Titanium

Things are looking up since last weekend.  I have accomplished a few more milestones and had a good trip to NYC.  I wasn’t in the greatest of moods the last time I blogged because of stupid things that were going on.  Like I predicted, it didn’t last long.  I got the insurance issue taken care of (mostly), my cold is better and I am feeling more organized.  I have so many things that I want to do and for awhile I was overwhelming myself.  I was trying to do a bunch of things at once and then realizing I was getting nothing done.  I finally figured it would make more sense to pick something and do it.  I got the kitchen spring cleaned and I reorganized the basement.  I have a huge pile of stuff to give to my brother and then a pile of stuff for donation.  Once those two piles are gone it will look so nice down there.

Besides cleaning I have been doing other projects too this last month.  I went through all my pictures and organized them and redid my entire blog website.  The other one is going to end soon and I don’t feel it is necessary to pay for a site.  Switching over all the blogs onto the new site was no easy task.  I went into each blog and entered some pictures and then I added a few special features on my blog.  I really like it.  I actually like this one better than my first one.  I understand how to do more things on this one so I am able to add so much more.  Now that I have all that situated I am starting to feel like I am getting things done.

On Sunday I was able to walk all the way down the stairs on my own.  It felt really good to be able to walk down them instead of scoot.  Haha  Going upstairs is no problem for me anymore.  Going down is still a challenge though.  I can go down porch stairs and such using the railings, but the flight of stairs at home is more challenging because there is only a railing on one side.   I am not able to do this every time.  Mornings are still harder because I am a little tighter right when I wake up.  I don’t even attempt it if I feel off balance so I am still scooting most of the time.  This is a step in the right direction though.

Monday Jay and I drove out to NYC for an appointment.  We got into the city around 8:00 PM and picked up Erika at her place.  We went out for awhile that night and then all went to our hotel.  The next morning Jason went to court.  Erika and I got up and got ready to go to my appointment.  I normally take a bath and then bring the shower head down and take a bath-shower.  This shower didn’t have a detachable shower head though so I decided to try and take an actual shower standing up.  I was able to do it!  I had the strength to stand up the entire time and my balance was good too.  I knew I would have the strength.  I wasn’t too sure about the balance though.  Another new milestone!  

When we were both ready we headed out for some lunch and then headed to my appointment.  The appointment went well.  My FEV1 is 87 and my weight is 95.  The FEV1 is down a little bit from last time when it was 91.  I am not upset by this though.  I knew it would be a little lower with the small cold I got.  I was already feeling better when I went for the appointment, but it takes a few days to get all the congestion out.  I told my doctor about this and she agreed.  She told me that the change is minimal and they wouldn’t consider this a real decrease.  It is still my second best set of PFT’s.

After the appointment Erika and I went up to the rehab floor.  I have wanted to go up there to see my PT and OT from after transplant for some time now.  I haven’t gotten a chance to stop by before this.  I don’t want to go when Joe brings me and timing hasn’t worked out right when Jason has brought me.  This time the appointment was at the end of the day so she was getting to leave herself.  We went up there and they were both happy to see me.  They told me I looked great, but said they weren’t surprised by all the progress.  They knew when they met me I was going to recover quickly.  They could tell by my attitude and determination.  I told them about all the progress I have made including a few milestones.  I filled them in with how I was doing and told them about my new blog site so they could continue with updates if they wanted.  My PT mentioned to me that she had gone on my website and saw that I hadn’t updated anything.  I told her what I had been doing with the new site.  Talking to her reminded me to put up a post on my old one the link to this one.  This way people know that I haven’t stopped blogging.  

We stayed at the hospital until Jason was done with court.  He met us at there and then we headed to Coogan’s for dinner.  I have had their food a few times while I was in the hospital, but had never been inside.  We had dinner and then took Erika back to her apartment.  We stayed at the hotel that night and then headed home the next morning.

The rest of the week was pretty relaxed.  I stayed home and did a lot of stuff around the house.  Yesterday I went out.  Jason is traveling again for work and my grandma told me that she wanted me to pick something out for Easter.  She wanted to get my brother an external hard drive so she wanted me and Jason to pick something out for ourselves too.  I ended up getting Jason a Bluetooth speaker to use in his truck.  He listens to audible books while he travels so I wanted him to be able to hear his book while in his truck.  In my SUV he can hook the phone to my radio and hear it through the speakers.  He can’t do that with his truck and the speakers I got him for Christmas are not loud enough to hear when he is going 55 mph.  I decided on a Victoria’s Secret bra for me.  

I have wanted to get one for awhile.  I have gained some weight since the surgery and my body has changed a lot.   I didn’t want to get a bra too soon and then it not fit me in a few months.  Also my doctors told me I wasn’t able to wear a bra for at least six months.  They wanted the site to heal completely before I tried wearing one again.  Since it has been six months, Grandma is giving me money to buy something and I am pretty sure my body is leveled off, it seemed like a perfect time.

Before I got sick my bra size was a 32B.  As I got sicker I barely fit in an A.  The bra was mostly empty, but I continued to wear one to make it look like I had some boobs.  Recently I have put my old bra back on and it doesn’t fit right at all.  When I went into Victoria Secret’s and got sized yesterday they told me I was a 32C!  I never thought that I would be a C.  You girls understand when I say I was pretty excited to hear this.  

After all this shopping I decided to get a new Pandora bracelet too.  This is something else I have been thinking about and since I was already out, why not?  Jason got me one back for Christmas and I love it.  He got me a silver bracelet and a bunch of charms.  I have gotten more charms since then and have always wanted a purple leather one.  Purple for Cystic Fibrosis.  I really wanted a purple leather bracelet that wrapped around the wrist three times.  It decided it would look great with the amount of charms I had too.  I was going to order it online, but I wasn’t sure what size so I wanted to see it on myself first.  Good thing I did that because I didn’t like how the triple wrap looked on me all.  I ended up getting the purple leather bracelet that double wrapped around my wrist.  I love it!

This is what my bracelet looks like.  I love this so much because each charm has a meaning to me.  The intertwining rings symbolize my lung transplant.  On the rings it says, “Wishes Come True”.  

Also this weekend I did my second laser treatment.  I will let you know in my next blog if I notice any changes.