Thursday Thoughts...

So as most of you know I have been recouperating for about a month now from battling pneumonia. Just wanted to share some thoughts with you real quick about how I am doing and what I am doing to help in my recouperation.

I am feeling much better than I did one, even two months ago... way back in April... when all this started. However it has been a very long road to this point. Some days are better than others and I am still in the process of balancing soooo many doctors appointments.

One thing I did want to mention though is something that I have taken it upon myself to add to my daily routine of treatments and excercising... and that is an incentive spirometer. If you have ever had surgery or pneumonia or if you deal with Cystic Fibrosis in your own life you know what I am talking about.
Usually you use this device while you are in the hospital and then once you go home they tell you that you do not have to use it anymore.
I have decided to make it a permanenat part of my routine. I must say when I first used the device in the hospital I was only getting up to about 800... now two months after faithfully using this thing I am reaching the 2000 mark - which I was ecstatic about! I do this thing 3 times a day with my treatments and I'm telling you I am noticing a difference each day. My goal is to push it to the top if at all possible. It may take me a while, but I am determined to keep pushing until I reach that goal! Its not as easy as it looks (esp. for someone with CF) but the object is to put your mouth around the mouth piece and breathe in as deep as you can keeping the marker on the right in the "happy face" area while the yellow piece at the bottom on the left moves up as you inhale as deeply as you can- measuring how high you can push it.
I keep telling myself that I will make it to 4000, which for those of you that know me and Zach- is what Zach got when I made him do it. I was THRILLED when I hit 2000, because that meant that I was half way to that goal! I think when I hit 4000, I will throw a party!
Here is a description so you know what I am talking about:

Why Should You Use an Incentive Spirometer?
Deep breathing helps alveoli, the small air sacs deep in your lungs, fully expand.  Though you’re probably not aware of doing it, you normally take many deep breaths every hour.  As well, you probably yawn or sigh numerous times without knowing it.  However, your normal breathing pattern may change.  When you lie in bed for a long time (while recovering from injuries or surgeries, for instance) you tend to take shallow breaths and not cough as often as needed.  You might start taking shallow breaths in an attempt to decrease pain associated with chest surgery or abdominal surgery.  Using an incentive spirometer will help you return to normal breathing rhythms.  By inhaling deeply, you also help mobilize secretions and open areas of the lungs that my have collapsed.

Using an incentive spirometer will mimic natural sighing and yawning and encourage you to take slow, deep breaths.  After major surgeries, it’s important to take your spirometer home with you and continue your breathing exercises at home.  Not only will this help restore your regular breathing rhythm, but it will also help you avoid atlectasis (a collapsed or airless condition of the lung) and pneumonia.

Humpday Humor

It's Wednesday! And that means it is time for some humpday humor!

This sounds like something I would overhear in our local Wal-Mart so I had to post it!

I was checking out at a busy supermarket and the cashier was having problems. The register ran out of paper, the scanner malfunctioned, and then the cashier spilled a handful of coins.

When she totaled my order, it came to exactly $22. Trying to soothe her nerves, I said, "That's a nice round figure."

Still frazzled, she glared at me and said, "You're no bean pole yourself!"

Port dye study

Normally this would be a "Together Tuesday" post... but I have been balancing so many doctor's appointments lately I thought I would give an update on my port (central line).

I had a port dye study done today to look at my central line to make sure that everything is going okay with it and that it does not have any clots or leaks in the line...

I had a busy day... beginning with normal treatments this morning at 4:45am and then Zach dropped me by mom's house on his way to work around 8:15am. Mom took me to the pulmonologist's office to drop off some sample "goobers" (if you dont know what goobers are... you dont have CF...) and then it was over to the hospital for the port dye study.
Having not personnaly met this particular vascular surgeon I was a tad nervous... so vitals were a bit elevated but all in all normal for me. The nurses in the pre surgical prep area were super... Beth and Kelly. They were excellent and helped put me to ease in no time... they also allowed mom to come back with me which I thought was very sweet.
After accessing my port (which I was most nervous about) and seeing that it worked beautifully as always I waited for them to call me into the OR.
I met Dr. Landis- great guy with a great sense of humor, he asked me if I was not aware that there was an age limit on access to that room. He proceeded to tell me you had to be at least 80! I laughed and knew right away this guy knew his stuff... so I relaxed a bit. Then told him that my lungs probably looked about 80! He got a good laugh from that too!
They put me on a nice cold table, covered me with some warm toasty blankets and hooke me up to some fancy glow in the dark contrast dye! They even put the monitor in front of me so I could watch everything they saw. As Dr. Landis pushed the dye through my line it lit up like a glow worm on the monitor- pretty cool! I could see exactly where the dye was traveling and (now that I have taken the long way around) the good news is that there is no problem with my 8 year old port! Yes you heard me... my port is almost 8 years old and still works like the first day they put it in!
I am so thankful that there is nothing wrong with this port and I am not facing any proceedures to try to fix it or worse have it removed! This port has been a life saver for all the meds I am on intraveneously from month to month... so I was really praying there was nothing wrong with it!
That news made my day!

Here are some examples of what the port looks like:

I spent the rest of the afternoon with my mom at her house, just taking it easy. But when I got home that evening after Zach and I had supper and were getting ready for bed... I broke out in hives. OY... I was not a happy camper. Turns out I was having an allergic reaction to the contrast dye- which contains iodine. Some people have reactions right away, others, like myself, have a reaction after enough of the iodine builds up in your system. Considering this is the third scan I have had in 3 months with some type of dye, I guess it was bound to happen at some point. So now I will add contrast dye to my long list of medical allergies...
I have taken some benadryl and am hopeful these dreadful things are gone in the morning!