Pants Day!!

Pants Day you say? What is Pants Day? Well It's the last day in the hospital!! Which means, I'm going to have to put pants back on. Yay and sad?! Yes, you might think it crazy but I've adapted quite nicely to my hospital home and here are the creature comforts I'll be missing most:

The first is pants- mostly having to wear them. Obviously, I wish there was no need for such silly things and we could all go around with our behinds flapping in the wind but apparently there is social protocol to maintain. Thus, here I am. Pants on the ground.

Lookin like a fool.

Nurses bringing in my pills. Do you know how nice it is to have someone get your pills ready for you in the morning? I'm lying in bed all toasty warm and asleep and someone comes and sets my pills out for me and then someone else comes in and starts my treatments. Sometimes this is obnoxious because you just want to be left alone but most of the time they are nice and its such a breath of fresh air (figuratively speaking because the hospital pumps toxic sickness through its walls) to have another person take on my medical responsibilities....

cute little pills all encased and cupped and prepped- ahh the life of not having to do my own meds.

 Reading. Oh how I will miss thee! From magazines & Harry Potter to 8,000 pages of Game of Thrones (yes, I've taken it on..but slowly) I love having the time to read.To couple that, I will also say that USA today plays hours upon hours of Law & Order SVU and though I've seen every episode I just can't stop watching. It's just sooo good.

Thank you to all who have provided me with ample reading material. You will be getting it back....someday.

My favorite couple! Luckily, he has left officially and it's rumored that she will be leaving next season.  Maybe I'll get a life and stop watching? the husband is really hoping for this!

Ok, so those are the big things. Pants, pills, reading & SVU. But, it's been a great hospital stay in that I'm much healthier now than when I started and I have a whole week of California to look forward too! Overall, today is just another great day! Thank you Jesus! Whoop!  Better get back to work- and finish packing up the room the husband arrives in a little less than 3 hours.... whoa!

One more picture- I'm soooo excited to get this dang wristband off... they scan you in the hospital; like a bag of chips.

thumbs up I'm outta here.

Thankful Thursday! Hospital, California, Husband & More

I totally stole this post idea from Ronnie Sharp and his Blog. So Thanks! Anyways, so many things to be thankful for today that I'm gonna do another steal and just bullet them....

• Hospital stay is almost over! That's right - I'm outta this joint tomorrow! Whoo hoo, I've prepped the doctors all week to be ready for discharge EARLY on Friday so this means hopefully I'll get be outta here by 1 or 2pm. Not bad. I've spent a large part of the day on the phone with insurance companies and am oh sooo excited to deal with their junk when I leave here. 
• California knows how to Party! Oh! Well I find myself singing any California song I know because I just booked my ticket for NEXT WEEK. Ok, it's gonna be a little crazy getting out of the hospital and then bam on a plane Sunday to California, but Andy was heading out there for work anyways and after talking with him last night we both decided I should go to. "Why Not," is my big feeling on the matter. I work from my computer anyways and the hotels are paid for. I'm soo soo excited and we get to see my new brother-in -law over the weekend. It's just going to be fabulous -and as always one of those last minute decisions I make. How am I an event planner? :)
• Husband, can't forget him on this list because well he just makes it all happen. Last night he braved the snowy roads to see me and it really did make me feel better. The whole afternoon I had had a cursing headache and from the moment I saw him it was lifted. I dunno what it is about him I just love him.
• Work- like I said I work from my computer mostly these days and feel super blessed to work for family and in a flexible environment. Even though I'm leaving this job in a couple weeks I know God has something in mind for me (just a quick reminder God: I'm still waiting for you to reveal your plan to me) and I'm trying to be active and prayerful in the finding work realm. 
• BFF's- you guys are just great. Thanks for all the chats, group mms's, and pictures. Check out my BFF arieanna's blog here and check out gay gay's blog ..... well when she stops working on her masters and saving children in need. :)
• Brother Bear & Sister Goose & Family-- you guys are an amazing support team! My brother bear apparently is a super hero and has built his own computer (literally built it), speaks Persian & jumps out of airplanes. My SG has tackled a new job working as a CNA, is remodeling her house, and just got engaged and is letting me plan her wedding...wait. maybe not that last part but I'm trying! As for the rest of em? My Mom and Steve watch the Frankerdoodle while I'm in here (and in California?) and bring me treats and presents, Ronzilla (aka Dad) calls me daily to humor me with his latest golf wit or why he believes I'm such a twirp, The InLaws (sue & bill) send texts, care packages and make late night phone calls, and grandparents, cousins, aunts & uncles from all over have been nothing but giant blessings these past two weeks

