Vacation without me

This is not the first time K has been on vacation without me. He once went with my family to Colorado for a week. That was back before we had cellphones. He had to call me on a payphone when they had stopped to camp. It was his first actual camping experience with a tent out in nature. He was a city boy that went camping. It was a true experience for him. He always says it’s not the same going somewhere without me because he wants to share the experience with me. He’s truly a sweetheart.

Last week, he went to see his extended family in Ohio. To make sure he went, it was an amazing feat of my family doing what they do when they’re called to action. The closer the departure date came to fly to Ohio, the more nervous K was about leaving me at home. He was tempted to stay home. So, I started planning.

As with any caregiver (or is it caretaker?), they need time to rest the emotions and rest the body from having to spend all their extra time (at least with us) taking care of the needs of their loved one (or friend, whatever it may be). Stress from being a caregiver (sorry, I’m going with ‘caregiver’. It just makes better sense to me.), builds and builds. If they don’t have an outlet or a place or an activity for just themselves to relieve stress, depression can set in and even still, it could happen. For you caregivers, I salute you for all you do to take care of the person you love and who needs you. Please try to take time for yourself in what’s called self-care and / or counseling.

I knew the dates that K was going to be gone. I had to get people to cover those dates or at least most of them. I realized if I could get most of the days that someone one was here checking on me, the better K would feel and the more likely he would go and enjoy his time in Ohio. So, I was able to get my BFF (M) to come over the next day after K left and she brought her son with her. We talked for 3 hours! It was fantastic! She asked what I needed help with and I asked her to please take out the trash and the wheel the trash bins to the curb. It was great because I didn’t think we would get them out before the trash people would come. GREAT JOB M & J!

M (my BFF) would text me nearly daily. She knew that my older sister was coming down too. My older sister is a take charge person and got a lot done. She fed the goldfish in our pond outside, made K and I sugar cookies (a batch and a half!), & made sure I was doing well. On Sunday, my younger sister came down who also helped a LOT. So while my older sister was still here, my younger sister held my Trilogy face mask to my face so that my older sister could cut my hair & I wouldn’t get tired from holding the mask. Talking about sisterly love and team work! Way to go SISSIES!

My older sister went home and my younger sister stayed. She and I binge-watch the first 2 seasons of Jack Ryan on AmazonPrime. I couldn’t believe she’d not heard of it before. *shock* FYI: Season 4 of Jack Ryan has been released! YAY! However, K doesn’t like binge-watching anything. He’s a savor-the-moment type person. Ugh! I’m so impatient! Though, there’s only 2 episodes out right now. We also made her favorite Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies to take home. She did all the hard work… including the constant stirring!

All throughout the time K was in Ohio, he would text and FaceTime me. I could tell he was having FUN. He was eating better and smiling more. He knew family & my friend were taking care of me. He even FaceTimed me on the 4th of July so I could watch the parade with him. Awww… it was EPIC!

I did try to wash my hair on Tuesday before my sister went home but I needed her help getting out of the shower again which was discouraging to me. I’m slowly gaining weight. K & I are frustrated because I have to rest more which means I don’t need as many calories. I have a sweet tooth. Now I have to be more careful to eat good food and less sweets. I’m internally crying over that. lol!

So, we’ll be discussing the weight gain with the doctors this month. In the next blog I post, I will discuss and show you what I’ve put together so that I can use my trilogy while showering. My original apparatus that I’ve pieced together works the best but I’m still tinkering with other ideas! I’ve even enlisted the help of my sisters to help me think of different ways to wash my hair. I want to be able to do it myself but if I need help with the hair washing, I want it to be easy for K to help. I will be trying a different idea tomorrow that involves K’s help. Wish us luck! I will not be defeated! =o)

When I have a surprise burst of energy…

Living On Oxygen for Life

Happy November everyone! I’ve been busy the past week. For the last 3 days I’ve had a burst of energy. I took advantage of it and did some cooking everyday. I started the first day with my trusty crockpot and cooked 2 whole chickens at once! The peeling & chopping of carrots, garlic cloves, & celery took a while but it was the chicken pickin time that took the longest and wore me out. I saved the broth and cut up the rest of my carrots and celery and put those in the fridge for later.

The next day, I decided to make a Canadian Bacon and Swiss quiche that my older sister had made for us when K had his eye surgery and she came down to help me. She told me she used the Betty Crocker recipe for Quiche Lorraine but used Canadian Bacon instead. I tweaked that recipe by using 5 eggs and only 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream. Plus I used dehydrated onion flakes. My stomach handles the dehydrated onions better than the fresh onions sautéed. Don’t use pre-shredded Swiss cheese. Get an 8 oz block of Swiss and shred nearly half of it. Prepackaged shredded cheese has an additive in it to keep the cheese from sticking together. The quiche was awesome. I believe the secret ingredient is the 1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper.

The next day I made homemade chicken noodle soup with the chicken stock from my crockpot. I skimmed off the solid fat from the top of the jellied stock and used about 2 T of it to sauté the carrots and celery that I had already chopped up. I then heated back up the stock to a liquid state in the microwave to strain through a fine mesh strainer. I used the stock plus a 32 oz carton of Swanson’s chicken stock and one can of Swanson’s chicken broth. No water added! It really turned out excellent with egg noodles (thrown in during the last 10 minutes of boiling), salt, pepper, cumin, & thyme.

