Day 3

Good Evening All,

I am tired this evening, fighting off this head cold is hard work. I am hoping it does not decide to start something in my lungs, but being consistent with these treatments should help. This morning was pretty eventful. We have had some guests this week. My brother in law, Skylar, is in town and when he is in town, we often have Skylar's friends around as well. This is no problem, but requires a few adjustments to my routine. Typically my mornings are pretty slow. Taylor and I take our time getting moving because when I don't, I feel the fury of my lungs. This morning we changed things up, and I felt it. I got some coffee, got Taylor a little something to eat then hit up the shower. Oh man, as soon as I was done, the coughing and hacking began. This led to vomiting up the only thing in my stomach, coffee. Nothing like "tossing your cookies" at 8 in the morning.

Things got better after that and I got something to eat, did my treatments after getting Taylor down for a nap around 12pm. Treatment time either needs to be done during Taylor's nap time or when Adam is around. I have a new compressor for my neb treatments and it is pretty loud, which makes Taylor upset and scared. This afternoon... off to a walk in the mall. Yes, I was a mall walker today! My friend Rebekah and her little girl joined Taylor and I. We did about 4 laps, and it was very enjoyable.
Exercising with a friend is way better than by myself! Thanks Rebekah!

So I was asked what my vest does and it was a good question. Other than jiggle any fat on my body, it shakes my lungs up so that the mucus moves around and doesn't settle. The dangers of the mucus settling is when it does, it harbors the dangerous bacteria that turns into infection. Infection rears its head in many ways, I have had pleurisy, abscesses, mucus plugs, and just good old fashioned pneumonia. Every infection that a CFer has leaves scars on the lungs. As you can imagine X-ray techs are either shocked or intrigued when I do a chest X-ray. The more scarring you have the worse off your lungs are. For example, when I began going to Univ. of Virginia before I was married, I had never been hospitalized for an infection. At that time, my PFT's were in the 60% range...not bad! Now as of today I have had approximately eight infections, some more serious than others, and now I have about 28% lung function. So...the vest is important to get me shaking and moving.

Well, hope that was helpful. I will get a video of me doing it another night when I have someone to take it. Adam has gone to bed since he is getting up so early these days. Or...I will just have to have people come try it out!

I just want to say thanks for the support and love everyone is sending. I will be honest, tonight I really didn't feel like doing all of my treatments. My bed just looks so comfy, but the goal was thirty days and I don't want to let myself, Cordell or any of you down. Day 3 is complete!

Night ya'll!

Ew...tonight I will show you some grossness!!!!! My RT's would be excited to see this pic, cuz they love a good sputum sample, but for the average person it is probably just nasty that I:  A.) Took a picture of it and B.) Posted it for all to see
Hey if I am going to do this, I am going to go all the way!!!!