ON MY WAY TO CAPE TOWN!!!!!

Just a quick update... surgery went well on Monday. No hassles, except that they only took me into theatre at about 5pm (was supposed to be "mid-morning"), and I was STARVING. Was so hungry I actually wanted to cry! Had McDonalds burger afterwards so then all was good again :-) Didn't take any extra time off so was back at work on Tuesday. Later this afternoon we're flying to Cape Town for a long weekend and wedding! So excited, haven't had a holiday since our honeymoon in Aug. Even if this is only 3 days, it's beter than nothing! My camera is broken, but will hopefully make a plan and take some pics!

busy busy busy!

This week may have only been 4 working days, but WOW it was busy!!! Apart from work, we had supper with friends on Wednesday night, last night was gym again followed by driving to Chris's office to get his laptop and 3G for him to stay home today (explanation to follow shortly!). Today I was at work for 12 hours (07h00 to 19h00), excluding the 1.5 hours traveling time. And work was so busy, combined with trying to get my medical aid pre-authorisation for gynae-surgery, thought I was going to cry!

This weekend's going to be nice though, tomorrow morning we have some gift and travel shopping to do, and get passport pics taken. Also have pizza and movie planned with friends in their new house tomorrow evening, and a 1 year old's birthday to celebrate on Sunday! Enough to keep my mind off Monday!

So surgery is on Monday... not dreading it too much, but irritated with the frequency of this!!! If the leave the abnormal stuffs, they can become cancerous. And cervical cancer is not exactly on my bucket list. I suppose at least if it came down to it they can remove all those bits because they're not vital to survival as opposed to like a kidney or whatever, but still, I'm not warmed up to the possibility of hysterectomy before 30! But I'm jumping the gun here, just thinking about the future.

That's Monday... Tuesday is our appointment for our UK Visa's, very excited about that! Thursday eve we fly down to Cape Town for a good friend's wedding on Friday evening! Then we spend the rest of the weekend in CT, also seeing Chris's family.

Chris is still pretty sick, his cold (courtesy of moi) has gone to his lungs, but luckily he saw a Dr yesterday and got some antibiotics and stuff, so hopefully he'll be better soon now, and I won't be kept awake by all the coughing anymore (karma????). I feel for my parents and sister all those years!!!!!!!! He was booked off from work today, which is why we had to go get his laptop at the office.

Off to bed soon, long week with little sleep and lots of stress.

Day 30 - A picture of yourself.

And that's the end of the 30 day challenge, took a bit longer, hahaha!

Day 29 - A picture that can always make you smile

I've got a lot of other pics that make me smile, but of all the ones on my laptop I chose this one. Some of us at the airport ready to depart for Aus WTG 2009!!!!

Day 28 - A picture of you last year and today with a description of how you've changed.

Top one is last year and bottom one is today with my phone because camera batteries broken :-( What's changed? I am married now, we own 2 cats, lungs are the same I think! Weight up a tiny bit, F#*&^$# insulin, hoping some of it is muscles too. Hair shorter. Same job still, homeowner and living with Chris! Hoping in a year's time not much will have changed!!! Maybe the job but that's it!

Human Rights Day

Today's a public holiday, yay! Just as well, because it's been a bit of a rough weekend! Saterday night was an old chool friend of mine Suzanne's bachelorette party! It was a sleepover thing... 7 of us girls went to a lodge close to joburg, where they've got their own local little shebeen (South African word for pub in the very poor black squatter camps/ townships. So the furniture is old and the decor is scrap-metal and roadsigns and antiques... hope that makes sense!) We had an awesome meal, eating with just a metal plate and a spoon, and all the drinks were served in metal mugs. And drinks there were!!!! Went to bed a bit after midnight, although didnt sleep much once in bed anyway! Had a great farmhouse breakfast on Sunday morning, after which we felt a lot better!!!

Got home after lunch yesterday, Chris and I did some grocery shopping, and the rest of the day was spent doing nothing! Today I hope to get a nice gym workout in, do some washing, and go to bed early again!

Got some crap news on Sat... my cervix is still showing abnormal cells, after they supposedly got rid of then in Dec. So my gynae will have to repeat the operation/procedure :-( Not cool :-( Waiting to hear abt a date, but will we soon.

Day 27 - A picture of something you're afraid of.

CHRONIC REJECTION!!!!!!!!!

Day 26 - A picture of something that mean's a lot to you.

The intranet! It enabled me to learn a lot more about CF, I was interacting with CF people without fear of cross-infection for the first time in my life. I discovered that there is such a thing as a lung transplant. I knew most of what a transplant involves by the time the Drs told me. Through facebook I have met more fellow CFers and transplantees who understand my health better than any of my "real-life" friends do. I also met Chris via the internet. So who knows where I'd be without this awesome tool!!!!

Cold update!

So my cold is still lingering... haven't been able to go back to gym yet :-( Did some gardening though this weekend. maybe too much... oops!!! Throat fine, nose still snotted up, and bit of a drying cough/nasal drip. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Slept too little last night: Chris flew to Durban for the day today, and had to get up at 4am. Obviously I also didn't sleep much again after that. Still waitning for him to get back, but hopefully we get some more sleep tonight! Oh, and I made him sick too...

Today marks 3 months till we leave for Sweden!!! Hope all goes smoothly untill then!

P.S. I got news from Bree via friends of hers on fb... she's still in hosp, struggling with her vision :-( Please get better soon now Bree!!!!

Day 25 - A picture of your favourite memory.

Summers as a child in Port Elizabeth in our house. Swimming in the sea, cookies and tea! Our house was about 200m from the beach, we went to the beach every day that the weather allowed. We'd return home starving, and gulp down cookies and tea after a bath. In the afternoons the wind normally blew, so it was reading time. This pic was taken Christmas 1994 I think. My sister and I got those dresses for Chistmas. Some of my best memories!