Today I was hoping to make something easy I have a recipe from a friend that uses a carrot cake mix and one can of pure pumpkin to make muffins. Sounds yummy! But I feel extra tired today. Boo… I’ve been on such a roll!

I’m freezing half the chicken noodle soup in 2 separate serving sized containers and I already froze the crockpot chicken in 2- 10.3 ounce packages for later when I feel the urge to cook.

I’m starting to think of cooking as what can I make for tonight’s dinner that I can make extra to freeze for the days I’m not up to cooking. Meatloaf is handy, chicken enchiladas or just the meat mixture prepared and froze that can be used for tacos or burritos. Beef tips and gravy freezes well too (see below) and K loves it with rice that we make the night we eat it. On the days that I know we have leftovers to eat for dinner, I’ll sometimes prep a meatloaf to freeze before baking and that way it saves me time and energy when I just don’t have a lot of on bad breathing days.

So, maybe later I’ll get up from my nap and make those muffins which will be baked in my mini muffin pan OR I’ll make Rice Krispie treats. Either way… yum!

Remember… November is PULMONARY HYPERTENSION AWARENESS MONTH. So, Be Aware for those of us who have PH that we are RARE! For more information about Pulmonary Hypertension go to Pulmonary Hypertension Association Organization

Going the extra mile…

Living On Oxygen for Life

I know I’m a lucky person. I have a husband who loves me and takes care of me in ways that I have no idea that he’s doing it. May 26, 2017 was one of those days.

Last year, K found out that U2 was coming to Dallas, Texas in 2017. It’s rare that they come here and they are one of K’s favorite bands of all time, next to Pink Floyd, of course. So, he asked and then begged and told me how important this concert was to him. He said he’d consider it his birthday AND Christmas present if I’d buy these tickets for him. I’m the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) of this family. Anything spent, that’s over $100, should be cleared through the CFO. That’s what happens when you’re living with someone who is disabled and has to go to the doctor often and take expensive medicine.

I knew how much K wanted to go to this concert and I won’t lie to you and say that I was really excited about going to the concert at first. I hadn’t been to a concert in YEARS. I didn’t know if I’d be able to last through a whole concert. I mean, how long do concerts last nowadays? That question was the most important question we faced going into planning for this night of fun. Yes, I bought the tickets. In fact, for the first time ever, I bought a seat for the disabled and a companion seat ticket. We decided to use my wheelchair.

The closer we got to the date of the concert, I started getting more and more excited. I asked my younger sister how long concerts last and she thought about 3 hours. So, we thought 2 liquid oxygen portables would be enough. We didn’t want to leave before the end of the concert. Two portables would give me about 4 hours of time safely. Though, when you least expect it, things don’t always go as planned. Do they?

On the day of the concert, I dressed up in my retro dress. It took me a while to figure out what shoes to wear and how to tie the belt around my dress. I’m not a fashionista. At all.. but K kept saying that I looked beautiful. So, how could I NOT wear a dress? How sweet of him!

We finally departed our house and drove to the DeathStar (the new Cowboys stadium) and there was a lot of traffic. I whipped out my handicap placard once we got close to the stadium. I told K to slow down and I rolled down my window. Well, I just pressed a button and it rolled down on it’s own. I stuck my head out the window and waved my handicap placard (like I knew what I was doing!) to a cop directing traffic. Yeah, I’m not shy AT ALL. The policeman walked up to my van and I asked him directions on handicap parking. That’s right. We were going in style! We ended up paying just a little extra (ok.. a bit more than I was comfortable with) to park at the building (a sidewalk away) in the handicap. It was right up there near Valet parking. A parking attendant poked his head in K’s window to scope the inside of our van. I don’t think I need to tell you what they were looking for with what happened in Manchester, UK a few days prior. There were police dogs walking the crowd and police with automatic rifles. Texas is serious with security. No purses allowed unless it was no larger than 5″x8″ in size. I actually took my PH International Conference name ID badge that I got in June 2016. It held my ticket, driver’s license, credit card, insurance card and my cellphone. It was the perfect size!

We got in the building and had no idea where to go. However, we quickly found out that if you are arriving in a wheelchair, not only do you jump through the line to enter the building quicker than anyone else. You get some incredibly friendly help from the Event Staff. It was nothing short of AMAZING! We only had to say we weren’t sure where to go and the Event Staff person we asked not only told us where we needed to be but also, TOOK us there personally. It was awesome! I was all smiles and “Thank YOUs!” I have to say the handicap seating was excellent. We were fairly close and not a single person was in front of us.

U2 concert 2017!

Now the scary part. As K would say, we “GROSSLY” underestimated the amount of oxygen we needed for the concert. I use 6LPM of oxygen 24/7 and my 2 portables would last roughly just over 4 hours. It was already 7pm which was when the concert was scheduled to start. It didn’t start until almost 8pm and it was the Lumineers, not U2. K and I talked about what we would do. I told him that I could turn my oxygen down to 5LPM if I just sit here in my wheelchair but I’d have to turn it back up to use the restroom or if I started feeling bad. He had left me for a little bit to find out about souvenir concert shirts. At least that was part of what he was doing. I didn’t realize he was going down to the police or the Event Agent at the door to see if he could later exit the building to refill my oxygen. He said no. He couldn’t let him back in he building if he left. Well that sucks! Right? So, he next went to the fire department personnel and explained our situation to him. He asked if they had oxygen with them and they said not to worry. If we have problems to bring me straight to them and they would help. Wow! (yes, they had oxygen!)

