Body talk

So as of late I've become more aware of my body shape/size compared to my peers. It helps that other people like to comment on it too. Don't take me as vain, I'm not, but it's nice knowing that my good and bad genes are working together to create something that isn't half bad!

I'm the friend my friends like to dress up. Seriously. I'm the Barbie of some of my friends. It's actually really fun though. I'm the size of most mannequins, seeing as I like to take the clothes off of the mannequins and buy them! I'm thin, not too thin, and actually have some shape and character to my body. I'm not a twig (anymore). Finally, FINALLY, I like my body.

The only thing I don't like is my lack of muscle tone, but guess who just started doing circuit training again!! Oh yeah, I'm getting those legs back. Can't wait.

However recently I had a bump in the road. I went to a store, that shall remain publicly nameless, to find a dress for meetings. I found a really cute one, grabbed the small, and went to try it on. It was way too small for me. It also came with a belt that wrapped around the smallest part of the waist: I couldn't clasp it.

Hear me out: I'm a size 3 and couldn't fit into a SMALL at a normal store that I have bought clothes from before. I was livid and gave the store a piece of my mind. I didn't fuss at the employees, it's not their fault, but I stood outside of the store and fussed to the general store opening. Pathetic, maybe, but think about it for a second: if I was a "normal" 20 year old girl, I might have serious body image issues and might feel I'm too fat, since I can't fit into a small, despite the fact that I'm a size 3. It's moments like those that feed the body image problems of anorexic girls. Touchy subject, but it is a REAL subject and a REAL problem. And putting me, and girls my size, into a medium dress may not sound like a big deal, but even I was embarrassed for myself. It took me a minute to come back to reality (that maybe the dress was shaped different that I am, that maybe it was labelled wrong, that maybe it was just that style of dress, etc.) but that minute was long enough to hurt my feelings! And I'm TRYING to get fat!! Just think, for just a moment, how if that scenario can mess with MY head, how much damage it can do to a young lady's mind who already has body issues. Yeah, now we're on the same page.

Enough body talk for now.

Have a great day. :]
It's FRIDAY!
-Andrea

Today is already off...

Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh. Mondays can sometimes be really annoying, ya know?

Last night, I started TOBI up again. UGH. If you haven't noticed, I'm not a fan. I now do TOBI with a towel over my pillow so it doesn't leave those little stains. It really helped this morning. However, this Monday was unusual in a different way. Today, in biology, we were talking about genetics and the diseases. I looked ahead and OF COURSE, CF was in there. I've been bracing myself all week...

So this morning, I get up, do treatment, shower, and look up my two genes to make sure I have them down right. I'm running late, as usual, and rush out the door. All I can think about it the lecture. What is he going to say? Will I feel compelled to stand up and correct him? Will the class of roughly 100 now label me as the kid with "thick mucus in her lungs"?! Halfway to class, I realize that I've been so stressed and distracted, I left my backpack in my apartment. Great. But it's too late to go back, so I keep walking.

The lecture begins and we first touch on PKU, sickle cell anemia, and then finally CF. He tells the class to all be thankful we have thin mucus in our lungs, and then proceeds to discuss the biological problem. Very little else is touched on and the lecture continues.

After the class, I went to talk to him. It took him a few minutes to realize that I was saying that *I* had CF. Then his eyes widened and he instantly wanted to know more. So I told him which genes I had, the diet I had, about the Vest, about the treatments and medicines... he asked a few questions but listened more than anything, nodding his head regularly. At the end, as I was walking out the door, he said, "Take care of yourself... literally." "Yes sir. I always do."

He saw me outside later and asked my name. I am now, officially, the only person in that class he knows by name. Good or bad? Not sure. But since I'm a pretty good student, and I'll be taking another class with him next quarter, I'm thinking good.

But still. Ugh. Mondays.

-Annie

It's definitely time for an update!

Hey friends, family, fibros, cystas, and strangers-

Here are a few things I have to update on:

1- Both of my brothers are officially CF tested and CF free. Neither are carriers.

2-Mom told me my other gene... i'm a DeltaF508 and 1078 Deletion T.

3- I went swimming again today, but didn't do much swimming because....

4- My legs are tired from the 1.5 mile I ran today! It was for class, but running is running!

5- I ran my mile in 11:15 (with walking only one lap) and my 1.5 mile in 16:28.

