I had a very frustrating night last night. At 6:45 Saturday morning, I awoke doing my absolute best to ignore "the cough." You know, the cough that means I'm coughing up copious amounts of blood. Maybe, in my delirious state, if I ignore it, it will go away. WRONG. But the real kicker in this situation is that I'm not home. I'm with family in Austin, TX, sleeping on a couch. Waking up scared, sick, and still drowsy, I'm not thinking straight. Not to mention I'm really nauseated from coughing so much/coughing up blood/swallowing more blood because I have no where to spit it out. I start an albuterol and realize that I am going to be sick. Luckily (I think) I wasn't, but and I finally finish my treatment and fall back asleep. However, the most frustrating thing about this situation is that I'm NOT on antibiotics, which in the past has been the only time this hemoptysis has occurred. And I took my Vit. K that day. So now I'm actually clueless as to the cause of this, and that scares me. Now I'm planning ahead though. Along with my nightly glass of water, I'm keeping an empty cup next to me in case this happens again tonight... I really hope not.

My doctor's appointment is in 3 days, and to be perfectly honest, I feel awful. Just terrible. I'm afraid I haven't improved enough to my doctor's satisfaction and I'll be sent to the Hole for the first time in almost 2.5 years. I've actually come to terms with it, really. Worst case, I'm right and I'm not shocked. Best case, I'm wrong and I'm thrilled I don't have to go!! My only real hope is that I'm testing out hypertonic saline for the first time at my appointment so maybe they'll let me slide again, but I think I've slide by long enough. Tuesday will be the test. Obviously, I'll let you know the results.

On a lighter note, I'm getting some good quality time with my family this weekend. I haven't seen this brother/fam since our May crawfish boil so it was long overdue. And my niece is growing so quickly!

OH! I'm done with summer school!!! I couldn't be happier to have two more classes out of the way. And with one of those classes came the idea of a different future career than originally planned, and it's worth looking into! I may be doing grad school instead of PT school! May. I don't know what the future holds yet, obviously, but I like having serious options. We shall see!

My family lately has spent a lot of time watching old home videos. I've been watching videos from when my oldest brother was crawling to when I was around 9 years old and everything in between! Birthdays, holidays, sports, and then just those fun times playing as siblings at the house. It really was fun seeing people/pets who have passed away that I miss dearly and watching the memories I don't have, or times when I wasn't even alive! It really has been fun watching these. Thank goodness for VHS-to-DVD converters!!

I guess I should call it a night here soon. I'll keep you updated on my doctor adventures on Tuesday.

-Andrea

Summer, goals

Well hi! MIA as usual, my apologies.

I'm just enjoying my summer days before I head back to school in July. I'm almost completely unpacked (ha! Said it would take until half of June) but I've been doing other things too. I finished my scholarship application, turned it in, visited friends I haven't seen in what seems like forever, spent quality time with family, reread the 7th Harry Potter book (since the movie comes out July 15), and shopping for my new apartment. So while I've been busy, it feels like I haven't done much at all!

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Goals. I have been told all my life to set goals for myself. I have avoided admitting to making goals for the fear of not reaching them. However now, I see goals in my future that I'm striving for whether I reach them or not.
I reached one goal after my freshman year of college: stay out of the hospital for my first year! I managed to stretch my accomplishment over my second year of college too. My new goal is that I can stay out of the hospital all my college life, including grad school. It's going to take a lot of work, a lot of perseverance, and a lot of doing stuff I really don't want to do. But this is my goal and it benefits many people, not just myself. Do you have any idea how hard it is to fight for people who aren't even a thought yet? My future family is far from being created, but I'm fighting every day to spend time with them. An RT once told me that when I do treatment, I'm not fighting for today, I'm fighting for tomorrow. I'm fighting for my kids' first days of school, for their soccer games, for their graduations and weddings and their kids too. I'm fighting to have those moments with THEM, not to have more time for myself. See the difference?
From this side of the screen, it seems like people who already have their families have an easier time fighting because they have eyes to look into and think to themselves "I'm doing this for you." I've been trying to do that with my niece and nephew. I want to be around to be their aunt for many years to come. I want them to see me live a wonderful life of many years with them. I don't want them to grow up and remember me as the aunt they don't remember so well because I passed away too young from some terrible disease and they didn't know me very well. That would be my life's regret. The same goes for my kids one day. I NEVER want them to say that they don't remember their mom because I passed away before they really knew me. That's why I'm fighting. That's why pictures of my niece and nephew are so dear to me. Those are the eyes I look into right now and say "I'm fighting for you."


-Annie

3 Finals down + pictures from the weekend

I just breathed a HUGE sigh of relief after those first 3 finals jam-packed into today. Even though I still have 2 really hard tests left (one Tuesday, one Wednesday), I feel so much better now that those first 3 are behind me!! I felt it was time for a post!

Teaser: some exciting news with Gilead Sciences (makers of Cayston) and some of their partners and me are underway, but no details until later! Just get excited, because I am!!

