Hubby's Back Home!

It's Saturday morning, and I am waiting for Jarrod to wake up right now. I know he wants to sleep in, but I really want to talk with him since he's been gone all week. Aside from setting the dog on the bed so she could lick his face—she didn't do it for once, she's on his side—I will let him sleep.

Jarrod had the work trip from hell this week. Thank goodness he doesn't check his luggage, only taking a carry-on bag, otherwise I'm sure they would have lost his luggage with the way everything was going. He left Monday morning around 9:15 from the house for his flight to Cleveland at noon. Then his flight was delayed for an hour, then 2 hours, then more. I think the plane finally left around 4:00.

Then on Tuesday he had to fly to NYC. That flight was delayed by two hours also. Then Wednesday night they had to drive to New Jersey in the middle of the night, and he tells me the roads in NJ are the worst, they make no sense and it is really difficult to figure out where you need to go.

Finally he and another guy were set to come home yesterday. They turned their rental car in, which was also a bit of a disaster in itself. It was missing two hubcaps, and one of the windshield wipers was broken and scratched some paint; he has no idea what happened to the hubcaps or when they fell off. Anyways, after that they went into Manhattan since their flight wasn't until 5:30. That afternoon, his flight was cancelled. Luckily he was able to get on another one at 8:15, but the other guy didn't. Then 8:15 rolled around and it was delated until 8:30... then 9:30... then 9:45.

He finally got home at 1:30 in the morning last night. Josie was sleeping on the bed with me when he came in and I don't know if I've ever seen her tail wag any faster than it was last night. She was soooooo excited to see him.

Jarrod has to travel again soon, let's just hope it goes a little better. He isn't flying with the same carrier next time, hopefully that'll help. Needless to say, he is NEVER flying again with the airline he had to use this time.

Oh Happy Day

...when Jesus washed (when Jesus washed),
when Jesus washed (when Jesus washed),
when Jesus washed (when Jesus washed),
He washed my sins away,
Oh happy day!

Ok, I'll stop. I've been listening to and belting out musicals in the car all day. I put on my "Fave Musicals" playlist in the car for my 3+ hours of driving.

I had my checkup today and it was amazing! My lung numbers are holding strong, I'm only a smidge 0.05 lower than I was back in December. So you could say they're basically steady. My weight is up a little, so that was good too. Ah... it's just so wonderful to have such good news.

Doing Well

In other news, I'm doing pretty well right now. Aside from waking up 1-2 times every night, things are going really well. Working from home is going great. And it turns out my work building was making me sicker than I even imagined. Back when we started talking about working from home, I told my doctor I was curious to see how much better I would feel. But I honestly didn't expect it to be this much better. Like... wow.

I've been out of the hospital almost three months, and haven't needed any oral antibiotics which is almost amazing. Furthermore, I've been able to avoid catching a cold too. I credit that to my diligent hand-washing these days.

Ever since November, every time I come home from going anywhere, right after I set my stuff down, I wash my hands. I also pay extreme attention to NOT touch my face while I'm out and about. Small changes like if my nose itches, I find a way to itch it with my shirt sleeve, not my hands. There are multiple surfaces that no one EVER cleans regularly (shopping cart handles [thankfully most stores have wipes now, but still], restaurant menus, the debit card keypad, the credit card pen, any sort of pen used by people to sign a receipt [pro tip: BYOP, bring your own pen], door handles, the handles to grocery store coolers, water fountains, just to name a few.) You obviously can't avoid these things completely, so I just wash my hands the moment I get home. Let's hope I continue to stay cold-and-flu-free!

And in even more news, my friend who went through the lung transplant is set to come home on Tuesday. She is doing fantastic (that's an understatement) and is a living, breathing reminder that miracles are possible and that every one of us is a living, breathing miracle.

Already Seeing Benefits!

My pulmonary rehab has been going well. After a slow start, I was doubtful as to how much progress I would be making. They started me out walking 2.0 miles per hour on the treadmill for 13 minutes... when I was doing 30 minutes at 2.5 or more at home. But after just under two weeks of it, I have progressed up to doing 22 minutes at 2.5 or 2.6, so it's good. When you combine that with 3 minutes on the arm machine (zero progress there, but that's fairly common) and 14 minutes on the step machine, it's over 30 minutes of exercise. So it's good.

However, I still sometimes wish they would push me a little harder. I know they're used to dealing with mostly older patients with COPD or weak hearts, but my heart is perfectly fine and I just feel I could be doing more. It's something I want to address with my doctor at my re-re-rescheduled appointment this Tuesday.

I'm starting to learn the names of some of the people who are there while I am, most predominantly an older man named Bob and a 50-something man named Greg. There are three nurses who work there regularly, and apparently a couple who fill in when needed though they haven't shown their faces yet.

But today I felt proof that even in just 2 weeks of rehab, I am starting to see some benefits. I ran up and down the stairs 3 different times today while Jarrod was working on the basement. And you know what? I wasn't out of breath! Since I use the step machine, it mimics walking up steps, but without the exertion because you're sitting. So I'm building up those muscles, and today they came in handy.