K came back to his seat without even telling me he had setup a backup plan in case we needed it. He even packed a picnic to leave in the van for after the concert in case we were hungry. We had a lot of fun, with my oxygen turned down to 5LPM, I was able to watch the whole concert from start to finish. We even stayed a little longer to watch some of the breakdown of the stage. That was cool too. It was just after 11:30pm when we finally got back to my van but all was well and we had a great time. Quite a number of the event staff and a police officer asked if we had a good time. I’d like to think this kind of hospitality happens everywhere but being Texan, I’m kinda biased. *hugs* haha!

Waiting for the U2 concert… Lumineers will be first!

Lots of love to y’all!

I’m famous!!! *wink*

Living On Oxygen for Life

Yay! I have a podcast thanks to the interview I did while at the Pulmonary Hypertension International Conference in June of 2016 and to Steve Van Wormer’s awesome PHAware Global Podcasts. He helps bring awareness to Pulmonary Hypertension. He gives those of us who have the various forms of PH an opportunity to share our stories of what it’s like to go through the process of becoming diagnosed and then living with this incurable disease.

I was pretty nervous about being interviewed. I hope you will check out this website that includes my podcast and many others’. You can listen to me here (so cool!!):

My podcast by PHAware.global to help spread awareness of Pulmonary Hypertension.

Please support this effort by going to this website: “Donate now to support pulmonary hypertension research. Engage for a cure with phaware.” You could even get an “I’m Aware That I’m Rare” t-shirt to spread awareness when you donate. I highly encourage you to check it out.

After you listen to my podcast, come back to my blog and click on the tab above, “Pulmonary Hypertension,” and scroll down to the section that says “My PH Story.” This is something that I wrote that includes everything I wanted to say additionally to what I said in the podcast.

Love y’all! *hugs*

The Beast Within…

Living On Oxygen for Life

Over the past 10 years or so, this beast inside me has grown and mirrored the decline of my health. It all started with what I thought was constant worrying. You know… when you have to time how much your oxygen will last? Well, that can make you worry about checking your oxygen tank a LOT when you are out having fun. Then I would worry about how long my energy will last while I was out having fun. Can I walk that far in the mall or in the hospital for doctor appointments? Will K get upset if I need to stop to sit down for a few minutes. I know the last one is kind of an irrational worry. Of course K wouldn’t get upset but he did try to push me to walk a little further before stopping which only made me feel like he wasn’t taking my need to stop seriously. My health wasn’t as progressed as it is now. So, pushing me a little bit further was a good thing that K was doing. It’s just when I was tired and felt like I needed a break, no one knows how I felt except me.

I turned all this worrying about so many things in my life into trying to control everything around me. I felt like I needed to manage everything so that I had enough energy for things that I had to do around the house and the things that I wanted to do with K. I wanted to know where we were going when we were out of the house, what route we were going, and even how K drove. I needed advanced warning when K wanted us to go out to have fun so that I can be sure to rest up during the day. But all that wasn’t working. Trying to control everything turned into Anxiety because there is no way that I could control everything, be happy and not irritate those around me.

It’s taking a long time to learn to let go of the control issues. K reminds me by saying that he “Gets it.” and “I will always take care of you. I always have your best interest as my priority.” It has helped me a lot with him saying this to me. I have to remind myself of what he said over and over because my memory doesn’t retain information as well as it use to. So, when I get into my vehicle with K, I will remind myself that he has my six. *wink* Giving up the control and learning to trust is a very hard thing to do for me because I feel as if I’m losing more of my independence. However, as long as we have fun in our lives, all will be ok.

My PH Story

Living On Oxygen for Life

While at the 2016 Pulmonary Hypertension International Conference in Dallas, TX on June 17 – 19, I met Steve Van Wormer, who helped create the PHAware Global Association. At the conference, he did interviews of PH patients to help get their PH Stories out to the public to raise awareness of this devastating and currently incurable disease. He asked me to do an interview. I tried my best to do the interview. He was SO gracious when my brain decided to blank out.. I explained that I write much better than I talk. The long term effect of high CO2 on my brain really has affected my memory and recall. Thank goodness for editing… and cut & paste. Hopefully, he can make something out of what I said.

For this reason, I want to get what I REALLY wanted to say here on my blog. Here we go!

**********

I’m aware that I’m rare.
Rocco has now become PHAware. He’s my PH Pup!

My name is Christine Liles and I have Secondary Pulmonary Hypertension. I was born with PH due to Congenital Heart Defects and Scoliosis that caused Restrictive Lung Disease. The doctors knew almost right away that I had Pulmonary Hypertension. The pressures were really high and since I was born in 1969, there were no PH medications or a course of treatment for this very rare disease. So, I grew up living with this disease taking Lanoxin for a short time to help slow my heart rate down. I was restricted from most gym activity because of the shortness of breath.

My parents & sisters were great at providing me with as close to a normal life as possible. Before the age of 10 years old, if my sisters bowled and played baseball in leagues, I was right there with them. Granted, I was much slower but I did it even though the doctors kind of frowned upon it. At the age of 10, my parents finally talked my Cardiologist into performing a corrective surgery on my Ventrical Septal Defect in my heart. My Thoracic & Cardiac doctors, both, didn’t want to do it because they didn’t think I had a chance to make it off the table. It was my most glorious moment walking out of the hospital 7 days later with a patched VSD. With that successful surgery, my PH pressures reduced slightly.

