Race weekend

Today marks the beginning of another race weekend. My daughter and I are having a girls weekend which involves no cars unless I trade in my Grand Am for a Mustang at the last minute. I tend to buy fun things when my husband is out of town but I can't decide on a color and the rear wheel drive isn't very practical. Instead, we will be hanging out with our cousins (old and young) and going to a birthday party. I have promised that we can visit the Red Box which is thrilling for some reason that is beyond me. The crying about Daddy on the airplane has subsided for now.

An acquaintance sent me her summer bucket list this week. She sat down with her kids and made post it notes for short activites, 1/2 day activities, full day activities, and more than one day activities. She circulated the list to ask for input on other ideas. I find that the warm weather arrives much too late and leaves much too quickly. One of the things on our list for last year was to visit more state parks. We only made it to Nerstrand Big Woods but it was worth the trip. What is on your summer list?

I am a little worried this week about some of my favorite people. I think it is a great gift to have good friends and family. I am thankful this week for more yummy soup and a few extra treatments by hand. I am still hoping the paper fairy will come visit me and hold my hand to find the bottom of my desk. I still really miss my assistant at work. You would think that I would get over it anytime now.

Blessings,

Cindy

Doctor Day

The good news is that I got a pass from the big house! I was quite convinced that I should pack my pjs. I just can't seem to move the junk on my own very well. There are two scores that matter when you do PFTs. The first is the amount of air that you can blow in one second, your FEV1. Mine was up this week towards my normal range. It would still have most people on the couch but I will take it. The other score is the total amount of air you can blow out, your FVC or forced vital capacity. I still can't recreate some healthier numbers although it was better than last week.

The latest plan is to finish this round of IVs up over the next two weeks and wait another week to see what happens. I am going to be a little smarter this time and not make any fun plans until it really does look a little more promising. I have given up on covering my IV as it is just much too hot. I have gotten some very funny looks but my options of what to wear are much more fun.

Over the weekend, our family spent a lot of time outside. We had an impromptu picnic and finally got our bike shopping done. We also got our garden planted and my daughter had her first week of soccer. There is one other girl on her team but she missed last night. My daughter told me she was "surrounded by boys" but she kept up with all of them.

I am thankful today for a day with no plans or obligations. I am also thankful for the delivery of soup last week and the picnic that I didn't have to organize. I am looking forward to using my bike this week. We established that the bike trailer was needed after my daughter would only ride the length of two houses. I am also thankful to be wrapping up some prior committments and finding more time to just hang out.

Blessings,

Cindy

Doctor Day

Doctor Day didn't go so well on Friday. I had my bags packed and my family along to head to the lake after a quick visit to the doctor. I should really quit making such crazy plans because it didn't work out that way at all. After my PFTs (pulmonary function tests), we established that I wasn't going to the lake. The question remained whether I would be camping at home or in the big house. After a trip to x-ray, we determined that my problem wasn't actually pneumonia which bought me a ticket back to the blue couch.

While I was very thankful to be liberated of a trip to the big house, I was not at all happy about my family heading north without me. It was made worse by my daughter's attempts to be brave (and sleep without mommmy) and a lot of crying and telling her daddy to turn around. They survived the weekend without me, well, sort of. The car had problems and didn't run and my husband came back with an injured ankle.

There were several bright spots in the weekend. My friend tried to distract me on Friday afternoon and brought my dog back to me to reclaim his spot on the couch. My other friend arrived about as my last IV ended on Friday to help me out for the rest of the weekend. We managed to eat some good food, watch a funny movie, and work on a project. My mom arrived on Saturday with chicken dumpling soup in tow.

As I type, I am waiting for the last IV to finish so I can go to sleep. We added a new IV (or actually brought an old one back) to the routine. This means we are up to 4 vests a day and 6 IVs. My picc line is running a little slow so the IVs should run for 6 hours but it has been taking more like 9 hours. We are trying to recreate life in the big house while maintaining life on the outside.

Blessings,

Cindy