Christmas

It's been awhile since I have written anything because things got really busy rather quickly. Christmas was amazing! It was definitely the best one I have had in awhile. I feel so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to see and spend time with during the holidays! We spent Christmas weekend in Knoxville with family, and it couldn't have been better! I came back home tonight to work tomorrow through Thursday. Then it is back to Knoxville for more time with friends and family! :)

I was kind of dreading coming back to our apartment without my husband and without my pets, but luckily, my sister decided to come with me so I won't get lonely! We have been talking about what our New Year's resolutions are going to be for this year, and I am so excited about the goals I am setting for myself! There are many good things to come in 2012! I will be posting some of my goals on here once the new year comes so that you can help keep me accountable. 2012 is going to be a good year!

Justice?

I am writing today about something that has nothing to do with my CF. It is something that I feel strongly about, and I feel the need to share it with you all.

Channon Gail Christian, 21, and Hugh Christopher Newsom, Jr., 23, were a couple from Knoxville, Tennessee. They were both raped, tortured and murdered after being kidnapped early on the morning of January 7, 2007. Their vehicle had been carjacked. Five suspects were arrested and charged in the case. The grand jury indicted four of the suspects on counts of murder, robbery, kidnapping, rape and theft. Three of those arrested, Letalvis D. Cobbins, Lemaricus Davidson and George Thomas, have been convicted on multiple charges including several counts of felony murder. After a jury trial Lemaricus Davidson was sentenced to death by lethal injection and Letalvis Cobbins and George Thomas were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Vanessa Coleman has been convicted of facilitating the crimes and sentenced to 53 years in prison, and Eric Dewayne Boyd has been convicted of federal charges as accessory after the fact to carjacking and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

On December 1st, 2011, new trials were granted to the defendants due to drug abuse by the presiding Judge.

Chris was my nieces' uncle. I never had the opportunity to meet him, but from what I hear, he was a wonderful person. His life was ended way too soon in a horrific way. What they went through is something that no one should ever have to experience. Their families got justice, and now the justice system is taking that away and making them go through those trials all over again.There is a petition going to try to prevent this retrial. I don't know if it will help, but it can't hurt to try right?

Here is the link to the petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/governor-of-tennessee-stop-the-retrial-for-murderers-of-channon-christian-and-chris-newsom

Running/Working out

I bought myself a treadmill with the birthday money I got this year. We finally got it set up tonight, and I put it to work right away. I ran a full mile which is something that I haven't done in years. Mind you, it was the slowest I have ever run a mile, but you have to start somewhere right? After I finished the mile, I walked at an incline for ten minutes just to get my legs extra mad at me. Next, I walked for 5 more minutes just to cool off. It felt pretty good to actually run, but I know there is a lot of room for improvement.

So what's the plan? I am going to use my treadmill everyday. I might not run on it everyday, but I will definitely walk on it. I also plan on continuing with my other workouts which I have been slacking on lately. Picking them back up tomorrow, and I couldn't be more excited! I am super pumped about being able to run a mile nonstop today, and I can't wait to see how far I can push myself. More than that, I can't wait to see what all of my hard work does for my PFT numbers. As you may recall, my goal for my next appointment is to have my FEV1 hit 60%. If you are interested in what my numbers have been in the past, click here. February 1st will be the moment of truth.

In other news, my vest is not working properly anymore. It inflates all the way, and when I push the button to get it to start shaking, it deflates and has very little pressure. That makes it pretty much pointless, and of course, the company is closed on the weekends, so I have to call them tomorrow to find out what are game plan will be. I'm frustrated since I am actually doing what I am supposed to now. Just my luck that it would pick now to mess up. At least I have running to do now so that I am getting some airway clearance. Hopefully, I can get  a new one soon

Birthday Goodness

Wednesday was my birthday, and I am now 24 years old. There was a time when that was almost unheard of for someone who has Cystic Fibrosis. Amazing how times have changed. I have been working extremely hard to make myself as healthy as possible, and I have a lot of room for improvement. I have plans to live a long life and to have a family of my own. Neither of those things will happen if I don't work my butt off to keep my health up, so that is what I'm doing. I am on day 18 of 100% compliance with my treatments and medications. I have missed a few days of P90X, but I haven't quit. I am picking it back up where I left off so that I don't actually miss the workouts. I have also bought myself a treadmill. I figured, if I am really ever going to run daily, I am much more likely to do it if it is in the room down the hall. I will be bringing it home sometime next week, and I plan on  putting it to good use! And once that starts happening, you can be sure that I will be keeping my daily mile updated regularly so that you all can see what I am doing. All this to say.... I want to have a lot more birthdays!!!