Life really improved until I turned 17 years old. I started having blackouts while driving, began becoming forgetful, and my CO2 was much higher. So I started using oxygen at night. As time went by in my life, I started having more Shortness of Breath. My oxygen flow increased, I started using a bipap to sleep with and I had to stop working all together. This happened when I was 23, just a year after I got married to the love of my life. It was a very difficult adjustment. He knew it was coming.. this health change. I told him when we were dating and then before we married. This is the best I will be. I won’t get better because there are no medications to fix my PH and only one pill that can regulate my heart arrhythmia that I now have. I asked him… Can you handle this? His answer was total honesty which is what I wanted to hear but was hard to hear because he said.. I don’t know. And then, I went on oxygen 24/7. My husband has been my rock and he’s made from the finest quality of human beings… his parents.

In 2006, my Cardiologist asked me to check out the medicine Revatio & Cialis with my pulmonologist. So off I went to see my Pulmonologist who then sent me to see a PH Specialist. I didn’t even know there were PH Specialists. Over the years, after trying most of the PH medications that are available, which there aren’t nearly enough, there is only one medication that my body can tolerate. This is what I will stay on until something new comes along that my doctor thinks might work. I’m not a candidate for lung transplant because of my deformed ribs. I spend my life finding different ways to do the things I need to get done. Picking things off the floor are by using my toes to lift it to my hands. Vacuuming is my husband’s job now. I bend at the waist to wash my hair. I have an adapter for my van to use my bipap on the road for vacations while in the car if have trouble breathing. I do things in short bursts of energy. What takes my husband 2 hours to clean the whole house, takes me all week and even then I can’t get all of the really hard things done.. such as scrubbing the tub, vacuuming or mopping the floors.

This is my life now and I’ve learned to adapt which is the key to keeping myself happy. I’ve found hobbies that I can do that brings me GREAT joy. Just to be able to garden, my husband has built me a raised garden at the height of 16 inches to help me not have to bend down to the ground to grow vegetables. Instead of growing my dwarf fruit trees in the ground, he planted them in half whiskey barrels. I had trouble with dragging a long rubber watering hose, so I asked for a Pocket Hose because it is SOOOO light!

Will there be a cure in my lifetime? I don’t really know. In all honesty, I’m not so concerned for a cure for ME. I’ve had a GREAT life, filled with love and so many adventures. What I am concerned about are all the children who have Primary Pulmonary Hypertension. They need a cure in their lifetime. They have their whole life in front of them but with PH and without a cure, all they have are the medications that are currently available. My passion is for these kids. I know what it’s like to grow up with health problems. PH is no easy disease to live with. Help us. Be PHAware and get the message out that we need a cure. WE ARE DESPERATE TO BREATHE. Check out PHAware.global to see how you can become involved in finding a cure and spreading the word about Pulmonary Hypertension. Or follow on social media @phaware

#PHAware

Gearing up for the PH International Conference and What’s up with my heart?

Living On Oxygen for Life

I’m super excited to be going to the PH International Conference in Dallas this month. Hooray! I’ll be surrounded by so many people who have the same disease that I have. I hate to even call it a “disease” but that’s what Pulmonary Hypertension is. It’s a disease that has no cure but it’s slowing amassing some amazing medicines to help battle the symptoms that PH causes. We still need a cure. The conference is going to be a way for me to learn even more about PH. I want to actually try to find other people to have Pulmonary Hypertension who also has Scoliosis like I do. My PH is secondary to Scoliosis and Restrictive Lung Disease due to Scoliosis deforming my rib cage. Finding others like me will be difficult. Not many people out there like this. PH is a rare disease. I want to find those people and compare how they manage life with how I manage life and breathing. Maybe we could learn something from each other. *fingers crossed*

Before I go to this conference, I have to get through the next 9 days of the 10-day Halter Monitor I’m wearing to get a read on what my heart is doing. Tikosyn is not really helping my heart arrhythmias which is discouraging. The doctors didn’t believe me so I “suggested” that they do a Halter monitor to see what’s going on. We’ll find out one way or the other. Right? Like I said, *fingers crossed*

I’m actually impressed with the newer halter monitor that I’m wearing. It’s cool! I get a “Sensor” that has 3 leads and I wear it around my neck from an attached lanyard. Plus, there is the “Monitor” which is like a cellphone. When I have an “episode” with my heart skipping, I get to push a button on the screen of the monitor and go through a few questions about: What is happening? (I check: Heart skipping), What’s your activity? (I click either resting, mild, moderate, or heavy). So far, I’ve not had to click on heavy activity. I’m not crazy! haha! It’s raining and humid here. So, my activity is limited to indoors, low to minor-moderate activity because I get tired a lot faster in this kind of weather. There’s no telling what my carrots look like in my garden. I only have one orange left on my dwarf orange tree. The wind blew the others off.

If you want to see the many pictures of Klondike’s Adventure in Germany, you can view them all here… you don’t need an account to view them. My sister really did show my rubber chicken a good time so far. His trip is coming to an end soon. I’ll be meeting my sister and her family when they fly through on their way home. Maybe I should make her some more cookies! Shh! It will be a secret!

