Thanks Day 24 (Thanksgiving Eve)

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we have our dinner with my Mom's side of the family. Last night was our dinner at our home. I got up early to run a few errands, pick up my Mom, and start cooking. We spent all day in my kitchen preparing every last drop of food. It was great! One of my absolute favorite things to do is to cook!

Overall we ended up having 16 people at the dinner table. Those that were there truly made it a wonderful Thanksgiving. To me, there is nothing like having your family sit around a HUGE table, laughing, talking, telling stories, and just being thankful for being together. It was perfect. Oh and the smells of the Thanksgiving food lingering in the house all day long, yum!

As part of our blessing last night I wanted to recognize my Mother. We had a very rough year with her, and her health. I honestly didn't even know if we'd be where we are right now. She's come a long way in the last 8 months and I couldn't be happier with her progress. I finally have my Mother back. For this, and our Thanksgiving Eve dinner, I am so very thankful.

Updates, CF stuff, and other Ramblings

Man I'm really not liking how I've barely had time to blog lately. Anyway.....there is still a ton going on, but I think things are slowly getting better for my Mom. She's still in the Nursing Home doing her physical therapy everyday. According to the family meeting that was had today, she will be there until she gains more strength in her lower extremeties. That being said, I think she'll be in a while longer. However she looks better, and is getting stronger and for that I'm very thankful.

I have to admit though that all of this family stress has definitely taken a toll on a lot of stuff. Nothing horrible, but I'm definitely feeing the effects of missing my "normal" life. I know these things happen, and in the grand scheme of life I'm so grateful for the supportive and wonderful people in my life. I guess I just miss some things right now, and am ready to be stress-free and focus on my goals again.

In other news of my life and CF, I'm happy to say that I started Cayston on March 31st and so far so good, well great actually. I really like it and am very pleased with how I feel. No awful side effects to report, still have a voice (bonus!), and my lungs feel very strong. I actually feel like I am taking much deeper breaths now, and I didn't realize that I wasn't before. It's even improved my running, and I'm running so much longer and actually losing track of time, awesome! Today @ the gym the only reason I had to stop running after 22 minutes was that my knees were killing me, not my lungs-yay!

CF wise, I also participated in a talk at University of Maryland about CF in which I was a guest speaker. I was so nervous, but it went very very well. I think I was able to give a lot of people some great perspective about CF and just what our daily life consists of to stay healthy. I took in ALL my meds, nebulizer, treatments, etc, I definitely opened up some eyes for sure. I was even told that I should look into doing more public speaking for CF, whoa :)

That's it for now...

Mom Update (still In)

First off, I'd like to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your loving comments, concerns, FB messages, etc. I am so fortunate to have such wonderful friends, and I am grateful for you all so much. It makes difficult and trying times like these easier with the strength of friends and family.

So a lot has gone on the last few days. To sum it up, she had an EGD and Colonoscopy in the hospital. The Dr. that consulted her I'm not a big fan of. I used to work at that hospital and unfortunately (or fortunately) know too much. So I talked to the Doctors @ my practice, they were on the phone immediately to help my Mom. Turns out one of my Docs did her procedure which made us feel a ton better. My Mom has one small but powerful advocate on her hands ;)
The Dr. called me personally to tell me the cause of her anemia was not and GI abnormality thank goodness! So no cancer, masses, polyps, etc. She has "Macrocytic Anemia" and long story short she is extremely Folic Acid deficient. Deep breath and sigh of relief, this is an easy fix.

Since Mom is "stable" she was transferred yesterday to a Nursing Home for Physical Therapy and rehabilitation. I'm happy that she is making progress, but am not thrilled she's in a Nursing Home. I've done clinical rotations there, and know the heart break of working there, and the sadness of those poor patients. I keep telling myself Mom's not there long term, just for P.T. and then she can come home. It's just heart wrenching, and sad. I'm the kind of person who wants to save everyone, and take all those little cuties home with me and rescue them.

I just got home from visiting Mom there for the first time. It was sad, and as soon as she saw me she cried....a lot. Heck, I did too, because it just doesn't feel right not having her at home with my Dad. However she's got to do this, and we're behind her every step of the way.

I've taken a step back and realized how true it is that my CF has to come first. I'm certainly no good to her, my Dad, or anyone If I'm not healthy. I should know better, but I guess seeing your Mom go through stuff, makes it hard for me not to want to take care of everyone else first. But I'm happy to report, I've been going to the gym, getting a lot more rest, and am feeling great. Run down at times, but making sure my health is first and foremost. I even treated myself yesterday to a fresh haircut and highlights. It's the little things :)

We have a long road ahead of us, but are in progress of knocking those road blocks down, one by one. Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. XO