Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Sprung and Spry


Well a 10 day hospital stay and 5 more days of IVs at home, I'm good to go. I pulled the needle after this mornings last dose. I feel so much better than even at my August discharge. The 2 drug combo I was on this time Cefepime and minocycline really kicked butt.

I mentally prepared for my hospital stay to last 14 days in house. But the swine flu was going around the hospital. It was decided that the risk staying in house was greater than if I was sent home. Infection control on our hospital floor was increased, anyone entering the room had to wear the special N95 respiratory mask. The nurses absolutely hate wearing them because they are suffocating to breathe in while wearing. They entered our rooms, did whatever they had to do quickly, and made a speedy exit.

Two of my CF friends who go to my clinic, were admitted to the hospital at the same time as me, both with swine flu. They were both very sick and miserable. I decided on discharge that I didn't even want to go there, that I would seek out the vaccine as soon as available.

The LA county public health dept started their H1N1 free vaccine clinics the week I came home. I bit the bullet and decided to try to get it on my own rather than wait for my clinic to have it available. They still had no ETA when they would have them. On Sat, I arrived at 7:30 am for a 10am clinic opening. The wait was in a Whittier park, which was nice. The line swelled to 5,000 people in no time at all. I kept my distance from people and wore my mask when I went inside to finally get my poke. So far I've had no side affects at all. My concern of course, was to try to have some immunities built up before we leave on vacation in 2 weeks. The timing couldn't have been better. Now I  just to need to wait and see if it really keeps me from catching it. : )

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

So soon?

Well, I wish it weren't true, but it is . . . I'm back in the hospital. Between 2 back to back colds, no rest, lots of stress, here I am again, less than 2 months since the last admit. I think this is the fastest turn around I've ever had. I'm expecting my Docs to keep me 'in' for the entire 2 weeks, to make sure I have a chance to rest my immune system from every day life. In a way, I'm not going to push for the second week on home IVs, because I know I need to recoup.

Besides, we are leaving on vacation in 3 weeks and I certainly want to be in tip top shape for all the fun we're going to have. We are taking Jen and the kids to Disney World on Nov. 8 - Nov. 16. We all have had a stressful year and NEED a break. Even though we really can't afford it, we decided since we sold the cabin, we'll use funds from the sale to finance our fun. Woo hoo, another wish scratched off my bucket list.

I just heard some awesome news this morning. A CF friend of mine, Katie who also goes to USC, got her call last night. The call that will forever change her life. She has been on the lung transplant list for 2 years. A match was made last night, and she headed to the hospital at 2am this morning. Late last night I heard the helicopter coming in and land on the roof. In my mind, I thought to myself, someone is getting a transplant of some sort. USC does transplants of every organ possible. Little did I know at the time, that delivery was more than likely Katie's lungs.

I have chills just knowing that she is 6 floors below me, getting her new lease on life. She is 28 and engaged to be married. I pray that Katie has a successful surgery, speedy recovery, and a great life to look forward to. I also want to say a prayer for the donor family for the loss of their loved one. They made the unselfish decision to give someone else life. And Katie said it best herself on her FB page as she was on her way to the hospital:

"Please pray for the family that has just lost their loved one. Our joy is their sadness."

Godspeed Katie!

Friday, October 9, 2009

The End of Another Chapter

My life has been full of chapters . . . some have been great and others not so good. I certainly have enough to fill a book, just not sure how interesting it would be. I always look back at a closed chapter, with memories, be it good or bad. And hopefully, that whatever has just been closed, I learn something valuable from the experience and move on.


This year has been a financial nightmare for us. Terry has had no steady work since last November 08. Little bits here and there have trickled in, but clearly not enough to even cover the most basic of expenses. When May rolled around and the usual busy work period yielded no work for another month, we knew it was time to take action. Something we figured may be in our near future, but now we knew. 


Time to sell our cabin, our mountain home in Lake Arrowhead.