Stay well and be safe. Lots of love to you all! *heart emoji!*

–Christine

Day Two… It continues.. Tikosyn!

Living On Oxygen for Life

There is one thing I want to bring up about the first day that I failed to mentioned in my earlier post about Day One. I’m still pretty upset about it. In fact, at the time, K and I were both very upset and flabbergasted about the whole incident. You see… when I have to stay in the hospital, I naturally bring along my bipap machine so that I can immediately have it available to use and I also bring all of my medicine. All of my medicine includes my specialty medicine which I know that hospitals, even though they are hospitals with lots and lots of drugs, may not have a supply of my specialty medicine. When I went to the Dallas hospital in 2014, that hospital didn’t have my Opsumit, that I was taking (no longer taking now!), in their pharmacy.

On the 26th of May, my first day of hospital stay, the hospital realized that they didn’t have Tracleer in their pharmacy. The nurse came to tell us in my room and I said that’s no problem because this has happened to me before in 2014 in a Dallas hospital. I brought my Tracleer with me in it’s bottle. The pharmacist can inspect it, slap a patient label on it and put it in their pharmacy locker to dispense out to me. The nurse went to call the pharmacy to see if that was ok to do. She came back and told me the hospital pharmacy said they couldn’t do that, saying something about a law? *shrug* I told the nurse that I can not be without this medicine. The pharmacy looked around for a small supply of Tracleer 62.5mg and found some all the way in Dallas that they were going to have brought to Fort Worth for me that night. I was so mad. I was mad because I had my medicine not but one foot from me and they wouldn’t allow me to offer it to take. I was mad because the hospital had someone in Dallas drive in pouring down rain and hail to bring to it to me to use. AND I was mad because I knew this medicine costs $8500 for a month supply and I didn’t want an exorbitant charge for Tracleer on my bill when I have mine to take that the insurance has already paid for when all they had to do is inspect mine and put a patient label on it. Sorry, but I’m still really upset about this.

Ok…Day Two.. It was much better than day one…although, I didn’t get to sleep until 2am because the last vital check was at midnight and I couldn’t fall asleep until 2am. I’m a night person naturally but I was getting in that zone where if I get too tired, I can’t fall asleep. That’s a very bad thing for me to have happen. I will start to feel physically sick. At 4am, it was Tikosyn time! Then nearly 5am, they came in to take vitals and shortly afterwards, the lab lady came in to take blood. Do you see a pattern here? Anytime I would nearly fall back asleep, I’d get woken back up and by 6am it was time for the EKG. By then, I just decided to stay awake and wake for breakfast and K to arrive. And don’t forget the diuretics to begin. They had all my medicine split apart and coming to me at different times. It was crazy because I was so use to taking morning meds when I woke up and then evening medicines right around 5 or 6pm.

I drew this picture and stuck it on the bathroom door. You see me on the island?

K scooted into the hospital right before the doctor showed up and I had my list of questions ready. I think he was impressed because I had them listed on a small notebook I brought in case I needed it. (I highly recommend this!) My doctor noticed that I had my yarn out and had asked if I crocheted. I was impressed that he knew what crocheting was and told him that K calls it knitting. The doctor said crocheting and knitting aren’t the same.. I felt like we had a bonding moment there. haha! He looked around the room and noticed my sign on the bathroom door. I’m so goofy!

This was the worse meal I had at the hospital. Plus it had pepper on it.

The food here was something else. I was stuck choosing from the Heart Healthy diet on a paper menu but I started to get smart by penciling in requests like a bagel and a chocolate chip cookie. The bagel, I got! The extra chocolate chip cookie, I did not. *pout* However, K did go down to the in-house Starbucks and bought us some goodies. For him, he bought a couple of blueberry muffins.. the kind with crumble topping… and for me, 2 chocolate chip cookies of which he snagged one. By the way, all the vending machines in the hospital only had healthy selections..even the soda or other beverages were diet. Gross! After lunch, I couldn’t believe I was able to get a 2 hour nap. It was AWESOME! Then K was like, let’s get your butt up and walk the hall. We did this the first day and he won’t let me get lazy just because we’re in the hospital because he knows that the more time I spend in that bed, the more my lungs lose function and I can have a set back. So, staying active was our main goal. As long as I wasn’t dizzy or woozy, I walked twice a day with him.. or my nurse tech when K had to go home for the night to take care of some errands for his mom and take care of our dog.

K use to sing and act out this song by the Beatles (A Day in a Life) for me.

After hanging my motivational picture on the bathroom door, I wrote on the patient information board. It’s a dry-erase board in my room. I wrote my Day’s Goal as to “Be A Ray of Sunshine.” Cute, huh? [Picture shown on Day Three post] I wrote it because I was so cranky the previous day. Before K left for home and while I was in the bathroom, he wrote me a goodbye motivational message on the board that he knew I would know what it meant. I came out of the bathroom and saw that he was guarding it so that I couldn’t see what it was that he wrote. I was thinking that he wrote something to the nurses to get me to walk that evening. I mean, he kissed me goodnight and made me pinkie-swear to walk that night no matter what. I thought it was so cute that he would pinkie-swear with me that I just went ahead and pinkie-sweared. Well, when I read what he wrote on the board, I almost cried. I know that to you it’s just lyrics to a Beatles song but to me, it’s a happy memory that makes me laugh out loud. He’s so good at writing the perfect thing that will touch my heart and lift me up.

