The Good News!

I had an appointment with Dr. Dazzle last Thursday. I was nervous about my PFT's. I have been REALLY junky since starting the Albuterol/Amikacin nebulizer treatments. My lungies are not used to nebulized treatments. I thought for sure this was a bad sign that I wasn't improving. Especially since I'm on enough antibiotics to keep a village infection-free. I was wondering where this junk was coming from. Well, it turns out it must have been hanging around for a while and it's finally working it's way out.

For those of you without knowledge about CF, it's as if my lungs are constantly infected with pneumonia and bronchitis. All of that infection clogs and scars the airways. Basically, mine are beginning to unclog! My FEV1 (large airways) increased by 4%, while my FEC (small airways) increased by 7%. It may not sound like a lot, but it's HUGE! I actually feel like this intense treatment plan is doing some good! I feel like I made the right choice by moving forward with the treatment now! It has given me even more motivation than I had before.

I'm still chugging along with my IV's. I've screwed up a couple times, gave myself double heparin or forgot to clamp when done, but I'm not dead yet, so the mistakes must have not been too major. I did however, freak Dr. D out a bit. I told him that my PICC got pulled out a couple centimeters during a dressing change and when the nurse turned her back I pushed it back in. Apparently, this is a no no. I actually knew it was a no no, since the nurse told me so just before I made the executive decision to push it back in. Apparently, the site still looks OK, but the real danger is sepsis. I'm not sure how I could become septic on this many antibiotics, but I'm sure it can happen. That was a week ago and I'm still doing OK, so I think the threat of infection is gone. Dr. D just made a point to reprimand me and I promised not to do it again :-/

All in all, things are going well. My bone marrow is holding up. We anticipate that it will start to fail in about 2 more weeks. At that point they are going to teach me how to give myself Neupogen shots. Nope, they can't go in my PICC. I actually have to inject them into my belly. Hey, if my cancer patients can do it, so can I! I'm thinking this would be a fun marital bonding activity, so I may actually ask my husband to give me the shots. I'm sure this is not what he had in mind when he vowed "in sickness and health"...Ha!

I've not had much motivation to open my laptop very often lately. I think that so much of my social networking world is tied to CF. Since I'm "living" CF for hours upon hours every day right now, I just think my brain needs a break. So please don't worry if you're not hearing from me much. I'm doing better than I expected!