When my Mom passed away almost 10 years ago, (yikes has it been that long?: ( ), I got a small cash inheritance from the sale of her home. We decided to not spend a dime and instead invest the money. My Mom worked hard for her money and I wanted to make sure I gave her memory genuine validity, by doing what she did, invest it. And what better way to invest, than in real estate. 


We decided that we wanted a mountain getaway, close enough to home, yet far enough from everyday reality, to seem like we were away on vacation. We looked in Big Bear Mtn and in Lake Arrowhead. Big Bear was just far enough away @ 2 1/2  hours on a good day with no traffic. Lake Arrowhead, on the other hand, was 90 minutes door to door. We scoured the internet and came across several properties we wanted to see. Our cabin was on the list, even though it was a little more than we wanted to spend. However, being built in 1991, it was fairly new and needed no work. So many properties were fixer uppers, and that would have defeated out purpose of having a relaxing home away from home.


The minute we stepped foot in the door of our place for the first look, we knew that this was it, the cabin of our future. We still looked at other places, but our hearts kept going back to the little home on the corner lot, with a stream running along side. We justified to ourselves that the price and excellent condition was worth our peace of mind to just come up, and enjoy. We made our offer and it was accepted!! We were in heaven, knowing we had our own slice of heaven.


I poured my heart and soul into decorating every room to look, cabin-y. I sewed curtains, pillows, quilts, recovered chair cushions, added snowmen, bear and deer accents. Forest green, maroon and navy blue was the common color theme throughout. I found an old snow sled and a set of deer horns at garage sales and hung them on the wall. I also found an old army trunk, painted it and decopaged whimsical snowmen pictures on top, to be used as our firewood box/coffee table. This place was us, the first place Terry and I bought together as ours.





We made too many trips to count over the years, thoroughly enjoying our little cabin. We had many a lazy weekend with no TVs or computers. Just enjoying the nature, feeding our squirrelies, critters and birds, sitting on the deck watching the ginormous trees blow gently in the wind. We enjoyed trekking over to the old Santa's Village site, where the summer weekends exploded with concerts, picnicing in the meadow as we listened to the Beatles and the Stones. We loved walking into the Village and the Lake area, soaking up the mountain atmosphere. And grocery shopping at Jensens for the best homemade breads and warm tortillas. When my lungs still allowed, we took long walks through our neighborhood and the forested roads. Winter brought on a whole new magical experience, with snow and freezing days and nights. Glorious times sitting by the huge fireplace watching snowflakes gently, pile on our deck. And nothing was more satisfying than going to sleep at night and waking up to a foot of snow. How we loved looking out our windows at the beautiful snowy landscape. *sniff* 




POP!!!


Back to reality . . . the dream ends. Between no money coming in and my lungs not being able to handle the 5,700' altitude anymore, we knew it was time. We called the real estate agent we bought the house from over 9 years ago, to schedule an appt. We ended up listing that day in May to see what happens. The market up there is flooded with foreclosures, people losing or dumping their 2nd homes. Our asking price was no where near where we thought it would be. *sigh*


June and July brought in 2 ridiculously, low offers. We pretty much said "no thanks." I'd rather keep it and rent it out than sell for 'that'. We're not that desperate. We made a few trips up to gradually move out personal items, knowing the inevitable would happen eventually. Finally a decent offer came in mid August. We settled on a price and entered escrow. The last week of September we went up for the last time, to move out the remaining items. We sold it furnished for the most part, except for a few upfront must haves, like the army trunk, Terry wanted it for his office. 




As we finished loading up the last box and took one last look around, I started crying like a baby. Terry and I hugged, in the somewhat empty living room, as time stood still. I couldn't believe this would be our last time in 'our cabin'. 

THIS WAS OUR PLACE, OUR HOME. We closed and locked the door for the last time. I felt like it was a death, the death of a family member and of time treasured.


Escrow closed today. Our cabin is no longer ours.

It hurts like hell to have to do something you don't want to do.

We will forever miss our little cabin in the woods and everything it represented in our lives. It will always be our cabin in our hearts and memories. 


Time to mourn and move on.

Time to let someone else enjoy 'our cabin' as much as we did.