On the second day of my hospital stay, the labs came back with an even higher than MY normal of CO2 (or bicarbonate) level. The doctor was concerned, thinking that he should adjust my diuretics but I told him that I have normally high bicarb and my kidney does a good job at balancing my pH level. I told him that I would prefer that he would consult with my PH doctor before changing any diuretic she prescribed. Personally, I don’t like one doctor messing with another doctor’s orders. He did say that he was ok with that and he agreed with not changing her orders but he was going to watch it. That doctor is my Pulmonary Hypertension doctor and there are good reasons why I’m on the medication that I am on. I brought a 15 page history of my major health history (with test results) just in case something went wrong and they’d need more information. I even gave it to my nurse, which she copied, but I don’t think the doctor even looked at. I don’t know for sure but I did it because I’ve never been to that hospital before. I do what I can not to only protect myself but also to protect K in the event that if something happened during this stay in the hospital, he’ll know what to do to get information he needs about me to make the right decisions.

Apparently, at the starting dose of Tikosyn, which is the higher dose, my QT Interval was too long on the second day. The doctor had to make an adjustment to my dose that evening. I was now taking the lowest dose.. 125mcg twice a day. He told me that by the last (5th dose) and after the EKG, he would know if they could send me home with or without the medicine. Remember, anything under 500 is good.

2016 PH International Conference in Dallas, TX

Living On Oxygen for Life

I’ve been waiting for this conference to come for the past several years. It was held several years ago in Canada and ever since then, I’ve been really, REALLY wanting to good.

So imagine my surprise when I heard nearly a year ago that the next conference will be held practically in my own backyard!!! Ok not really that close. It will be in Dallas, TX and that, my friends, is drivable since I go there anyway for my Pulmonary Hypertension doctor appointments. In fact, my doctor will be there. I already told her that I’ll try not to embarrass her by screeching and flagging her down saying, “*GASP!* There’s my doctor!!!*”

Seriously though, this conference is hugely important because it’s where PH patients (like me), Caretakers (like K), PH physicians and some sponsors all come together to offer the latest information about Pulmonary Hypertension. There will be support groups for parents of children with PH as well as for adults with PH and even for the caretakers.

I’m super excited to be spending the weekend there. I’ll have my puppy with me in my room. I think it will be a wonderful experience to be surrounded by so many wonderful people and learning how they have adapted their lives to overcome the challenges of having Pulmonary Hypertension.

I’m really interested in finding the people who were born with scoliosis and have PH as well. That’s similar to my health condition. I was born with Pulmonary Hypertension. So that makes me a long-term survivor of secondary PH and hopefully I can offer information to anyone who asks me.

I will be blogging my experience while at the conference. Hopefully I will have lots of pictures to post & show you. I’m still thinking of whether or not to take Klondike, my rubber chicken. He’s going to need a new hat. My sister kept Klondike’s beach hat. Probably for the llama she has. haha!

Learn more about Pulmonary Hypertension at:PH Association Organization

Be sure you FOLLOW my BLOG to read all about my fun adventures and living on O2 for life!

Problem? Fix it!

Living On Oxygen for Life

Stress..the final frontier..for which no man (or woman!) wants to experience. Did that even make sense because I can’t tell.. I’m too stressed out. Over the last three weeks, I have literally hit the maximum overload point in the amount of stress my little body can handle before I start feeling physically sick. Chest pain, heart beat skipping, and downright depression hit pretty hard. But, let’s not go there.

I played phone tag a lot last week trying to find out when my doctor can schedule me in his itinerary for trying Tikosyn. He finally got back in town last week. I called him last Monday to let them know… “Hey, I’m still here waiting on an answer..” I had to leave a message. I really hate phone tag. So I sent an email too. You know, just in case. I finally get a call back from the doctor’s staff saying they’ve been discussing my case and they think the doctor will have an opening to be available to the hospital for the 3-day stay requirement during the last week of April. I told her that I’ll be out of medicine soon and I’m already splitting the pills in half. Her answer was that I’d have to be off the medicine completely for 2 to 3 weeks anyway. Personally, I think we’re cutting it a little too close for my comfort. Between now and then, the doctor has other out of town conferences to attend. What will happen while I’m off Cordarone and I have a rhythm problem and he’s out of town??

Meanwhile, K and I have decided to track down and purchase Cordarone from Turkey so that I’ll have something to fall back on if my body can’t tolerate Tikosyn. It hasn’t arrived yet but it’s been shipped. *fingers crossed * that it’s the same brand name Cordarone that I’m currently taking.

Right now, I’m not feeling any bad effects of being on just a half dose of Cordarone a day. My heart is skipping a little but I’m ok with that. As long as it doesn’t get worse or something doesn’t cause a lot of stress for me, we hope I’ll do ok.

I really wanted all this settled before the PH Conference in June because I’m super excited to be going with K. I’ll be hopefully giving away my favorite Need a Hug afghan that I just completed. It really is lovely!

This the Need a Hug afghan I wish to give away at the 2016 PH International Conference

An Overload of Information to Catch You Up!

