2013

Here's 102 blog posts from this year summed up into one. This year was full of exciting adventures for Tim and I, the most exciting being that we finally purchased our first home!

• At the beginning of this year, I was presented with the possibility of having CFRD. Thankfully after meeting a wonderful endocrinologist in Chicago, he taught me how to adjust my diet to keep my sugars in check without having to have insulin injections, yay!
• In February, unfortunately I had to reset my compliance count due to lovely mail order pharmacy mix ups. I did, however, proudly complete 100% of my treatments for 352 days!! I reset my count on March 1st, which puts me at 312 days today!
• Also in March, we celebrated Tim's great grandma's 99th birthday, learned about the new CFF regulations (which caused a huge uproar and debate among CFers), and we got the ball rolling on the CF Living video phone interviews and plans!!
• April was a busy month! Tim and I shot our CF Living footage which was harder than I thought, but SO rewarding! I attended another Great Strides in DeKalb, the TOBI Podhaler was released, our kitten, Ozzie, was born, and I started taking the best thing ever = PROBIOTICS!.
• May was pretty uneventful, aside from me finishing up my first year of teaching! Tim celebrated his 27th birthday and we were able to spend some quality time with our adorable nephew, Isaac.
•  In June, we finalized our first house mess, and found a house that we both loved and went under contract on it. We traveled to Tennessee to meet our newest nephew, Liam, and spend time with family. Tim also kicked my butt in Brett's Run!
• July was a busy, fun-filled month! I attended my best friend's bachelorette party, spent lots of time with family, brought Ozzie home, went to Country Thunder and became a home-owner!!
• Our first chapter of our Day in the Life series finally came out and I was so surprised and humbled by all of the amazing and supportive feedback. I also started my second year of teaching - this year in first grade. And of course, started taking Kalydeco on August 30.
• In September, Tim and I continued to work on our house, we did our annual camping trip with his family which is always a great time, and we attended the most love-filled wedding I've ever been to - Jessie & Jeremy's wedding. :-)
• October is always special to me because its our anniversary month. We celebrated our third anniversary this year and we're not just married anymore, but we're now married home-owners! Tim and I also went to the Peoria Great Strides which was excellent! I was asked to speak there and we also met my blogger, CF friend, Cheriz. Finally, I had my first post-Kalydeco clinic visit where I gained 6lbs, my FEV1 increased by 5% and my small airway lung function went up by 18%!!!
• In November, Tim and I conquered 58 flights of stairs at our first CF CLIMB! Then I signed us up for the CF Rock Rivers 5K in Michigan in March, put on by the lovely Emily Schaller.
• December was full of ups and downs, and sadly ended on a very low note. We lost our great friend Jeremy on December 31. We celebrated his life in Ohio with Jessie and his family the first weekend in January, and I'm very glad we were able to attend to say our 'see you laters'.

I feel like things can only go up from here and I need to keep that positive attitude. Here's to a happy, healthy, productive and positive 2014!!!

Clinic Day & Positive Thoughts Thursday

I had my CF clinic appointment today and number-wise it wasn't the best, but feeling-wise it went well. Everything's pretty much the same as my last appointment - my lung function is still hovering in the high 70s which I really don't like to see, but I've been feeling really great lately. My weight is about the same - today it was 108.5. Thankfully I have a wonderful relationship with my doctor and I was able to explain to her how I was feeling and she understands that sometimes the numbers don't reflect that. She just told me not to worry or focus on the numbers which made me feel better...as long as things don't keep going down, that's what matters. Of course I'm still trying to increase my weight and lung function (always!), but for some reason it's just sticking where it is right now, so I think I'm going to really have to take advantage of the next month and really kick my butt into gear. I need to make sure that I'm consistently exercising and consuming at least 2,500 calories per day, especially before I head back to work.