So that's it for my Thankful Thursday! There are obviously many more things to be thankful for but those are just a few on my plate today! What are you thankful for?? 

Monday Mayday!

 I took the weekend off just so everyone would be pandering a little more. Did it work? Probably not but I'm back and ready to talk - I mean blog.
Life in the hospital is typically pretty dull and diluted over the weekends- you get weekend doctors, weekend cafeteria, even weekend cleaning crew, and let me just say all of them fail compared to their weekday companions. Andy stayed Friday night and ALL DAY/NIGHT Saturday. He was going to leave and then visitors showed up so he got distracted and ended up spending the day with me. It's nice to have down time with him and just get to relax and watch movies in a small twin bed being interrupted every 20 or so minutes with new nurse requests..i.e. "Oh hi guys I see your watching a movie, I was just wondering if you could stand on this scale real quick. Oh, this is a good part of the movie- oh what did you eat today? uh huh and have you pooped? Oh Great! Are you coughing? What color is it? and what's the consistency? etc etc" All logical nurse questions but make for really impractical movie watching. In any case the movies we rented were absolutely horrible and by Sunday morning I told Andy he needed to go home so he could at least be productive. I hear he got the cars cleaned! Whoop!

Sunday afternoon my mom showed up with the boys... aka the yorkies!

My mom used the sketch app on her iPhone to really capture the essence of these beasts. From Left to right Frank, Augie & Bentley aka Benny boy

I played with them outside downstairs but Bentley managed to getaway and took off inside the hospital. I, in sheer panic, raced after him tripped on the welcome mat and went full face down onto the floor. One of my more embarrassing moments. The people in wheelchairs gasped, the security guard went for his stick,and I jumped up as quickly as I went down to prove that I was just fine and that my fall wasn't as big as it looked. But I share with you now my war wound....

That was my face when I fell.... also I skinned my knees. Yes, I'm 12.

A little boy grabbed Bently right inside the door and no harm came to the pup in this process. The rest of the afternoon was spent with visitors (love me some hospital visitors!-thanks terry, keith & ginger!)  and licking my war wound in bed.Ok, actually I downloaded a Suduko app and was up till 3 am trying to unlock "expert". Lame, I know.

So, that brings us to today -MONDAY! oh what a great day! :) Well, it was somewhat productive at least. I've been applying to  jobs all across the board and have been praying that God will just gift me something that I totally don't deserve that has all the material "yes's" I want (health insurance, pay, hours) & satisfy the soul inside of me. I want to use  my tools or sharpen my tools to make a difference! Oh, the prayers I say. Anyways if YOU wanted to start praying for it too that would be excellent..so thanks~! :) I also did some actual work today and then started the process of filing insurance claims and switching to Andy's insurance. YIKES, YUCK, BLEH. But again, super blessed to even have all this stuff so I'm sure we will get through it just fine!

Alright so one last thing, my beautiful pumpkin is living proof that the hospital is no place to stay healthy....I noticed this spot from my bedside... BLACK MOLD!!! SICK. So I said goodbye and tossed it down the nuclear waste tube. :/ I guess I'll get another pumpkin when I get home.....

What's in your pumpkin?

Till next time... toodles!

A Day in Pictures!

So many things to write about today and I'm sure the whole world is just waiting to hear what I have to say! Actually, today was pretty fun, the husband stayed the night last night and took the day off of work to hang with me. It was just a great day and since a picture says more than I can I'm going to relive it that way for you!!