Living On Oxygen for Life

Oh my goodness… I have so much to catch you up on. First, let me show you my MacGyver invention that I took to two movies and a trip to see my sisters a few days ago. It enabled me to take both of my portable liquid oxygen tanks and not have to carry them myself.

Going to a 2 hr and 15 min movie with 2 tanks and this cart I invented to carry both tanks.

I put one of the portables in the bucket and strapped the whole thing in my van on the middle bench with the seatbelt. It worked really well! Next thing I need to tell you that my trial with Adempas is over. I didn’t do very well on it. I had a constant headache and my breathing had gotten worse. So, I talked with my doctor and she agreed to stop the medicine. Having Restrictive Lung Disease makes it hard to find Pulmonary Hypertension medicine that my body will tolerate. Right now, I’m back on 62.5mg of Tracleer twice a day.

Christmas was great!! K and I decorated the house again this year. Unfortunately he had to work on his days off but I had the energy to decorate most of the Christmas tree myself since I went slow. It took me a couple of days to get the ornaments on the tree. Here’s a couple of pictures of what we did.

Our 2015 Christmas Tree!

K made our table look great with a live tree from Jackson & Perkins.

I had fun crocheting some holly and berries… I turned them into knob ornaments.

My Mary enjoying the Christmas tree 2015.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I was visiting my sisters a few days ago, we met up at Winstar Casino since it was the most central place to meet. My little sister is the one who went to Paris and she brought me back Klondike! It was good to get him back home but it looks like he is going to be a world traveler because my little sister said they will take him to Germany when they go. Germany!!! How cool is that? They really liked the Shutterfly book I made of all the pictures they took of Klondike in Paris. They texted them to me each day they were there. By doing this, it gave me a chance to travel by proxy to places that I’d never thought I could go. Overseas! Plus, I got a very awesome purse and a beret! Yippee!!

The French Beret I got from my sister!

I know I’m overloading you with a bunch of information but I can’t stop now! I have more news to tell you! This one is super exciting because I worked all year to accomplish this one. My dwarf Meyer Lemon tree, that I’m growing in a half whiskey barrel, produced 3 whole lemons for the first time ever and it took all year to grow them. I think I’m going to make lemon brownies with a glaze on top. I forget what they are called but I found a yummy Pinterest recipe. The lemons are HUGE!

It took one year to grow these!

I’m still crocheting Need a Hug afghans. Even though 2015 was pretty rough and my Happy Jar doesn’t have a whole lot of “Happy Moments,” I’m determined to make 2016 a more awesomer year. Yes, I said AWESOMER which is a new word I invented and I’ll say it until it catches on! haha! Have a great year everyone and stay well and warm. Sorry I had to throw everything at you in one blog post. Believe me, I could go on but, I’ll let you digest this post for a bit before I post more. Lots of love and hugs to you all.

Taking Adempas Begins – a PH medication..

Living On Oxygen for Life

I’ve been living in a fog of a migraine since Friday. The day the Pharmacy nurse came to my house to explain all the ins and outs of the new medication that I was about to start taking. It’s called Adempas (riociguat <– don't ask me how to pronounce that!) and it treats two types of pulmonary hypertension in adults. You can read more about this medication by clicking on the red link.

I’m so glad that K had bumped up our date night from that Friday night to the night before (Thursday) because I wanted to make sure I was feeling well rested for the whole fun experience of seeing Spectre in IMAX! It was so awesome! We even got two FREE movie posters for seeing it in IMAX which I thought was super expensive. But, hey, it was date night, right? It’s not often that I can get K to take me to a movie for date night. We already have our next movie picked out and we are both super excited. *drumroll, please* We are going to see Star Wars!!! I’ve waited 30ish years for this moment. FINALLY they made the Star Wars VII movie. I want to dress in character but I’m not sure if I’m going to yet. Wouldn’t that be so darn fun?? Ok ok… I’m getting way too distracted.. back to Adempas.

So, like I was saying.. the nurse showed up at my house and we went through with filling out all these health forms. You know the ones… What medication are you currently taking, what medication are you allergic to, and then the fun ones began. I always dread this one category of questions: Health History. Are you serious???? Don’t you have that already in your data bank since I’m already taking Tracleer which is another PH medicine? Yeah, I seriously thought that. No, I wasn’t rude enough to blurt it out but I did take a deep breath (well.. as deep as I could, anyway) and started listing off the “most important” health conditions that I have. And then he took my blood pressure to get a baseline reading before I started taking Adempas. One of the side effects of this medicine, which could or could not occur is low blood pressure.

All looked A-Okay with my blood pressure (I never had any doubts about that!). Then he did what I was hoping he wouldn’t do… he opened my medicine and had me take my first dose. *pout* I wanted to wait until today (Monday) so that I could have a relaxing weekend. It didn’t work out to be. The nurse took my blood pressure every 15 minutes to make sure it stayed within normal range. It did! Yay! Like I said, never doubted. haha! But something did happen later that day which made the whole experience blow. grrr!

Maybe it was bad timing? Or maybe it is my body adjusting to this medicine. Since Friday evening, I have had an awesome sized migraine. I still have it. Usually they can last 3 days on average. If this is from Adempas, so far, this is the only noticable side effect, that I’ve experienced which makes me want to count my blessings. I’m starting out at 1mg, three times a day, 6 hours apart (I was hoping to start at the .5mg dose). Yep, I have to set my alarm to remember when to take it… and crap.. it’s almost time to take it again. Ugh! I am pretty sensitive to all the PH medicines. Tracleer has been the only PH medicine that my body has been able to tolerate. Hopefully, adding Adempas will give me good results and can be tolerated.