I'm really really proud of myself. I wanted to keep roughly an 11 min/mile pace and I did! I wanted to go running on Monday but the boyfriend went without me because he had evening plans. I was in class. Lame. I'll be running with them tomorrow and I might skip the swimming and go running after class on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the inside gym where I have class instead. This might work out! I really am ready to be back in shape. My VO2 max rating is "Poor". I learned that after my run today. *shrugs* Got to start somewhere!

I think my prof was impressed that I was running so successfully. She asked me afterwards how I felt, and I was great! A little salty, but great. :]

WHOA!!! Listen to me?? It almost sounds like... no.. can't be... that I like running?!! Maybe not "like" but it's up from "dislike with a burning passion from deep within."

We'll see where it goes from there, but I'm kinda excited. If I start enjoying running, my health might just make a leap in the right direction even faster. I kinda hope so. :]

Almost time for Christmas break! Only a few more days!

-Annie

Daily Life and Background

Daily life for me is in the middle of readjusting to living in a new city for college, but that doesn't change my CF routine. And why doesn't it change my CF routine? Because that routine is such a small part of my life that it takes a lot to be affected.

Whatever time my alarm goes off (or whenever I wake up), the first thing I do it get my morning treatment ready. I'm on auto-pilot during these times, especially those mornings I get up in the 5 am time frame. I do TOBI on the 28 days on/28 days off regimen so when I'm on TOBI it's Albuterol and TOBI, otherwise it's just Albuterol. After I'm ready for school/church/the day, it's breakfast time!! With breakfast I take those morning meds: 5 Pancrease MT20 Enzymes, Oscal Ultra with 600mg of Calcium (and no Iron), Align probiotic, Vitamin E, Vitamin K (every other day), Mucinex, Milk of Magnesia, Zyrtec, and Zitromax (MWF). Come lunch time, I pop 5 more of those Enzymes. If I'm kinda sick or just feeling in need of some better breathing, I do an extra Albuterol treatment whenever I can fit it in in the afternoon. "After school" hours means another meal! And 5 more Enzymes! Dinner brings more of the same and a few more pills: Oscal Utlra again, Prilosec OTC, Milk of Magnesia, and another Mucinex. Sometime before I go to sleep, I do my evening treatment: Albuterol, Pulmozyme, (TOBI when I'm on it), and ~13 minutes of my Vest on pressure 6 and frequency of 11.

To assist with the weight gain, I also drink ScandiShakes (chocolate!). They are fantastic.

I don't have the specifics on my FEV1 but it's usually in the high 60s low 70s with the %. Next appointment, which is late October, I'll try to remember to write it down. I'm 5'4" and ~119lbs.

Hospitalizations: I stayed in the hospital from the time I was born (Oct. 29) until Dec. 10. During that time, I was diagnosed with CF, treated, and had meconium ileus. Because of that, I had surgery to fix it (and they removed my appendix). Sometime when I was 3, I went back due to obstruction and they reopened the same scar from surgery #1 and fixed it. So now I have a sweet 6-inch scar across my stomach just above my belly button. Swimsuit season used to be a curse for me, but now I wear my scar proudly. 7th grade, I went in for my first IV antibiotics because I was so sick. 4 days in the hospital and 2 weeks total on IVs. This was before PICC lines. So I had a needle in my arm. Fun.... not. I've been back in the hospital 3 more times for antibiotics (with PICC lines): once during the end of 11th grade, during Thanksgiving of senior year, and during March of senior year. The March of senior year was for a short course to prepare me for sinus surgery, my first ever. Post-surgery, the day after I was sent home, I fell ill to pneumonia. So back to the hospital I go for more antibiotics and more Vest usages. Of the combined surgery and pneumonia stays, I was there 12 days. That was too long for me.

Genes: I have the DeltaF508 and some rare one that I can't remember the name of it. They just figured out what it was a few years ago. Last I hear, they considered it a "null gene."

Diet: Anything goes. High calorie, high protein, high sodium, high fat, high carb....

Oh, the reason for the milk of magnesia in my diet is because in 5th grade, I had been waking up every morning with severe pain in my abdomen but no doctor ever found anything wrong. Finally, after drinking barium and having a barium anema done, they learned I have a stricture in my colon (narrowing of the colon) and need M.O.M. to help my digestive process.

Family: I have 2 older brothers. Neither have CF. One has been tested so far and he is not a carrier. My other brother will get checked soon. I'm the only known person in my family to have/have had CF.

Not sure what else to tell you! Any questions? My email is at the top of this blog at all times.

-Andrea