Quick update...

Thought I'd do a quick update seeing as I've been neglegting the blog during Oct! If you look at my blog archive you'll see what I mean! Work's been good this week, and only 2 working days left 'till another awesome weekend! YAY!!!!!

On Tuesday night Chris came over, and I prepared dinner for us, after which we went to see a movie. Very cool mid-week (well almost) break! Last night was church cell, which was also great.

I'm hoping to have a quiet evening home tonight... before the weekend starts. Seems like we'll be going to another Halloween party, and who knows what else! Will update again sometime during the weekend! Hope you have a good one!

P.S. I wish I knew a year ago when I was feeling CRAP that I'd be so healthy and happy in a year's time... would've made it a lot easier!!!!!

150 003 visitors!!!!

Wow... can't believe I missed the 150 000 mark by 3 visitors!!!! Damn... but I'm thankfull for ANY visitors, so who cares! The rest of the weekend was brilliant. Chris and I went to church on Sunday morning, and played squash, after which he prepared lunch!!! VERY yummy lemon pepper chicken and pasta... mmmmmmmm...... felt like a kept woman I tell you... ;-)

Yesterday was a REALLY lazy Monday, but at least the day went by pretty quickely, and I went to gym after work, which was really the last nail in my being-tired coffin! Slept like a baby, and feeling nice and awake today! Hopefully the day goes by as fast as yesterday!

Nothing much else to report, just wishing some friends would get lungs SOON... Andrê is doing well, by the way!!! SOOOO gratefull towards my donor and her family... can't actually put it in words...

World's Biggest Walk etc

So today was the World's Biggest Walk!! Luckily for me/us it was 2pm South African time, and not some obscure ungodly hour... YAY!!! It went well, weather was fine, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Aviva, Chris and I walked together. Check out the pics!!

What else has been happening... Work is fine. Went to see a chick flick movie with Jenny on Thursday, the new Richard Gere movie... Nights in Rodanthe (I think). Was great, just a tad sad. Last night Chris and I went for supper with Paul and Jenny, and Peter was also here (he's back in Cape Town, but comes up once a month for check-up). Was very cool, and the food delicious, as always.

This morning Chris and I went to do a bit of shopping, did the walk, and then had a late lunch. Tonight I'm just watching a bit of TV, and it's STORMING outside. Awesome! Tomorrow morning we'll be going to church and then playing squash!!!!

That's about it for now. Enjoy the rest of the weekend, and hope you took part in your local walk!!!!

9 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9 Months ago at exactly this time I was under the knife.... The most important moment of my life thusfar, obviously. I've also realised that 9 months is a pretty long time.... can't believe people are pregnant for that long!!!!!! It feels like a mini-lifetime... Making a list of everything I've done in the past 9 months would be pointless... but needless to say (and you just have to read this blog for confirmation), it's been EVERYTHING... the most important being BREATHING.

My week's been busy as usual thusfar... went for lungfunctions on Monday, and saw Paul (Dr) yesterday. FEV1 was 97%, FeNO 15, bloods all good... blood pressure just a bit high (OK very high), but seriously... who's wouldn't be after working for 9.5 hours, being stuck in traffic for 30mins before the actual appointment, almost being late... having someone (read Chris) go with me to the Dr... so yes... I'm supposed to 'watch' my BP... at least we went out for burgers afterwards, so I'm sure that lowered my BP!

Going to church cell tonight, gym after work tomorrow, and on Friday we're having supper at Paul and Jenny's place... after which another glorious weekend will follow... including the WORLD'S BIGGEST WALK!!!!!!!!

So that's it for now... I'm extremely thankfull for my lungs, and thank God for this second life every day.... and pray for my donor's family...

P.S. I've included some more Jacaranda pics.... just because I'm obsessed with taking pis of them from my car when stuck in traffic!!!