Update

Based on some updates I've seen on Facebook it sounds like Carla's surgery went well. There was a small complication with her one lung because a few months ago, that lung collapsed. The procedure they had to do at that time made transplant just a little bit longer, but other than that it sounds like it was great. The last thing I read was that, at some point tonight, she opened her eyes and smiled at her family who were there, which makes me tear up and smile too. Continue the prayers, she has a long journey ahead. But I'm excited to see what else God has in store for her! What a gift. 

For A Friend

Today is a big day for my friend with CF—she is getting new lungs today. They got the call last night and I saw updates on Facebook this morning that she was getting prepped. But things are looking good that it is actually going to happen. I am so happy for her, I know she will take such good care of her precious new lungs.

I texted her this morning and to my surprise, she texted me back! I thought she might already be asleep. But she said it would take 6-8 hours. A couple people are posting updates on Facebook; it's the one time I'm thankful for Facebook, haha. I ask that you keep her, her husband, the donor family, and the doctors in your prayers today.

Sochi Problems

I'm a fan of the Olympics, for some reason. I like the novelty of it: since it only happens every 4 years, and I like seeing the sports that are not common on TV. But based on everything I'm hearing, this is shaping up to be the strangest Olympics I've ever heard of. At the games in China in 2008, at that time I recall people being up in arms because, well, China's communist and also about a smog problem. Sochi is sounding worse. Here's a run down of everything I've heard so far:

• That infamous two-toilet-in-one-room photo?
• Plus you can't flush toilet paper there, you have to put your used toilet paper in a bin (Blech!) Apparently this isn't uncommon in other countries where they don't have the water pressure to move things through the pipes. But come on... a brand new resort, with brand new everything, should have plumbing strong enough to take care of this... especially for all of the money they've put into this thing.
• The tap water looks like pee and people are being told not to even wash their face with it.
• They have a stray dog problem and had promised to build a shelter for all of them a year ago, but it never happened. So instead, they are killing as many stray dogs as they can (most likely by poisoning them.) 
• It's the most expensive EVER, clocking in at $50 billion and counting (the previous holder of that title was China for the 2008 summer games at $40 billion.)
• Located in what is actually a beach town on the Black Sea, not usually that cold, complete with palm trees.
• Therefore they've had to truck in snow from the mountains and stockpile it for over a year, just in case they need it.
• Many structures are still being built, and the Olympics start on Friday 
• Some of the hotels were never even completed. And even in the ones that were, there are numerous reports that almost every single room is missing something: lightbulbs, covers for lights, curtains, televisions, shower curtains, hot water, or water at all (they seriously must have the worst project managers of all time.)
• Plus the fact that Sochi is located not all that far from controversial, violent areas that struggle with terrorists. Some are saying it will be the "most dangerous games ever"
• Plus the fact that they [the Russians] have been fighting with the Czechs for hundreds of years in this area, violently.
• Despite the insane amount of security they've hauled in, Americans are being told to not wear anything American or patriotic to make yourself look like an American. 
• Oh and there's the whole gay rights and free speech issues...

Tidbits and Musings

1. I'm supposed to have my doctor's appointment tomorrow, but with the incoming snow we will see if that happens. My dad is set to take me in the truck, but that may all change with the forecast tomorrow morning. This sucks and is also kind of funny because these appointments were already delayed and rescheduled once... due to the weather two weeks ago. So they might just be rescheduled again.
2. Even though the Super Bowl itself was not so good (if you're not a Seahawks fan [shout out to my favorite Seahawks fans, you know who you are!]) I thought the rest of it was good. For the first time in a while, you didn't have to hide your kids during the commercials or the halftime show. Bruno Mars did a great job, proving he was a worthy choice, and RHCP did fine too. I'm glad to see things are circling back around commercial-wise too. We weren't inundated with snarky or immature boobs and booze humor. Although I did feel some of the commercials were a bit too warm and fuzzy for my tastes. That being said, I still loved the Budweiser puppy; it's cute, and I love all things cute. And the puppy has a Twitter account, which I started following on Friday. It's adorable, and it started with a video of the puppy running giddily back and forth on a giant keyboard with the caption "I'm Tweeeeeeeeting!" Super cute.
3. Best new discovery to occupy your dog: stuffing treats into a Kong toy. Seriously. I bought some extra tasty peanut butter softie treats for Josie, and put a couple inside her Kong, and she is SET! It took her 1.5 hours the other day to get them all out (or lick them all away) the other day, and she never tired of it. Obviously, the treat is worth the effort, plus it keeps her mentally engaged aka, not bored.

Correction on Previous Blog

I stand corrected. My mom tells me that she "is pretty sure" Schnucks and Walmart offer free cookies to kids. Now that she says that, yes I've seen that at Walmart; people walk up to the bakery counter and an employee hands the child a cookie. But the employee didn't hand them out in the incident I wrote of, so I assumed they were taking them. Maybe they cleared it with the worker before they walked over, who knows. Either way, I apologize for bring you along on a rant. This DOES, however, make me glad that I minded my own business haha.

In other news, boy this has been an odd winter! I think it's that way for the entire country. Even my friend in Alaska said it was too warm up there last week. We had thunderstorms last night, thank goodness it wasn't all snow. And previously we had the -30 wind chills, a foot of snow, and our temps in general have been fluctuating on a grand scale. I'm ready for spring.