Thankful Thursday

I am not gonna lie. Today my blinders are on, making it difficult to see the blessings. Its super easy to get catch up in the flow of complaining and feeling sorry for oneself instead of looking outside the box to recognize what is good and wonderful about/in our lives.

Today on this Thursday my box seems too large see the outside edges but this is exactly why I copied the idea of taking one day to stop in my tracks and be thankful. My goal is to attempt to change the direction of my thoughts, which takes energy and focus, but once the wheel is spinning in a positive direction it will take more to reverse the cycle thus allowing all the negativity to fall off with little effort.

I am thankful for the rain. Most PacNW folk will think I am crazy but hear me out. We get a lot of rain. Sometimes so much rain that is causes backyard flooding and the inconvenience of getting drenched just walking 150 ft to the car. However, one of the main reasons most people LOVE this part of the country is because of its lush green vegetation, rivers to fish and mountains to ski. Without all this rain, what we love about the PacNW would not be.

So, today, as my backyard is floods and my hair is impossibly frizzy. I am thankful for the rain.

~Doodlin'

Rockin' G-tube Accessories

Have you ever googled an image? Ever wonder where all those "homemade" photos come from? Well, they come from blogs just like this one. Interesting? Yes. Maybe. No

Well, today I was trying to find images of g-tubes like mine. I found thousands. The spectrum of age ranges are from very sweet babies that are days old to the very wise elderly. I don't feel so alone.

My point? I found these super duper cute covers for g-tubes. These particular ones are a bit juvenile for me but it inspired me to attempt to make a few for myself. How cool would I look in my bathing suit this summer with some rockin' g-tube cover? The other really awesome part is that you can make them in whatever type of material is most comfortable to you. Total customization.

~Doodlin'

Thankful Thursday

I want to start a new trend here and I am copying a friend (for the record). However, I love what my blogger friend has done. Each Thursday he writes a post labeled "thankful thursday" and I have looked forward to reading what they're thankful for each week. Then, today, the 'thankful thursday' post came out and it got me thinking, why am I so excited to hear what others are thankful for yet not take a second to stop and think about what I am thankful for? So, in order to help me focus on what I am thankful for I too am going to have a thankful Thursday post.

Without further ado.......

I am thankful for forgiveness. 

I am an emotional person and many times those emotions get pushed deep down in the pits of my soul. As most know that when we hold something in, it will eventually become too big to contain, thus unleashing when we least expect it. 

So, today, I am focusing on being thankful for forgiveness. I am thankful God built us with this great capacity. I am thankful that I can forgive and live life free from the burdens of being hurt, saddened, mistreated, etc. I am thankful that those around me have the capacity to forgive so that they can live life free of the burdens of me or anyone hurting them, causing them great sadness or any other wrongful thing I do to them.

I am so so so beyond thankful for forgiveness.

~Doodlin'

A Bit Here & A Bit There

CF is in the news people. Some interesting articles below:

Doing Something to Help! This article I just love. She is doing something to help improve the care she and others like her get. I love it because so many times you hear people complain, but rarely do they step up and help change the situation.

and

Kalydeco and its Expense. Being a patient and knowing exactly how much my medications cost without insurance are is eye opening. It has allowed me to understand why having health insurance is so critical for folks like me, but as you read this article you'll be able to see how much a drug like Kalydeco costs. Let's hope that insurance companies will begin to cover it for those who need it.

As always, thanks for reading!

~Doodlin

Sit-Ups and The Battle Between Lots and Little

SIT-UPS~

Upon setting my goal to run the Race for The Roses (kinda fitting given the name of this blog) 5K on April 1st, I have been following a training schedule. This schedule is different than the one I followed when I was in the beginning stage last year of learning to become a runner and getting my body in shape. For the most part, I have maintained a basic level of fitness, thus requiring an elevated training schedule.