Meanwhile, my sister and her family are coming down, we still need to hit the grocery store (desperately!), and I’ve only had the strength to do simple household chores over the weekend. I’m not complaining, even though it may sound like I am. Life happens and it happens to have more potholes in the road this year for me. Or so it seems. It’s all in the way we look at life. I can either look at the rest of this week as a mad scramble to get thing ready for this weekend or as a complete excitement to see my family and my darling 5 year old niece. Seriously… you know which one I’ve chosen, right? *wink*

Be well everyone and stay in touch. I have recently become a Guest Blogger at http://www.freshairmedicaloxygen.com (Fresh Air Medical). I answer questions and talk about oxygen there. I have not used them as an oxygen supply company but I’ve heard they are a good company to do business with. They have their customer’s best interest for their oxygen needs at heart and want to provide them with a community feeling with their blog. I’m glad I can help in this endeavor.

So, uh, are you ready for Thanksgiving? What about Christmas? Lots of love to you all! *big wave*

A new PH medicine to be added..

Living Oxygen for Life

Well, I’m pretty nervous because I’m going to subject myself to trying another Pulmonary Hypertension medication that’s fairly new. It’s called Adempas. It will be added to the PH medicine that I’m already taking, Tracleer.

It’s so complicated, with all of my health problems, to treat Pulmonary Hypertension. With each PH medicine I try (with the exception to Tracleer at half dose), my body isn’t able to tolerate them because of my scoliosis that created my Restrictive Lung Disease problem.

What’s suppose to help one of my problems creates terrible results for my other problems. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is for K to watch me go through this and not be able to do anything to help make trying new medicines any easier. Spouses go through so much along with the patients. It’s just as heart wrenching and maddening as being the one trying a new medicine, unsure if this is the one to either make me feel me feel better or make me feel so much worse. There is no cure. We can only hope to slow its progression until a cure is found.

So, here I am after my Pulmonary Hypertension doctor appointment today, waiting to hear if the specialty medication application was approved which will probably be some time next week. Then, I’ll find out how much more this will cost me or if I will qualify for Co-Pay assistance. PH medicine does not come cheaply and can only be dispensed from a “Specialty” Pharmcy. Thankfully, my PH doctor has agreed for me to be titrated up on this medicine slower than normal. We’re hoping by going a little slower, I may be able to tolerate this medicine a little more smoothly.

Meanwhile, it’s raining like crazy here. The air is holding on to all that moisture as long as it can to make me suffer, I’m sure! haha! Not to worry! I have ice cream in the freezer. It helps me to survive anything. Probably even a Zombie Apocalypse too! You never know! Don’t doubt the power of ice cream!!! Mwahahaha!

Be well everyone! Have fun with the Trick-or-Treaters. May you actually have “little” kids show up at your door this year. Be safe.

Remember that November is Pulmonary Hypertension Awareness month.

Day 3 of Klondike’s Big Adventure!

Living On Oxygen for Life and Klondike’s Adventure in Paris

Yesterday was a fairly quiet day for Klondike and I haven’t heard from them today at all. I hope they are ok and having a good time because. tomorrow, they go home. I noticed in one of the pictures from Day 2 that I didn’t post on my blog has Klondike in it. I hadn’t seen him in the picture before. I guess I was looking closely enough. This was taken in Disneyland. I had to ask what the characters were that I was seeing. My sister said thought they were Ghosts dressed for Halloween. I told her that they looked scary to me. hehe! Let’s see if YOU can find him.

Where is Klondike?

I only received one picture yesterday. They (my sister, her husband and Klondike) all went to a show at the Moulin Rouge. I’ve always wondered, since I watched that movie, what it was like inside. I guess I will always be wondering because I only got this one picture. Klondike looked pretty excited!

Klondike visits the Moulin Rouge for a show.

I really hope you liked following Klondike’s adventure in Paris. I’m sure he’ll be going on another one in the future. I don’t know for sure when I’ll be getting Klondike back from my sister.

Lots of love, hugs and happiness to all of you! Hey, if you haven’t already, get your FLU shot. I’m going to be getting mine next week. YAY! Even K is going to get one!

Klondike’s First Day in Paris!

Living On Oxygen for Life and Klondike’s Big Adventure

Holy smokes! Klondike is getting around Paris and having loads of fun! He’s (& my sister and her husband) showing me what it’s like to tour Paris. I love it. More pictures are in and

I’ll try to post a daily update when I get pictures. I woke up this morning to find 3 pictures on my phone already! The time difference almost confused me but I think I got it down now. Here’s the first picture which is just a graphic.

Klondike has reached Paris!

Our first monument.  The Arc de Triomphe!

Klondike has a gourmet lunch with my sister and her husband on a tour bus!

Klondike made it to the apartments in Paris!

I can’t imagine what it’s like to have a gourmet lunch on a bus. Wouldn’t your glass tip over on a sharp turn or your linen tablecloths flutter in the wind? How very interesting! You see my brother-in-law in one of the pictures. He really is pretty cool about Klondike.

Well, that’s all for today’s Klondike update. I hope you enjoy the pictures! Breathe easy y’all and lots of love and hugs to you all!