As of late, I've been devoting almost every free moment to studying for all of these tests. It's been really difficult, but somehow I've managed. My treatment schedule was really off though. For example, I normally do the Vest at night, but I'm doing last night's Vest right now, and will another evening one before I leave to go study. It's crazy, but it's only for a few days. Then HOME HOME HOME AGAIN!! I can't wait, seriously. I just want to pack up and drive home now. If only I didn't have those 2 more tests....

I went home this past weekend for about 24 hours to spend time with my brother/sis-in-law/niece/huskies from Austin, TX, and my in-town family who all gathered for my nephew's 1st birthday party!! Has it really been a year already?! Wow.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

Look who showed up! It's me and the boyfriend.
My two brothers with their kids!
Precious, precious niece. I think they look so much alike in this picture.

Such a sweet moment; a mother and her child.
She was so tired!! This picture is just too cute, I had to post it.

And last, but not least, the birthday boy and his mama!!!

Hunger has taken over anything else I can think to type about. Time for food!

-Andrea

Wordless Weekend

(Stolen, again, from Anjea/Jason's blog. My niece, Kiarda!)

Wordless Wednesday

No FB and a good book

So my facebook was shut off a few days ago: surprisingly a way less big of a deal than I thought. I haven't really missed it actually...

And instead, I've done a lot of reading! I just finished the 4th Harry Potter book and am about halfway through the 5th. I love these books and I'm really enjoying rereading them.

Today I got to see Carter for the first time in 2 weeks or so, and first time after seeing Kiarda. Wow is there a difference! It's crazy how much a difference 8 months makes in a baby's life. Wow oh wow.

I've been kinda anti-internet since FB shut down, actually. Which is why I haven't been posting much. I have gotten addicted to backgammon too! OH MY it's not healthy how much I play. Haha! I love playing against Mom, she's really good. She's the one who taught me how to play and the strategies of the game. I'm totally bringing this old school game back to college with me. Thank you Zenpep points!

Ok. It's currently Tuesday night. At 5:45am Thursday, I LEAVE FOR BOSTON!!!!!!!! :]]]] I'm super super duper excited. I won't have access to a computer while I'm there so no blog updates until I get back, but with it will come a picture with me meeting Lauren!! This trip is going to be fun! I can't wait!

I had mentioned a few posts back that I moved the Vest to the morning. I also moved Pulmozyme to the morning too, since those two go hand-in-hand. I like the results. I think I might need to add a second Vest treatment to the evening, but I definitely need it in the morning too. I get a lot up and out with the morning CPT.

Night!

-Annie

Countdown to move back to college: 26 days!!!!

Wordless Weekend

Busy, as usual!

Sorry I haven't been posting! Been busy with babysitting! It just wears me out. But I've made some good money this week!

I went to Tokyo (the restaurant!) with the boyfriend last night. We hadn't been out in a while, much less gotten to see each other that much lately, so it was much needed.

Leaving tomorrow to visit the brother/sis-in-law in Austin, TX! I get to meet my niece for the first time! There will be pictures. And then, just a few short days later, I go to Boston and meet Lauren B.!!! So much travelling! I can hardly wait.

Don't forget to keep checking up on CG's blog! She seems to be doing great!

Ok, it's only 9:30, but I'm pretty tired. Might play a game or two of backgammon or something with Mom before bed, but I'm about done.

OOOH!! Something exciting happened today, but I'm not going to spill until it comes out in two weeks! :]

And, if you're a facebook friend of mine, I have to shut it off for over a month starting July 31st. So I'll be here more instead!

TTFN

-Annie

Silent Saturday (On Monday-- the "My New Niece" edition)

MY NIECE IS BEING BORN!!!!!!!!!!!!

In case you missed the title, MY NIECE IS BEING BORN!!!!!!! Like, NOW!!!!!!!

I'm in Baton Rouge with Chris's family for the 4th of July, but I just wanted to post this exciting news!!!!

C'MON BABY K!!!!!!!!!! HURRY UP!!!!!!!!!! :]

-Annie

Calm before the storm

These next few days are going to be calm and then *BAM* my life is going to be hit by a hurricane of tasks, responsibilities, schedules... blah blah. While I'm doing Gear Up (July 11-17; 25-31), I will be phone-less and computer-less (and blog-less). And I will be too tired to give an immediate update.

Oh, and any day now my niece will be born!! We're just playing the waiting game until she decides to make her appearance.

I found a swarm of ants in my car the other day. While I was driving. In case you don't know, I'm borderline phobic about bugs. This was a pretty nerve-racking experience for me. I called Chris on my way over to his house to let him know, so when I pulled up, I put on the parking break, and JUMPED out of my car, leaving it running. He came outside and squished as many as he could find. My car is getting cleaned (inside and out) today.

No real exciting news or anything. Oh, well, other than I get to meet Lauren! I'm going up north to where she lives early August and we are going to rock the town, masks and all! I'm really excited!! There will be pictures.

-Annie