My birthday was truly wonderful though. I had to work, but I really enjoy my coworkers and the children we work with which makes it much more enjoyable. I came home from work to my husband with a cake that he baked himself (his first ever). It was so sweet and really tasty. He was so proud of himself! I don't know how I got so lucky as to find someone as sweet and wonderful as Eldon! My day was filled with calls and messages from friends and family. I just feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life! I will be celebrating with my family over Thanksgiving when I go back home to Knoxville. I can't wait to see everybody!

Well, Happy Friday Everybody! Here's to doing treatments, working out, and hopefully many more birthdays! :)

Job Interview

After almost 2 years of applying for teaching positions, I had kind of lost hope of ever getting a job. Well, last week, I applied for a job like I always do with no hope of getting it. They called me the next day to set up an appointment for an interview. It was last Friday, and I think it went well, but I guess I will find out. Whether I get the job or not, I realized something really important. I have been applying for every job possible for close to 2 years with nothing... not even an interview. I started being 100% compliant with my treatments and medications October 31st. A little over a week later, I get a call for an interview. Coincidence??? I somehow don't think so. I truly believe that God was just waiting on me to figure out how to take care of myself before He would give me the opportunity to have a teaching job. I have to say that I am thankful for that, because if I had gotten a teaching job right after graduating from college, I can say with 95% certainty that my health would have steadily declined. I finally have my stuff together, so the next step is a job. Then... after that, who knows? Anyways, thoughts and prayers would be greatly appreciated, because this job would be really pretty perfect for me. The interviewing process for this job should be finished by the end of this week. I will keep you all posted when I find something out.

And to go along with this news, I have been compliant for 16 days now! :) One step at a time.

New features on my blog

Some of you may have already noticed, but I have added a few things to my page. If you look at the top, there are now a few tabs and there may be some more added in the near future. There is now a tab for my health stats where I will be keeping track of my pulmonary function test results so that you all can see where my numbers used to be, where they are now, and what progress I am making. The other tab is about 100% compliance. There is a clock on this page that is keeping track of how long it has been since I have missed any treatments or medications. In the past, I would miss a vitamin here or a treatment there, but that is coming to an end now. Both of these ideas were inspired by a fellow Cyster (female with Cystic Fibrosis). She has incorporated these things into her blog, and I thought it was a great idea. I'm looking forward to sharing this process of really trying to better myself and my health with you all. My goal for my next clinic visit is to get my FEV1 up to 60%. That is February 1st, so I have plenty of time to really work on it.  Happy Monday everyone! Hope your week is wonderful!

A Day in the Life

I was looking through my old blogs, and I realized that I have never done a post about what my day looks like with all of my medications and treatments. I feel like it is important to share that with everyone, because for someone who does not have CF and has not really been around someone who has it, Cystic Fibrosis can be a very abstract thing. The amount of work that goes into keeping a CF patient healthy is astronomical, and as you read through my day, you have to realize that there are a lot of people who have to do even more than I do. So, let's jump right in. This is a typical day for me:

7:00 am - 1st breathing treatment of the day :
                            5 blows on the Acapella

                            2 puffs of Albuterol
                            The Vest for 20 minutes

                            Hypertonic Saline about 15 minutes (inhaled saline solution..... makes me cough a lot)
                            Pulmozyme (inhaled medication) about 15 minutes
                            Tobi or Cayston depending on the month. I alternate those 2 every month. Right now I'm
                                    on Tobi. Tobi is inhaled and takes 10-15 minutes. Cayston is also inhaled
                                    but only takes about 5 minutes.
                            1 puff of Advair

          *Total of close to an hour if I'm on Tobi and 40 minutes if I'm on Cayston.

8:30 am - I take a Nexium, vitamin, and Azythromycin

8:40 am - leave for work

5:00 pm - get home from work
                If I'm on Cayston, I do my second does of it now.  5 minutes

6:00 pm - workout (an hour or more depending on the workout)

7:00 pm - 2nd vitamin

9:00 pm -  2nd full breathing treatment of the day:
                            5 blows on the Acapella
                            2 puffs of Albuterol
                            The Vest for 20 minutes
                            Hypertonic Saline 15 minutes
                            Tobi or Cayston - Tobi (10-15 minutes) Cayston (5 minutes)
                            1 puff of Advair
           *Total of close to an hour with Tobi and 40 minutes with Cayston

Before bed - 2 squirts of Flonase in each nostril

Every time I eat, I have to take digestive enzymes as well. I take 6 with meals and 4 with snacks.

 Again, I do not have the biggest and longest regimen of those who have CF. Mine is kind of in the middle, but there have definitely been times where I have struggled with spending all the time necessary to do the treatments. That is always a huge struggle for me, because, there is always something I'd rather be doing. I'm working on that though, and it is slowly starting to pay off as I saw last week at my clinic appointment.(FVC went up to 82% from 70%. FEV1 went from 45% to 54%.)  My goal for the next clinic appointment is to get my FEV1 up to 60%. How do I plan on doing that? 100% compliance with my medicines and treatments..... and keeping up my P90X workouts. I will keep you updated on my progress. :)