Frustrated but full of hope

Well, today was my clinic appointment at Vanderbilt. Many of you know how hard I have been working this summer to make my lung function and weight go up. Today is day 94 of 100% compliance with my treatments, and I started doing Insanity last week. I was hopeful for today's appointment. I really wanted to see my numbers go up, but I did not set a goal for my lung function due to being disappointed the last few times.

My lung function today was at 48% which is about what it was last time. I was definitely frustrated, but I have been told by quite a few people that sometimes, it takes longer for your hard work to actually show up in your numbers. Keeping that in mind, I'm trying not to be too disappointed with the lack of movement. I still maintained my lung function which is good, and I still have hope that I will see improvement in the future.

Here's the exciting news: I have been working really hard on gaining weight.... I gained 8 pounds!!! My doctor was thrilled to see that and encouraged me to gain a few more pounds. He was also very happy to hear how hard I've been working and felt that I might see more improvement in my numbers next time.

He said my lungs sounded great, and that's all I can really ask for! :) We also talked a little about the hope that the new medications that are in trials right now offer. I'm excited to see what the future holds for me.

My plan moving forward is to just keep doing what I'm doing. I'm going to continue working out everyday and being compliant with my treatments. I'm going to put everything I have into my health so that I have no regrets. I have so many regrets from my college years when I completely neglected my health, and I am determined not to have any of those for this time in my life.

Catching Up

This is kind of a catch all post, because I have been ridiculously busy and have completely failed at creating new blog posts. First things first, I started working again on August 5th, and students returned to school August 12th. It was such a crazy feeling seeing my students from last year walking down the hallway to their new 5th grade classrooms. I definitely miss them, but I'm so excited about my new students. They are so energetic and ready to learn, and I can't wait to see what this year holds!

Tennessee has adopted a new set of standards, so I have been busy learning what these standards are and how to begin teaching them. Our county also adopted a new reading series which means that I'm starting reading plans from scratch while trying to figure out all of the new things that offers. With so much change, I've been working extra hard to just learn how to teach the new stuff. Then you have to add on the time I've spent actually planning lessons. It has been crazy, but I love the new challenge! I'm finally starting to get the hang of it, and I'm so happy that I'm no longer a first year teacher. I feel so much more confident this year.

Now I just have to make sure that I stick to my goal of not getting sick this year. I would really rather not get the flu again this year. That was awful! I am doing everything in my power to make sure I don't have a repeat of that. I'm on day 87 of being 100% compliant with my treatments! I also started Insanity on Monday...... It is ridiculously difficult! The warm-up is hard enough, but then you just keep going onto the workout. If that doesn't help my lung function, I don't know what will.

My next clinic appointment is next Wednesday at Vanderbilt. I've decided that I will not be setting a goal for my PFT since the last few times have been huge disappointments. Just for a frame of reference, my last PFT was 49%. As long as it improves a little bit, I will be satisfied. I'm going to continue working hard no matter what my numbers are though, because I have put way too much work into it to give up now!

That's all for now, but I'm going to try to post more often now that I've got a little bit of a schedule going.