Day 24 - A picture of yourself and a family member.

Me with my grandparents on my mom's side, the first time they saw me post transplant!!!

Day 23 - A picture of something you crave

I crave lots and lots of sweets! Stupid CF/Prograf related diabetes :-( Mostly only get to have some sweeties if sugar low, and then they're wolfed down so fast I barely taste them. Ugh...

Day 22 - A picture of something that confuses you.

Glass half empty people. Pessimists. I don't understand how their minds work. Obviously all of us have our negative days, where you don't think anything is going to work, but surely you must be able to see the silver lining or want to see the silver lining most of the time? I know people who haw ALL the reason on the world to be EXTREMELY pessimistic and if I were in their shoes I'd just give up trying to be positive and wallow in self-pity. And somehow they seem content or even happy?? But then you get other people who have the power to change their situation and just don't, because they're pessimistic and just don't think anything will ever go their way.

So yeah, that confuses me about people. Are you born that way or is it the way you were raised? Very interesting topic I think!

Day 21 - A picture of something that makes you happy.

Our 2 kitty children make me very happy!!! They're so entertaining and so cute. Love the way they follow me around EVERYWHERE in the house, esp if it's just me at home.

Update!

So training for the Games has been going really well. Did the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge last week Thursday, and wasn't even stiff the next day :-) Just generally feeling really fit. On Monday after gym, I even posted a facebook status update about feeling fitter than I ever have in my life! And def gaining muscle, because my weight's up a bit :-(, but clothes feel looser around my waist. Ie MORE MUSCLES!

So then the Murphy bitch striked again and I received a cold!!! I say received because I know exactly who at work it was who gave it to me! Wish people would stay at home when they're sick!!!!!!!! On Tuesday evening it felt like throat was on fire... Yesterday I went to work, but made Dr appointment for late afternoon. Seems like it's a viral thing ie a cold. Got some nasal meds. Booked off from work till Monday. Lung func was down 2 % to 98%... it better be over a 100% again next time, but think I just blew with less energy, if that makes sense. Have a proper 3 month check u* again in May. Getting more nervous as Sweden gets closer with regards to my health! My good friend Evlyn from Australia can't make it to the Games anymore due to decline in lung function (not sure why) so that sucks. And Bree has some strange brain infection and had a spinal tap last Monday. She's been extremely quiet since :-( SO BREE IF YOU'RE READING THIS PLEASE DO A BLOG POST OR SOMETHING! YOU'VE GOT ME WORRIED!!!!

So today I went to work for about an hour to get some work to take home with me, followed by a gynae check-up. The latter went well, lets hope the test results say the same!!!! Rest of the day was fairly quiet apart from some work issues, gggrrrrrrr. Not sure how much I relaxed, but at least I was away from all the sick people! Don't know where I get it from, but I feel guilty if it's office hours and I'm not at work. Even if I know I'm not well, and do not take sick leave often AT ALL, and that it's better for me to be at home that surrounded by 3 people at work who are sick, I still feel guilty ... not cool.

Anyways. Hope the cold blows over soon so I can get back to gym! Have a good weekend!

Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel.

Right now I'm so excited about our trip to Sweden, that Gothenburg is the only place I'd love to travel to! Excited about London too, but I've been there before :-)

Day 19 - A picture of something that inspires you.

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20101007/ARTICLES/101009718?p=1&tc=pg

Read this article! This guy was 20 years post double lung tx last year! He also has CF, was diagnosed at age 2, met his spouse the year after his transplant, a lot of things in common with me! Amazingly Inspiring!

Day 18 - A picture of your biggest insecurity.

At this moment in time there's nothing I'm insecure about. Of course there's some body parts I don't like, but that's pretty normal, and normal is good. My biggest insecurity used to be my COUGHING, or that constant niggle I used to have in my throat. Made me feel SO self-concious!!!

Day 17 - A picture of your favourite song.

This is one of my favourite CD's. It's a local female rock artist. My favourite track on the CD is a song called Beautiful. It brings back loads of memories of my student days before the lungs concked in, and I even had the poster for this CD autographed at a music/arts festival and it was hanging in my room for years! I found the lyrics and You Tube link:

Your'e beautiful, every time we touch
When you make me laugh, when you think to much
Your'e beautiful, without your clothes
Everybody knows, your love for me it shows

Chorus: And it shines through, shines through
Everthing we do
I need you, I need you
want to swim across this crowded roomAnd whisper in your ear.
Your'e beautiful, when you're being polite
She just fell off her chair, and you gave her a light
Your'e beautiful, in your ugly shoes
You know that I still hate them, but I can stand by you

Chorus: Because you shine through, shine through
Everything I do
I need you, I need you
I want to shout it from a rooftop, Shout it out to the moon...
Your'e beautiful, you know its true
I could go black, I could go blue
Your'e beautiful, there are no lies
Only the river, only the sky

Chorus: And it shines through, shines trough
Everything I do
I need you, I need you
You know its true...

Found the song as it is on the CD on You Tube, but someone used it as background for their pictures, so images unrelated!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqC1oyI8G1s&feature=related

Day 16 - A picture of you and someone you do weird things with

I'm a rather boring person when it comes to doing "weird things", but I suppose as a child my sister and I did some weird things together. Like pretending to wressle like they did on the show Gladiators that was on TV back then. Or make home-made sherbit (we never really had sweets etc in the house, just healthy food!) with Nesquick and Eno's! Or the weird story-lines we thought up for our Barbie dolls. Really miss her and hope someday she can move to Joburg so that we live in the same city again!