Weekend

The weekend's been awesome so far. Squash was cool yesterday, finding outfits to wear was cool, having ice-cream was cool, the party was very nice, the food was stunning. Not much more to say than that, lol! Busy doing some ironing now :-(, going to play squash again later, going to church this evening, then it's off to bed and the start of another week!!!! Hope your weekend was as cool as mine ;-)

Good Times

Originally when I started working in JHB I thought that I'd be able to blog more often.... however when you get into a routine of going to work/gym everyday you find that you don't always have that much to say, lol! Apart from being SUPER busy. However, this morning I've got LOTS to say ;-)

Firstly, regarding the pics.... October is Jacaranda month here, and all the Jacarande trees are magically purple, which is STUNNING. The pic on your left here was taken from the balcony at the office, and the others were taken through the windscreen of my car while being stuck in traffic! It's not indigenous, but comes from South America (thank you Wikipedia!), but there are lots of them in Joburg and Pretoria. Pretoria is known as the Jacaranda-city, but JHB officially has more of them (but is also a bigger city by far, so it prob seems like there's less of them.) Anyway, enough about trees....

Yesterday at work there was a medical aid Co doing voluntary health checks and massages and manicures etc. Included in the health check you answer questionaires on the computer, and it then calculates you body's 'real'age according to them! Well my Blood Pressure was a bit high (148/85), and my random glucose was 10 (after lunch that is), but the rest of my numbers were great. The nurse/Dr couldn't believe I had had a transplant! I told him right after I sat down and he asked me "So, do you have any sort of significant medical history?" So I just came right and said "Yes, a double lung transplant" The guy was pretty speechless, but wanted to ask loads of questions and asked me if I could humour him and let him do the tests, which I thought was pretty cool. My age according to them was 30.... but obviously the answers to their questions don't really provide for people that have had transplants! Oh, and the massage and manicure were AWESOME.... (btw... I should have blackmailed them and said they must pay ME NOT to join them... ie pay me R1000 a month and I wont join and cost them like R20 000 a month!!!! It's a win-win situation...)

Last night I went to see a movie with Chris, and I made him and my dad supper beforehand. Tonight we're going to a Halloween themed/dress-up party/housewarming! So we're going to have to go look for costumes today, and are also going to be playing some squash!!!! And I'm going for bloods at about 8am... will be doing lung-functions and seeing Paul somewhere during next week...

On a final note... I was very upset this week about Tricia... seems like her cancer might have spread. This is so disturbing, as a) they've been through hell and back, and b) I've been so fortunate with my health, and I have no dependants/spouses, whereas she has a husband and a baby, and needs her health more than I do. I wish we could understand the ways in which everything works and God's plan....

The difference...

This morning while getting ready for work, Bree and I were chatting about what it feels like to be able to breath etc. Well she was asking me what it feels like to wake up and breathing easier, and actually feeling BETTER than you did the night before because you're rested. As opposed to waking up feeling like you've had a cement block chained to your chest etc... And how it feels to be able to get ready for someting in a short amount of time. As opposed to having to do nebs for hours first, and needing a nap again afterwards. So I decided (in a moment of genius at work today) to draw up a comparrison (having though about it at work, where I'm drawing up comparisons all the time, lol!) I will be comparing my day on 14 January 2008 to 14 Oct 2008... Luckily I'm pretty annalytical and write everything in my diary!

14 Jan 2008

• woke up probably at about 8am, due to not being able to breath while sleeping anymore.
• drag myself to my desk, where I nebulise Venteze, to open up my chest to be able to walk downstairs for breakfast. Takes about an hour in the end, as it triggers massive couching/semi-vomiting fits.
• go downstaits, rest at the kitchen table for a few mins. Stand up, make toast or eat the porrigde my mom force-feeded me (in the nicest possible of ways!!!) in order for me to pick up some weight.
• 'walk' to the PC, facebooked a bit and checked e-mails.
• dragged myself back up to my room, decided I neede some more Venteze, chest felt like it's closing up again. Then did about 1 minute of hypertonic saline but made me want to vomit, so I stop. Nebulise Colistin.
• get dressed, after which I have to sit to catch my breath.
• had physio at 12h00 for about an hour.
• get back home, lay with head on cool kitchen counter for a while, drag myself back upstairs to lay on bed for a while.
• feel better after that, and hang out with Antoinette and someone else for a while. Not sure where or who the other party was, didn't write it down...
• blogged: http://livinglifebreathlessly.blogspot.com/2008/01/finally-some-news.html
• BIG news for the day though: heard that if a woman waiting in the US for lungs decides to come back I could go to Florida to get my lungs there, where the waiting list is shorter... ( that woman eventually got lungs a week later... and so did I)