So I'll start with the best picture of the day ...90% LUNG FUNCTION...HECK YA. (it seriously hasn't been this good since high school...whooo hooo antibiotics.)

This is me doing a Pulmonary Function Test or as my Grandma Bunny would call it "peak flow" because she sorda knows the terminology but mixes it up and I just let her go with it-her names Bunny after all why would you argue with her. 

And then I got a package from Grandma Bunny.....

I love the random assortment of things and can just imagine her at the dollar store or kmart or some random place picking all this stuff out! 

So Obviously the Hubby and I had a coloring competition.... Mines on the right his is on the left. You be the judge but pick the "right" one. oh haha I'm so clever sometimes

AND then another present showed up, Steve, came bearing this sweet pumpkin that my Grandpa Terry had picked out for me and Steve carved. Its a bat and a moon and then you can kinda see my name carved in BROADWAY font on the right hand side!

 

BUT THEN THIS HAPPENED......

BEST. HUSBAND. EVER.

Andy + My Toes= Greatest Husband Moment Ever.

To be fair I can't paint my own nails partly because of total beauty incompetence and largely due to the shakiness brought on by multiple treatments and steroids. Still, super fun experience and really funny to watch him do. I would be worried but its winter time and my feet should be seeing nothing but the insides of wool socks for the next few months anyways.....

Andy had to leave shortly after and night time came with him. I feel sooo blessed to have healthcare and great nurses and doctors. Plus, not a lot of hospitals where you get a sweet view like this.....

A view from the 9th floor.

Goodnight All...

  

Sick Hubby & Blogging

So I'm kinda liking this blogging thing, I can communicate with all of you out there and Lord knows my thoughts  need to be heard! :) On the docket today sick husband/sleeping pills, iphones, & exercise.  So let me begin;

Poor Andy (the husband) has been super sweet to me and keeping me company while I stay tuned up- however late Monday night after I had taken a hard dose of sleeping pills, Andy awoke in the hospital with an awful stomach flu. I stumbled into something a little bit less than consciousness around 4am to discover his cot empty and started looking under my bed and out the door for him. Finally, the nurse came in and with a quizical look and exclaimed to my not so coherent mind, "As you've probably realized your husband left- he was really sick, but he just kept smiling. What a great guy." At this point my mind wandered into some other realm- I laid back down, sent a text to him that looked something like "lkdjove yuoud dkkdo ok?>D?D"  and lolled off into lala land for another 3 hours. When I finally did make it out of my sleep coma, I was sure I had fixed the tax problem, cured CF and bought a pony; unfortunately those all just seemed to be hallucinations from the sleeping pills. Andy, however, spent all of Tuesday wrapped in bed with saltines and his computer. So Tuesday was quite the treat for us, me in the hospital him in the sick bed at home. I know that he is truly sick because #1 he called in sick from work and #2 he stayed home ALL day and only did ONE load of laundry! For those of you that don't know he's a workaholic cleanaholic and I provide the balance! :)  So appreciate any prayers from you prayers out there for speedy health for us two!

My newest favorite thing about my iphone is the the group messaging. I have two bff's who live too far apart from me and we started this group message about a month ago that just keeps going. It's great I no longer have to text them both the same thing (that always made me feel like I was cheating them or they were cheating me somehow. In college, Arieanna and I would both hear our phone buzz in class, I'd  look down and there would be a message from Gay Gay saying "I love you, you're great" and then I'd look at Arie's phone and it would be the same message and I would just feel this, "Dang" inside of me like I wasn't special.) That story aside, with group messaging  I no longer have that not special feeling and since we live so far away from each other I feel like we get to have conversations again! I can be a bystander while they talk about something and then chime in if I need to. Moral of this is that I'm now trying to encourage them to be fellow bloggers with me and maybe someday, just maybe, It'll get big :)


And for the last words of the day- I'm exercising! Whoop! I ran six flights of stairs yesterday, huffed the last 3 till I wanted to die and made it back to my room safely with a heartrate of 180. :)  They've brought an exercise bike into my room and I managed a full 20 minutes of my very busy day on that. Gonna keep this up- Don't want to be a sick CF kid :)   I'm leaving you with this sweet photo of myself... the prednisone has kicked in and the puffy cheeks are back. Chubby Bunny.

