Ups and Downs

Today was my last day of my 3rd class with University of Phoenix. It was a communications class (General Ed) that I originally thought was going to be boring and useless to me. I was proven wrong! I took more from that 5 week class than I had expected and saw my written papers quality increase as the course wore on. That was exciting! I'll be taking a week off of school, then will begin my next class on the 17th.
During this week off, I'll be spending a little time in San Francisco. Unfortunatly I won't be doing anything fun while I'm there. In my last bronch (1/30) my doctors saw that the stent that is supposed to be holding my weak airway open, has lodged itself down further/lower into my airway than it should be. So, not only is it not holding the weak bit open, it's also obstucting the area in which it's lodged itself! My doctors were quite surprised that it hasn't caused me a world of trouble, but I really haven't noticed too much of a change from my shortness of breath and pain I was in before. So, I go in on Friday to see if they can either move, or replace the stent that is currently in my lung. I saw my CF doctors, who are in Sacramento today, and they are quite certain that this procedure is going to be more invasive than my transplant team are expecting because of how difficult it would be to move the stent that's there now. They told me to expect to stay a few days in case they might need me to get an O.R. and surgeon to remove the stent. In case I wasn't nervous enough! lol!
I'm so proud to say that Benito heard today that he will be starting a new job on the 23rd of this month! He'll be the "go to" IT guy for a legal document copying company. He's been working so hard on his schooling and it's paying off! I'm So proud of him!!! :D
So that's about it. Benito and my plans for Valentines day looks like a romantic dinner, which will be whatever the cafeteria workers at the hospital choose to throw together and call food. Oh well... There's always next year! :D

What's New

Hey everyone :)
I'm terribly sorry I haven't posted on here in so long. I was pretty excited about making this blog, but then I got busy with life and haven't had a whole lot of time to be on the computer. After the new year I should be able to post more often.
I'm currently in the process of moving in with my boyfriend an hour away from where I've been living for my entire life. He and I both are really excited about me moving into his apartment. The driving back and forth has gotten old and it's just too hard to spend any time away from one another. My sister along with her family live in the City I'll be moving to, so I'm looking forward to spending more time with them. The moving has worn me thin, but I should be all done soon. I'm looking forward to the day that I can put my feet up and not feel like I should be packing.
I have been feeling pretty sick still. I'm having problems with the stent in my right airway growing scar tissue inside and around it, which leaves very little to no opening for air to pass down in my right lung. It's making me feel awful. I'm in a lot of pain, trouble breathing and not sleeping so well. I've been going back and forth to my transplant doctors to get bronchs and dilitations of the airway, but it just closes itself back up in a matter of a week or two. The three hours (one way) it takes to get to my doctor is getting exhausting in itself. My most recent bronch was yesterday. I talked to my doctor before they knocked me out and discussed what else we can do to keep the airway open for hopefully a longer period of time. Basically all he suggested was adding another stent inside of the existing one, so have two stents in that one area and hope for the best. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but I guess it's something. My quality of life has been pretty bad the past few months because of this airway thing and I've had to take a month leave from school because I'm just not able to keep up with my 5 week fast paced classes.
I don't have any set Christmas plans yet. I'm sure I'll be spending it with my family, I just don't know who wants to host yet! ;) My best friend Megan and her husband will be home for a week visiting for the holiday, so I hope to see her a lot while she's home. I'm also looking forward to a girls lunch on the 27th with a few high school girlfriends.
I think that's about it. I'll try to post again soon. In case I don't get around to doing it later, I want to wish everyone a Very Safe and Happy Holiday!

Lots of Love!!!

Living with Cystic Fibrosis - Video

While browsing through other CFers myspace profiles, I found this video. I thought it gives a good idea of how living with Cystic Fibrosis really is. It's not sugar coated, so you may want some tissues close by.

Be honest, does this IV make me look fat?

So I've been feeling pretty crappy the past three weeks. It started feeling like it was my stent closing off again, but then quickly led to full on flu like symptoms. This last weekend I started feeling a lot worse, so I had my CF doctor fit me into clinic yesterday. My CF docs don't think the stent is closed off, but think I'm dealing with another lung infection with my old cf bugs. My body trying to get ready to fight off this infection is what my doctors think is making me feel so sick since I'm not able to build the white blood count needed to fight the infection on my own. So, they started me on IV Meropenem and oral Cipro for three weeks. I haven't been on home IV's for about 3 1/2 years, so it took me a little while to figure out the pump again lol. I'm only stuck to the IV pole for thirty minutes every eight hours, so I suppose that's a good thing.
Besides the sick thing, I'm doing pretty good. I'm in my final week of my second class with University of Phoenix (online campus) and am very excited about how well I'm doing with it so far. I'm getting ready to make a big change in my life, but will go more into that at a later time. I need to go lay down and get some sleep. It seems like sleep is the only thing I've found that makes me feel even a little bit better right now. Oh yeah, I got my flu shot yesterday while in clinic. My arm hurts, but it hasn't made me feel a whole lot worse than I already do, so that's a good surprise!

Let's make some $ for CF research

I learned yesterday that a friend of mine is helping put together a Call For Art to go along with an annual Wine Opener fundraiser in Sacramento. I offered to donate a copy of one of my most favorite photos I have taken and developed myself in a photography class a few years ago. The photo will be up for silent auction at the fundraiser. I call this photo "War Wounds". It's a self portrait of my transplant scar.

The photo was taken with a 35mm camera, so it's a bit grainy. I actually prefer this look though :) Let's hope everyone else does too and it makes a lot of money for CF research!

If you live nearby and are interested in attending the Wine Opener, please email me for more information.