This new schedule incorporates doing sit-ups, lunges, squats, wall-sits and the such to help build the long and short muscles to help prevent common injuries that comes with repetitive running stress to the knees, ankles, pelvis, etc. My issue is the darn sit-ups. I don't have excess belly-fat that is hindering the process but rather my muscles have been severed on both sides from a gal-bladder removal (the old fashion cut-you-wide-open method) and my still functioning g-tube. I can only do 5 sit-ups without my abdomen hurting. I have been searching for modified sit-ups but can't find anything that works. Not sure if I should continue with 5 each day and see if any muscle memory develops or what.

I want to be very clear I don't want to lose weight and am not shooting to develop a flat stomach, I am small enough as it is, hence the g-tube. I want to develop these muscles as it helps tremendously with breathing and posture. I need all the good breathing help I can get to fuel my muscles during exercise.

Any ideas?

BATTLE BETWEEN LOTS & LITTLE~

In this house we have what we call the lots and little. I need lots of calories and B needs little. This makes meal planning and grocery shopping a challenge. I need in the upwards of 3500-4000 calories per day and B needs the 1500-2000 per day depending on activity level. I get approximately 2500 calories thru the g-tube but I must then supplement the remaining thru my meals and snacks. Its recommended that I use heavy cream, half & half and real butter, etc, etc. Problem is that B ends up on the heavier end of the recommended weight scale for his gender and age, which of course could lead to him developing health issues. NOT GOOD!!!

Ways that I have separated the two needs are things like making plain mash potatoes then adding my supplements separately or when making our superfood shakes I add powdered supplements to my glass. But we need to cut back on the $$$ we spend on food as health care costs are rising. How do we purchase two sets of food; high calorie and low fat without breaking the bank?

~Doodlin'

I'm Back... I Think

Took an unofficial hiatus for a few weeks. Every time I sat down to compose a post the words would elude me, not sure why, so I took it as a sign to step away for a bit.

I honestly don't have a theme or topic for this post, which is typically the only way I write. I develop a draft in my head that is generally very specific at addressing a topic or theme. Maybe I need to step out of that comfort zone and just let the words do as they will. Who knows!?

Today was CF Clinic, thus I spent the better part of a day under the same roof as all my wonderful doctors and nurses. No matter what the outcome of CF Clinic, I am always overjoyed to walk outside and take a deep breath of fresh air. Today's outcome was good. Not great but good.

My weight is stable at around 124 lbs, O2 was 98% on room air, and my PFT's were average. There were no changes made to any of my medications or regimens. Thank goodness! Rather uneventful to be honest.

In reviewing my stats, I came across some that were REALLY awesome ones from back in April 2011. For the life of me I can't remember what I was doing that caused them to be so good. The one thing I do know is that April was around the time I began running, really running.

I have been needing something to kick my behind back into gear. Well, I got it. I need to start training and pushing these raggedy ole lungs. Tomorrow B and I begin our 5K training program to run the Race for the Rose's on April 1st.

Feels good to have a goal again!

~Doodlin'

Bag-O-Motivation

December and now January have proved to be incredibly trying months from many different angles of life. Surprisingly my health is not one of those aspects. So, today, when I got a large bag with my name on it that instructed me to open one gift after doing my nebulizer (breathing) treatments each day as motivation, you can image my joy. In fact the joy was so overwhelming that it overflowed from me like a waterfall.

You know I get many many words of encouragement, which I love and will always need from time to time. But this gift was so thought out and so perfect as a jump start to gaining motivation or the reward factor of changing a schedule to accommodate the treatments. Even though I am almost 30 years old, I still need to be rewarded. And let me tell you its so much more pressure (positive) to earn a reward from someone else, rather than me giving myself the reward. I feel obligated to follow thru on my end of the bargain you'd say.

My first gift was a lollipop and a little printed "you can do it" message. While I was doing my treatment tonight, I thought about all the parents who attempt tirelessly to get their children to sit still and do their treatments how great something like this would be. A simple gift to pull from a bag if one does their medications is marvelous. It could be a sticker, piece of candy, a piece of change to put in their piggy banks (dime or a quarter) or whatever your child would enjoy. I also think that this idea works for any adult who maybe going thru a rough time.

Do you know someone who could use a few days of encouragement or motivation? Maybe give this a try it sure warmed my heart and put a fire under my backside.

Thank you Nancy for this wonderful gift.

~Doodlin'