Positive Thoughts Thursday

It's been way  too long since I have done one of these!!

• I finally received my Tobi in the mail today (for anyone keeping track, its been almost a month now... gotta love insurance)!!! I'll be starting my 28 day cycle this evening and am really looking forward to how I'm going to feel when it's done. I think the sinus rinses, Kalydeco and Tobi are just what I need to clear up whatever the heck I've got going on right now. Although I have to add, I'm feeling slightly less sinus-y than I did a week ago. :)
• I also received a phone call today setting up my first round of Cayston. This is another inhaled neb which I will alternate with Tobi to help keep my lungs clear. According to my doctor, typically insurance doesn't like when CFers are on both (even though they're alternating months and never on both at the same time), but it doesn't sound like my insurance is putting up a fight...thank goodness!  I know many CFers who prefer Cayston over Tobi, so I'm curious to see how it works for me.
• I logged into Facebook this evening while doing my treatments and saw that my blog has been ranked 17th in the Top 35 Cystic Fibrosis blogs (check out my new award on the right)!! How cool is that?! I know that I've been slacking lately, but I really appreciate the constant support & comments from my readers. I hope to be spreading awareness and information about what it's like to live with CF - especially that it's not the end of the world!! I can still Live, Laugh, Love, Breathe & Be Happy! :)
• This Sunday, we'll be celebrating Tim's great-grandma's 100th birthday!! Her official birthday is tomorrow, and we usually celebrate her birthday the first weekend in March, but this year she pushed
  
  it back a week because she didn't want to celebrate her 100th without being 100 - didn't want to jinx herself! :) The picture on the right was from when we went camping (yes, she goes every year) this past September. She is one of the funniest and sweetest ladies I have ever met and I am privileged to be a part of her 100th birthday celebration on Sunday!

2012: A Year In Review

January: Tim was tested to see if he was a CF carrier and the test came back negative, yay! Also, Kalydeco was approved by the FDA for CFers with the G551D mutation(which I have)!!!
February: Lots of snow, a doctors appointment, and my first blog award.
March: I started running outside and planning for the 2nd annual DeKalb Great Strides. I unfortunately had to reset my compliance count after forgetting some albuterol over a weekend out of town. I was at 215 days!
April: DeKalb Great Strides event went very well and raised over $20,000! There was also lots more running/training for my first 5K.
May: I applied for teaching jobs like crazy, ran some more and registered for Brett's Run (5K).
June: I completed my first 5K! FINALLY got my first teaching job!! (This was a great month!)
July: We started planning for our move due to my new job, and I started bringing items into my new classroom.
August: The big move (about three hours south), the first day(s) of school, and motivated myself to keep running by signing up for another 5K.
September: I completed my second 5K (The Shoreline Classic) about a minute faster than my first, signed up for the Glo Run and Turkey Trot.
October: Tim and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary, and I developed my first chest cold of the season.
November: I completed the St. Louis Glo Run, our local Turkey Trot --and if you're counting, those were my 3rd and 4th 5K's of the year -- and I won a turkey at the Turkey Trot! :)
December: I won Bears vs Packers tickets and attended my first Bears game! I developed another chest infection due to my lovely, germy class/job. Oh, and we all survived "the end of the world". :-)

Overall, I'd say this was a pretty excellent year for me! I was able to accomplish/achieve many of my goals this year. I'm still working on getting my lung function up into the 90s and gaining back the weight I've lost from my added stress this fall. But these are things that I'll continue to work on in the coming year. I'm currently at 301 days of 100% compliance with my treatments - I'd say that another great accomplishment. This year was spent on trying to make myself the healthiest I could be by exercising and staying on track with my treatments. I plan on continuing my exercise this spring, while I focus on weight gain this winter. Here's to a happy, healthy, productive 2013!

My First Blog Award

My awesome blogging buddy, Kayla, recognized me for this Liebster Blog Award the other day. Liebster is German for 'dearest' or 'favorite'. I thought that was so awesome to receive a cute little award for blogging about my life, and that someone likes my blog enough to recognize it, so thanks again, Kayla! Kayla is a 24 year old CFer from Tennessee who also has a degree in Elementary Education, and graduated in 2010 -- weird, huh? So I love reading her blog because our lives are so similar, I love to see what she's up to - she recently just increased her PFTs by 9%!!!. You can read her blog here. :-)

So here are the rules for the Liebster Blog Award:
1) Acknowledge the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them. (Check)
2) Give this award to 5 other bloggers who have fewer than 200 readers. Let them know through a comment on their blog. (Check - below)
3) Post this wonderful award on your blog. (Check!)
4) Bask in the glory bestowed upon you and appreciate all the amazing bloggers out there. (Okay!)


Without further ado, here are the bloggers that I have chosen to pass the award onto:

1) I Have CF. So What?! - I met Lauren through CysticLife, I believe, or maybe another CF online group, I honestly don't remember anymore. She's definitely the one who inspired me to write my own blog and I don't know that I've ever thanked her for that, so THANKS LAUREN! Your blog is so inspirational to everyone, not just CFers. You go girl, keep up all of your hard work!! :-)
2) Breathing Deeply, Laughing Loudly, and Living Fully - I met Megan through CysticLife, she has a degree in education, is married to a teacher, and it turns out she only lives a little over an hour away from me and we go to the same CF clinic! (I love the internet!) We are at very similar places in our lives right now and we talk all the time. She's an amazing person and I'd love to meet her one day, as long as we stay three feet away! :)
3) Inhaling Hope - Inhaling Hope is another great friend from CysticLife in her 20s with CF and recently pregnant! She is currently working in a school (notice all of the education connections) while blogging about what it's like to have CF and be pregnant. I love reading all of her posts because she's not afraid to leave out any details - it's wonderful. Can't wait to see your Peanut!
4) My Life as a Livingston - Jenny is a mom, wife, step-mom and a CFer - woo! I love reading about how she deals with her CF and two girls and just life in general. She's also a person I found through CysticLife.
5) So Much For the Plan - I honestly don't remember how I came across Young Grasshopper's blog, but I instantly added it to my favorites! She's a recently diagnosed CFer and if that's not enough change in her life, she has five month old triplets!!

Each of these ladies has been an inspiration in my life in one way or another and I look forward to all of their new blog posts! It's wonderful to know that there are other people in the world that are going/have gone through through similar things as me, or are experiencing things that I hope to experience one day myself. If you've got some time, I strongly suggest checking out each of their stories.