This is me-- doing the Vest and enjoying the full face...

Tune Up

Well it's day 5 of my tune up- for those of you that don't know I have Cystic Fibrosis,  a disease that requires I get oiled up and greased down like a car. Ok not really, a "tune up" is typically a 14 day stay in the hospital where you're pumped full of antibiotics, patted down by multiple respiratory machines and worked on by a team of skilled nurses and doctors all in hopes that when you leave your lungs might be just a little bit better then when you came in.

The IV pole in all its glory

 I've always looked at these "tune ups" as time to unwind a little, breathe better and get some rest but after getting in the CF community a little more I've approached this one with a little more pizazz! I know that sitting in that bed does nothing productive for me so I"m working hard to feel better in here which includes running/walking the 9 flights of stairs to my floor, daily stretching and really trying to cough. Ok this last one might seem funny but it's true. A huge part of the CF problem is not getting mucus out of the lungs. You can do the exercises and take the treatments but if you don't set aside time to cough it out then there really was no benefit. It seems simple but it's huge! Anyways, that's it for me today. I'm working from the hospital, trying to find a new job, trying to do the job I have, and challenging every norm I know.

Andy (the husband) has been great so far. Poor guy this is his first hospital experience with the sickly wife but he has been such a support and motivator to me. He stays with me (the first night was spent in Express Admissions aka a slower emergency room where nothing gets done but they leave all the lights on)  walks with me, talks with me and plays cards with me- he is currently beating me at gin rummy a result I'm less than thrilled to report. But so far, 4 months into marriage he is my rock and I'm so thankful for it. He asks funny questions to the nurses and is learning CF in a way that you can't understand unless you're living life with a CF'er.  All my thanks dear. 

I'm gonna keep working at this blog thing though because although no one is currently reading it I'm sure one day I'll get a follower and I don't want to let that person down. With that....

Toodles.

Book series

So I'm kinda being an insomniac tonight so I thought I'd share this story...

A couple weeks ago my husbands buddy sent us a nice gift- a book! Attached was a note that just said " you guys gotta read this- they've even picked it up as an hbo series" the book was Game of Thrones and as I had absolutely NOTHING going on I'm my life I picked it up.

Ok flash forward to me a week later : I've become the type of reader that makes me hate the person I've become. All "free" moments are spent reading said book- Aka time when I should be making dinner, conversation with my husband or other things... You get the drift. Anyways, so I start telling myself the lies that every bad book reader says: I'll pray more often, I'll cook dinner AND bake dessert, I'll do some craft from Pinterest, I'll become stable JUST as soon as this book is through....

Ok now super flash forward: it's roughly midnight, my husband is idly snoring while my spot light of a night light interrogates the room because I'm positive I'll go blind reading without 50,000 watts to back me up. I'm about 100 pages from finishing Game of Thrones and moving on with my life but something is just not right... The author has gone to major lengths in the first 700 pages laying out new worlds, building character depth and truly weaving a suspenseful novel. Here is the problem- nothing is getting wrapped up. I mean I'm down to 20 pages and I'm thinking man kinda a crappy job ending this mr big shot author - I mean if your gonna be this obtuse with the ending you shouldn't have dedicated all that time in building in the beginning! And then it hits me - like running into bedpost in the dark of night trying to get to the toily ***may or may not have happened*** this book is not ending. With ten pages to go the realization is blackens my future and I quickly flash to the front of the book and there it is in all it's glittery bedazzlement mocking my personal agenda that was ten pages away from being carried out: "enjoy reading these other fabulous and most definitely long, very long books in this most fantastic series that spans out over six more books! And guess what we're still writing!!!!"

Needless to day I've been immobile for the past week trying to decide what to do.- buy second book or move on with life and wait 6 years for hbo to finish the series..... I'm still debating here in wonderland.