14 Oct 2008

• woke up at 5:45am, full of energy, lay in my back for a while (couldn't do this before), just because I can.
• get up at 6am, and within 45mins I wash my hair, eat, decide what to wear, get dressed, wash the dishes, chatted to Bree, tidy my room and pack my bag for gym.
• leave for work at 6:45am, and arrive there at 7:30am.
• spend the entire day being normal and not coughing and working and drinking coffee etc... and trying not to eat too much as I'm so normal now I can even get fat, lol!!!
• Apart from the 4 or so people who knows about my transplant, everyone thinks I'm normal.
• Leave at 5pm and head for gym.
• Gym for about 1h20 mins, still have lots of energy. Got home at about 7:15pm.
• eat, relax, blog...
• and will go to bed at about 10pm WITHOUT HAVING TO NEBULISE. Just have to brush my teeth, take my pills, and fall into bed.... thinking lots of wonderfull thoughts ;-)

Don't think I need to say more...

Sorry!!!!

Sorry for not blogging in such a long time!!!! I've been sooooo busy... working, gymming, went to church cell etc. Friday night I went out for supper (read date) with a guy called Chris, and yesterday we went to the Botanical Gardens. Last night I also helped out at church function, pouring coffee.

Today I'm going to a braai (BBQ) at Jenny's place!!! Looking forward to it quite a bit, as I haven't had braaied meat in a loooooong time, and am probably experiencing withdrawl without even noticing, lol!! Come to think of it... haven't had red meat in a while!

The lungies are doing fine!!!! Have managed to bypass a few colds in the office, for which I am VERY thankfull. Must get more sleep in though... although me not being able to fall as

leep lately is not exactly something I can do about... Let's hope this week goes better than the last as far as that's concerned!

The pics were taken at the botanical gardens...

Important news first: Annelie finished her run in 1hr 55 mins and 36 seconds!!!!!!!!

A message from her:

"Thank-you to your blog readers who sponsored me for the Great North Run in Newcasle. It was a great day and to take part to raise money for the CF Trust. I raised £480, thanks to Peter, Lou and Kelly that supported me. Hope I will get more sponsors next year for the London Marathon in April and I pledge to raise £2000 for the CF Trust.Annelie xx"

For the rest I don't have much news... just working ;-) Liking it very much indeed. I'm into a good routine now... leave home at 6:45am and get back at 5:45pm... gym on Tuesdys and Thursdys (at least), church cell on Wednesdays (on my way now...). So I'm pretty busy!!! My lungs are supporting me very nicely indeed, and I have NO COMPLAINTS....

Have to go now... promise to write an interesting entry again somewhere in the week, lol!!!

First Sunday in October...

Pretty boring title for a pretty boring weekend!!! Don't have much to report on... Basically spent the weekend recovering from last week and preparing for this week!!! I:

• did shopping
• watched The Other Boleyn Girl on DVD with Jenny
• went to gym
• managed to lose my debit card
• managed to go to the bank today (on a SUNDAY) and replace my debit card with one that is prettier than the old one (mmm, is it worrying to know that I work for a financial institution and worry about how pretty my debit card is???)
• went to church

And that's about it. I have to read up some work-related stuff now, and going to bed early (again) tonight. Hope I have some more interesting stuff to report on during the week!!

Last chance to sponsor Annelie!!!!!!!

Annelie is running the CF run on Sunday!!!! It's HUGE, going to be on BBC1 etc!!! So if you have some bucks laying around... you know what to do!!! (ignore the American economical crisis! It's temporary, CF is for LIFE, lol!!!) Go to http://www.justgiving.com/anneliewhitfield ..... And to everyone who HAS donated SO GENEROUSLY, THANKS A BILLION!!!

Work's been great. Liking it a lot, even though the first while is always a bit difficult. Feeling so NORMAL :-)