We did discuss the possibility of adding Kalydeco into my life if I can't seem to get out of this rut which really makes me excited. When Kalydeco first came out I was honestly a little hesitant about going on it. In a weird way, I felt like if I started taking Kalydeco, then I was "giving up" on fighting CF myself. After typing that out, it sounds totally strange, but that's the way I felt. I feel like I've been doing a really great job keeping myself healthy and I didn't want to....I don't even know how to word it... I was also concerned that 'What if I was taking it for several months, saw a great increase in lung function, and then for some reason I had to stop taking it and then my lung function would go back down (to the 80s which is still 'normal') and I would feel like complete crap.' I was nervous that once I started it, it would be something that I'd never be able to live without, something that I'd rely on forever.
But after a great discussion with my doctor today, she put it in perspective for me. Everything that I'm doing now -Vest twice a day, six-eight nebulizers a day, countless amounts of pills, etc -I'm going to rely on those forever to keep me healthy, so what's another pill? Especially if it's going to change things for the better, increase my quality of life, and possibly reduce the amount of medication/treatments I do now...duh! What was I thinking?! So the plan is to see how the next few months go and at my next clinic appointment in October we'll make the decision on whether to start the approval paperwork, or to keep it on the back burner.

And finally, I've totally been slacking on my positive thoughts Thursday posts over the past few months, honestly, because we've been completely stressed...which is probably when I should be doing it, but either way here's some recent positive thoughts:

• We are 15 days away from our scheduled closing date on our first home! As long as everything keeps going according to plan we should be moved in before August! Yay!
• The possibility of Kalydeco entering my life is starting to get me really excited it. Of course it may not be until the end of this year, it's something that I'm looking forward to. :)
• I love summer break! Not a huge fan of summer weather, but the time off is amazing! I've been able to do way more this summer than I even thought I was going to do and there are still several more fun things planned...next one on the list: Country Thunder! One week from today! Oh yeah!
• Our new little guy, Ozzie, is adjusting very well to life in our home. He has an enormous amount of energy and he's hilarious to watch when he's running around! Archie is also doing a wonderful job being patient with him and playing (usually) gently with him. 

Can you tell who's who?! Haha...Archie's (4 yrs old) a big hefalump, but
Tim thinks Ozzie (3 months) might get to be about his size...we'll see. :) 

Holiday Weekend

We had such a fun and busy 4th of July weekend! We spent Thursday during the day hanging out with all of Tim's family and then that night we enjoyed fireworks together. I have a soft spot for the fourth of July because that was the night that Tim proposed to me, four years ago. :-)

The following day, my 25th birthday, a bunch of us went together to see Despicable Me 2. It was so cute, during the show, our three year old nephew, Cole, would tap us on the shoulder and say, "Tim, Tim,(or Coyeen, Coyeen) shhhhh!" when we weren't even talking, haha. :) That night they also surprised me with a delicious Reese's ice cream cake!

On Saturday, Tim's other sister, her husband & their son came up for the day to visit. We hung out at Tim's dad's house where some went swimming while I was on baby Liam watch. :) Then we visited Tim's mom so she could see all of the boys. Finally, on Sunday, I drove up for my friend Catie's bridal shower while Tim stayed to hang out with his sister, her kids, and his grandma.

When I came back from the bridal shower, we packed up all of our stuff from the weekend, headed out to Tim's dad's house to pick up our kitty, Ozzie (which we finally agreed on the day before we got him) and finally bring him home! He is so adorable and FULL of energy! I've never had a kitten before so this is a totally new experience for me. Archie is being very patient with him and they even were playing together for a little bit today without Archie being totally overbearing -- he means well, he's just super friendly...which is kind of scary to a tiny kitten. It's been an interesting (and exhausting!)
couple of days having him home, but I love it. It's going to be so fun when him and Archie are comfortable with each other because I think they're going to get along very well.

Next on my summer 'to-do' list is my CF clinic appointment which is tomorrow. I'm planning on heading up to stay with my parents this evening to make the drive more bearable tomorrow morning. I'm hoping for a slight increase in my weight and lung function. I've been trying to do my medicine ball workout video a couple times a week and I'm at 131 days of 100% compliance with all of my treatments. I've been feeling good, coughing out a lot of nasty mucus (but not anything more than usual, which is good), so I'm hoping that shows tomorrow. If not, at least I know that I'm feeling well and that's what matters.

And hopefully in the next week or two I'll finally be able to share with you something that I'm totally proud of...as for now though, my lips are sealed. ;) Stay tuned....