Each Day Gets Better

This last week and a half has been a good one.  I started it off feeling sick and not sure if I had the flu or not.  It ended with me feeling great and celebrating Grandma’s birthday!  The picture is a little blurry, but it gets the point across. Haha

Things started looking up on Sunday Jan 19^th.   I was starting to feel better and the Denver Broncos defeated the New England Patriots!  I can’t stand the Patriots and I love Manning so this made my day!  On Monday my doctor called me and told me that my swabs came back negative.  I didn't need them to call me and tell me that.  I could tell on my own I was feeling better.  

Something that I am excited about it my Remington I-Light Pro.  This is an at home laser hair removal treatment that I ordered from Amazon.  You are supposed to do a treatment every two weeks.  After three treatments you shouldn’t see any hair growth for about six months.  I did a lot of research on it and I decided to give it a try.  Most people did have to do more than three treatments until they were happy with the results.  Not too much more though.  For those people who still had hair after a bunch of treatments mentioned that their hair grew slower and thinner.  People who didn’t see much of a result at all had lighter hair than me.  The system costs $200 and the heads are $24.00 a piece.  They last for about 2,000 lights and then you have to get a new one.  It sounds a little expensive until you look at the price of laser hair removal.  It costs around $400 for your legs and about $80 for a small area like your lip or chin.  That is crazy!  The results are not guaranteed either.  So I am going to give this at home thing a try.  My dad is getting this for me as a late Christmas present.  Even if I get slower growth it will be worth it.  I am looking forward to trying this and will let you know how it goes.

I have been using Nair for my hair removal and I hate it.  The last few times I have used it, my skin was very uncomfortable afterward.  I would use it on my arms and stomach and afterward my shirt would feel like sandpaper.  The final straw was Thursday when I ended up burning myself with it.  My skin actually had a burn rash.  The skin scabbed over into a bunch of little dots a couple days later.  It looked really bad.  It is healing, but the scabs are still there.  The worse part about it, I had a massage scheduled for the day after I did it.  I couldn’t cancel because you have to cancel 24 hours in advance or you still have to pay.  The massage wasn’t too bad because he used the massage oil.  It wasn’t the most pleasant though either.

While on the topic of my hair, I want to mention about the hair loss on my head.  I keep forgetting to mention it.  After I got my hair cut in November my hair stopped falling out.  I don’t know if it is because I am brushing it a lot less, if having shorter hair is less strain on the hair follicle or if it was a coincidence and my hair was done falling out.  I honestly have no idea why.  As curious as I am about this, I really don’t need a reason.  I am just thrilled that it is not doing anymore!

Friday my great grandma went into the county home.  This is not necessarily good news, but better news than we had thought before.  She went into the hospital a few days ago with an infection and we all thought we were going to lose her.  She is 95 years old and this infection really took a toll on her body.  She fought back though and is now in the home for rehab.  We are hoping she is not in there for too long.  She won’t stand for that anyway.  She was already asking in the hospital when she could go home.

On that same day I had an appointment with my CF doctor to go over my insulin.  I have been taking Humulin since the transplant.  This has to be taken twice a day versus once a day for Lantus.  After my transplant it was necessary to go with Humulin because my sugars were very high during the day and lower at night.  So I would obviously take more in the morning and less before bed.  Now that my Prednisone is at a lower dose and my eating is at a normal pace, I want to switch back to the Lantus.  My doctor and I went over everything and she decided it would be safe to switch.  I have to keep a close eye on it though until we figure out exactly how much I need.  We are going to try 5 units.  I was able to get a flu shot while I was there too.  I had a cold this week, but I am on the upswing and we decided it was OK to get one.  The flu is really bad this year and it is important to get one ASAP. 

Sunday was my grandma’s birthday and we all went to my mom’s house to celebrate.  She loved the gifts I found for her at Target after Christmas.  They are winter decorations to put outside.  One is a light up baby polar bear and the other is a light up baby reindeer.  They are adorable and I was so happy that she liked them. 

To top it all off my spirometry is up to 330!  During this last cold it fell down to 190.  I am so grateful that it bounced back so fast.  I don’t like anything below 300.  It had been going back up for awhile, but seemed to get stuck on 240.  The night of my grandma’s birthday I coughed up some sputum that looked a lot like chocolate pudding.  Gross I know.  I did this three nights in a row and my spirometry jumped after that.  I called transplant after I coughed it up and she said it sounded like dry blood.  It could possibly still be lingering from the bronch I had.  That was quite awhile ago though so not completely sure.  I was told to keep watching it and call immediately if it looks like fresh blood.  As you can see though it doesn’t look like a bad thing.  I am thinking whatever it was may have been keeping my spirometry down.  I am feeling great and hoping I am done with colds already.  I want to work on getting my FEV1 higher, not constantly fighting to get it back.  Also my voice is slowly coming back.  I have been using the song Timber as a control.  Before I could not sing much of it at all. Now I can sing the chorus.  Still can't do the woooah part yet, but since I am seeing some improvement I think I will get there in time.