Can't Stop, Won't Stop

The last couple of weeks I have been dealing with car issues.  That is a picture of my rental.  I will talk more about that situation in a minute.  My SUV is in the shop and I have a mini cooper as a rental for now.  I also have a few medical things to bring up which are mostly all good things.  I will never get over how I can say that now.  Every day I keep getting better and I plan on continuing to do so.  I refuse to stop and accept I am at my best.  I know I can still improve!

About two weeks ago Jason hit a deer with my SUV, Sookie.  I am counting my blessings even though she is pretty beat up.  Jason was not hurt at all and we have car insurance.  Even though I was grateful for everything turning out OK I was still a little worried she might be totaled due to the damage.  I like my SUV and she is almost paid off.  I am looking forward to not having a car payment here shortly.  The reason I thought she might be totaled was because Jason didn’t just hit a deer; he hit a deer that was pregnant with two babies.  She was a big one and obviously solid.  Looking at Sookie you would think he was speeding with the damage that was done.  Thankfully he was not.  I can only imagine the damage and other possible outcomes had he been.

I was supposed to get my car back ten days after we signed the paperwork.  Ten days was May 30th.  It is taking longer than that because of the holiday weekend and waiting on parts.  By the 3rd I couldn’t deal with not having a car anymore. Carstar gave me a rental free of charge.  I didn’t get one initially because rentals are not covered by my insurance and we have another vehicle.  After thirteen days however I needed a car.  I prefer to have Sookie back, but at least I have something to get me around.  Jason was going away on trips and I have a hard time seeing over the steering wheel in his truck.  Yes I am small and his steering wheel doesn’t lower. Haha  I need a pillow to be high enough.  So I don’t like driving it if I don’t have to.  This mini cooper is working out fine for me for the meantime.  I would personally never buy something this small for myself.  It was fun to drive though.

Onto my progress…  My strengthening is getting better and better.  Here is an example.  When I got my rental I had to go into Kohl’s because I had a free $10 to spend.  I obviously could not bring my electric wheelchair with me so I had to walk. I walked all over the place looking for something.  I originally expected it to be a fast in and out thing.  That was not the case however because believe it or not I could not find anything.  I never have any trouble any other time.  Lol  The amount of walking I did around that store even surprised me!  I walked out of there sweating, but boy did it feel good.

At PT my therapist now has me doing lunges.  She wasn’t sure if I would be able to do them so she tested me by kneeling down on one of those steps that are used for exercising on.  First it was on level two with a pillow on top.  I did five on each side successfully.  She then removed one level and had me do five more on each side.  She then removed another level and had me do it again.  Then I just did it on the step itself and finally I did it with just the pillow.  The last set was pretty hard. My legs were tired from the previous sets and when I was all the way down it was harder to get back up.  My left leg didn’t want to do much to help.  My right leg did most of the work.  Next time I am going to have to work on making that left leg do more.

Besides that I also started a new exercise where I am using a thera-band.  It is attached to a pole and I stand with the thera-band behind me.  I place either side of the thera-band in my hands and then punch one hand at a time in front of me.  I did that while standing with my feet side by side and then while standing in stride.  I complete twenty for each position so sixty all together.  It is actually harder for me than I thought it would be.  I have no problem with the punching.  The problem lies within the balancing.  It takes a lot of core work to stay balanced.  I had to keep myself from falling backward as my hand came back.  She has me leave that place pretty tired.

I also went to the Lung Center on Friday.  I go to them twice a year now to follow up on my CF care and my diabetes. While I was there she wanted to get a PFT on me.  I blew a FEV1 of 98!!  After seeing my first attempt was 98 I tried really hard to hit 100.  All three attempts were 98 though.  No complaints here though.  I am ecstatic about 98%!  I am almost a year out and I am still improving.  I was told that typically there is not an increase in lung function after seven months.  I really think my continued progress in physical therapy is contributing to my lung function.  As I am getting stronger and becoming more physically active my lungs are getting more of a workout.

The other milestone from that day was the amount of walking.  I walked from the parking garage to the Lung Center, from the Lung Center to V10 and then back out to my vehicle.  I am bad at guessing distance so I got an idea from Google maps. It says it is about 300 ft from the garage to Lung Center.  It is more than double that distance from the Lung Center to V10 and then obviously back out.  I have not been able to walk into the lung center in years!

I stopped at V10 to visit some of the nurses that took care of me when I would go in all the time.  It is nice to see them and they love seeing how well I am doing.  While I was there I set up a dinner date with one of my nurses.  It is hard to catch up in the hospital.  So we met up at Cheesecake factory today.  A lot has happened to both of us during this last year.  It was so nice to be able to catch up with her.  We agreed to continue doing this every few months.  I am already looking forward to the next dinner.

I also want to report about the oil pulling.  I started it back up about a month ago.  Before that I mentioned how it helped with the sensitivity in my teeth, the redness in my face and my sense of smell.    I then stopped it for a few weeks to see if the issues came back.  I wasn’t sure if this was something that was getting better due to my body healing after transplant or the oil pulling.  After three weeks of not doing it all the issues I had came back.  When I started the oil pulling again the sensitivity in my teeth decreased first, then the redness in my face has gone back down, and now my sense of smell is returning.  I think we can rule out a coincidence now.

After all this good news I still have some worrisome news to report.  One thing is my creatinine levels are higher than I would like.  For those who don’t know, creatinine levels are used to determine kidney function.  The normal level for a female is about .5 to 1.1 milligrams per deciliter.  Since my transplant my levels were at .5.  Then recently they have started to creep up.  They were .6, .7, .9, and now 1.05.  I do not like this one bit.  My coordinator said to start drinking more and that might help it.  I sure hope so because I am determined to get those levels back down.  I need to protect those kidneys of mine.

The other concern is I have been having stomach issues.  I have been feeling backed up and very uncomfortable.  I talked to my CF doctor about it possibly being the amount of enzymes I am on.  We are going to try and increase them from three with meals to four and see what happens.  Neither issue is serious.  Just something to keep an eye on.