioned her saying I thought that was wrong and what was my blood sugar from the night before (which it was 211 and I didn't require anything other than my Lantus.) She then tells me that my dr had changed the scale and thats why I was getting the extra coverage. So I said ok and that was that.

Fast forward to 2am when I wake up because I feel very hot and shaky. I grab my glucose meter and check my sugar real quick and was shocked when it came out to be 20! I hit the call light and quickly began to eat some oatmeal raisin cookies Danny had luckily brought me the night before and cracked open a Coke that I had sitting there from dinner.

The nurse came did whatever she had to do to follow protocol and then her and the charge nurse came in to tell me that she was really sorry but that she had read my chart wrong and that she wasn't supposed to have given me the 10 units of Novolog after all. Weird I was right....

Needless to say my Endocrinologist was NOT a happy camper this morning when he came in to see me and he also said that unless they say they have specifically talked to him I am only to get the Novolog at meals just like it said in my chart the whole time.

Do I have to ask the question again of why do the weird things always happen when I am admitted? I mean I guess we can just thank god that it happened to me and not some little kid who might not have woke up or recognized that they were feeling low and eat something. Its just scary sometimes....

in the hospital

I was admitted Tuesday because I knew last week I was starting to feel crappy but I wanted to hold out till I got back from our 4th of July in Orlando.

Well needless to say I think I waited to long because I have felt like complete CRAP the last 2 days. My x-rays show that I have a few mucous plugs which I already figured I had anyway because I could feel little hard pieces when I coughed a few times (sorry about the tmi there.) So my first night here I was awakened every hour through out the night for breathing treatments so needless to say I was exhausted ALL day yesterday.

Then this morning I awoke thinking I felt a little better but soon after my first treatment/vest I started feeling really tight and my sats weren't staying above 90 and I was on like 8L of oxygen. So Dr. Faverio gave me 100mg of solumedrol IV and treatments every 2 hours and that did the trick to open me up and raise my sats and lower the oxygen. We both think that the plugs are moving up and out and that is what is causing my sob. So hopefully they come out with out anymore trouble and I can get cleared out!

My blood work also came back that I was a little dehydrated and that my electrolytes where low so that was a little weird I have never had that before. So I was on fluids for a little bit yesterday and then today he started me on some pill to help with the electrolytes. So we will see...

Anyway...that's all that is going on right now. I will let you know how I am doing in a few days. My goal is to be home by the 16th because my mom's birthday is the 17th so please think good thoughts that I can be home for that!

One week down...

Yesterday was one week I have been admitted in the hospital and I am feeling great. The best news is that I saw my doctor this morning and I am going home Thursday afternoon! I of course will be going home on one more week of abx but I don't mind. :)

My first 3 days of being in the hospital where rough of course. I had the usual 3 days of fevers and that overall feeling of sluggishness but by day 4 I was feeling much better.

I am on 3 abx this time which seem to be doing the trick. I am also on prednisone which is of course making my sugars all crazy but that's to be expected.

We have some friends who recently got engaged and are having an engagement party on Saturday so I was really hoping to be home. I am tired of missing out on things because I am stuck in the stupid hospital all the time! So when my dr said I could go home on Thursday I was really excited.

Well that's all I got. I know not to exciting but how much could I have to talk about from just sitting in a room for a week? LOL

Oh yeah...I did get to see the first room that they are working on at the hospital and it looks AWESOME. I can't wait till it gets finished and I can get some pictures of it for you guys. Its very cool! :)

Home Sweet Home

I am home!! YAY!!

I got home a couple hours ago so I am still trying to get settled in but boy does it feel nice to be home! Brodie missed me of course and has been laying at my feet since I got in. :)

Home health delivered all my goodies so I have 8 more days of abx at home. Fortaz every 8hrs and Azactam every 6. It kind of stinks that they are separated like that but I will take whatever as long as I am home and feeling better!

Tomorrow is my 28th birthday (I know im getting old) so I think Danny and I are going to dinner tomorrow night just the 2 of us and then Friday night us and ALL of our wonderful friends are going to Chilli's for my birthday. I can't wait!

I have a haircut appt Friday afternoon along with an eyebrow waxing so that will be nice...I always love going to the salon! I have an idea of how I want my haircut now lets just see if I will be brave and actually do something different....I will post pictures if I do! :)