The pile of crap that is 2009 . . . so far.

Oye. I was so hoping for a good year. Turns out this is probably one of the worst stress inducing pile of 3 months I've had in years. And I can't blame it all on CF.

#1 - No Money Stressor
The economy has hit us waaaaaay below the belt. Terry has had NO work. I take that back, I lied, maybe a total of 3 days since New Years. Whoopie.

Self employed architect = no work = no money coming in = no unemployment or any other kind of $$ help that everyone else gets. He has applied for work everywhere, Home Depot, Lowes, even Disneyland, no place is off limits when it comes to a job. And guess what – surprise, surprise – every place is laying off, not hiring. Online jobs = a joke or a scam preying on desperate, job seeking folks.

#2 - Health Crisis Stressor
My February hemoptysis incident. See 2 posts below, ouch.

#3 - Cars Taking a Dump Stressor
Both Terry's truck and my car required large repair bills in February. Our vehicles are 10 & 11 years old and we've been very lucky that we have never had major problems, until now. Wouldn't you know, they both whine for big dollar repairs when no money is coming in.

#4 - House Taking a Dump Stressor
The house must have been jealous when it heard the cars collecting a bail out. (Sound familiar? . . . not even going to go there) Our main sewer line from the kitchen to the city sewer, pooped out. Plugged up, wouldn't drain, couldn't snake it, just cracked and broke. URGH!!! The plumber dug a nice 6' deep x 4' wide hole in the front planter to tie in a new line to the city sewer. Then a 1' wide x 3' deep trench was dug out of the grass, the whole length of the front yard to accomodate the new pipe. Now there are reminder grass lumps and bumps of a huge hole & trench in our front yard. Not to mention the huge hole in our cash reserves. HA! Or what's left of it.

#5 - The-old-dump-the-vacation-home Stressor
Because of the crappy economy, we decided to sell our little mountain cabin in Lake Arrowhead. It is no longer feasible for us to keep it up financially. This was a heartbreaking decision that we dreaded. Although, we have known for about a year, that physically, it was hard for me to stay in the altitude of almost 6,000 ft for any length of time. My lungs labored with every visit. For both reasons, health and financial, it's time. It will very hard to say goodbye to our little get-away when and if it sells.

#5a - The-old-dump-the-vacation-home-something-goes-wrong Stressor
Related to #5. We went up to the cabin to thoroughly clean it up before it hits the market. There was still snow on the ground and roof. A huge branch on the roof, lay stuck in the snow. We unpack the truck and Terry retrieved the ladder from the basement. He crawls onto the roof and it begins to snow. He quickly grabs the branch and pulls . . . uh oh reisistance. It finally pulls out . . . yes out . . . of the hole it made in the roof. Terry starts slipping off the roof as the snow quickly blankets the roof!!! He carefully climbs down the ladder realizing, the roof is too slippery and steep to go back up to fix it. NOW WHAT? We've got a 5" flippin hole in our roof above a bedroom with alternating wet snow and hail pouring in. Plus, it is Sunday. We immediately try to contact a roofing company on the phone. Finally, after about 5 calls, success! A very nice young man came out and fashioned a shingle from metal and bravely navigated the slippery roof to cover the hole temporarily. It worked. He said he would be out later in the week, after the snow stops to fix it for good.

He called us Friday, all done. Yeah, no more hole on the roof but a gaping hole in the check book we can't afford now.

#6 - Cancer Invades Terry's Nose Stressor
Terry found out the strange, growing bump on his nose is skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma. Mind you, only after months of me urging, (bordering on nagging which I hate), did he finally get it checked and biopsied. So this last Tuesday, Terry had surgery, a huge chunk cut and dug off his nose. The next day, the plastic surgeon weaved his magic to make it all look like a normal nose again. He has a 1 1/2" stitched cut on the right side of his nose. He's not too worried about the healing and the scar, but rather the incidence of reoccurance. Hopefully this is a done deal. Now maybe I need to nag him about making an appt. for his 4 year overdue colonoscopy, he he. ; )

#7 - BYE BYE Retirement Stressor
The stock market screwed our retirement and IRA's . . . ENOUGH SAID.

#8 - Heartbreak Stressor : (
By far, the most enormous anguish and heartbreak of my life right now. I won't discuss specifics here, because it is a personal family problem that I choose to not make public. Suffice to say, it has literally cut me to the core leaving me awake at night wondering and praying "why?". I'm devastated to see the people I love the most on this earth in such pain, agony and distress caused by another. I feel so helpless, yet am trying to support and understand as much as I'm capable. I don't see this going away any time soon.

I think that's enough in under 3 months - blech.
It's no wonder I can't sleep and have a constant headache.

Hmmm, I guess . . . .

it's time for an update.
And for once I have 2 pieces of great CF news.

I went to see Dr. R a week after my hemo Hoag incident. He said it looked like I recovered nicely from the whole ordeal. But, I was concerned because I was very SOB. He said that was all too common after a major bleed. He said blood in the vessels is a very good thing, outside the vessels floating around body cavities is NOT a good thing. The old blood was creating all kinds of havoc for my small airways to function, hence the SOB. He said to expect about 6 weeks for the old blood in my lung cavity to completely absorb or cough out. I've clearly noticed less SOB over the last couple days and have actually been able to go on long walks and navigate the stairs much easier. Let's see, twas exactly a month ago tomorrow I had my embolization.
1 month = not bad for an old broad.

But the best CF change I've had is, TA DA . . .

I haven't had to take one enzyme since mid January, 

Woooo Hoooo!

And who knows why my pancreas has decided to start secreting digestive enzymes again. Even my Dr. is stumped. Last April, after my pancreatitis attack, my pancreas completely quit functioning. I was dependent on taking enzymes before everything I ate, or I'd have extreme stomach aches and some pretty nasty toilet incidents. It continued through Sept/Oct on our France trip, quite severely the whole trip, which I attributed to change of diet, time change, etc.

Then around Christmas time, I noticed that my bowels and digestion seemed more normal and I had no stomach aches. I was gaining weight too. I purposefully quit taking the enzymes when eating mild, low fat foods. Nothing happened, everything was normal. Yes! I gradually tapered off the enzymes with each meal until I was completely off. I've been totally back to normal since. I can't tell you how good it feels to eat 'normally' again and ditch 25-30 pills a day.

*shrugs, and then does the happy dance*

Good thing too, those suckers are expensive with a capital E . . . to the tune of about $2,000 for a month's supply. I was MORE than happy to stop taking them. In the mean time, my CF nutritionalist said she has heard this happen only a couple other times, but she will continue monitoring me and my progress. The only downside, but yet not really, I'm gaining weight easily. Proof again that my pancreas is indeed digesting and absorbing all the calories and nutrients my body needs.



So next time you see me, and I seem to have put on a few, 

congratulate me.
They be some well earned and welcome poundage. Munch, munch.