Life Happens!

I finished Occupational & Physical Therapy back in December. Hooray! But, I still need to keep up with it at home which is easier said than done. So, I’m falling flat on that. Shame on me. Last couple of months I had a good excuse. I hurt my ankle somehow. Honestly, I have NO IDEA how it happened but I think the dogs were involved in the middle of the night. *sigh*

My doctor ordered my home health company to come out that night to do an x-ray of my ankle. It didn’t SHOW a break but it hurt! It hurt for 2 months. I’ve never broken a bone before and I want to keep that awesome streak alive! So, we’ll just say I sprained it. It’s feeling better now but it still aches every so often.

I’ve been using my Trilogy ventilator 24/7 for 14 months now. I’m doing well. I have good days and a few bad days mixed in. Today, I got my Trilogy swapped out with another Trilogy because it came with a modem that will send reports, from the machine, directly to my doctor who prescribed it. It runs on bluetooth. Isn’t technology great? Now, no one has to come to my house to pull a report from the Trilogy via USB and email it to my doctor. I’m usually seeing that doctor via Telehealth and only rarely do I need to show up in her office. I really like Telehealth doctor appointments. I also got a different mask to use and it’s making eating easier. I still have to use a straw to drink beverages though. I did buy a couple of straws that can be reused. One of them is steel and the other is hard plastic. I don’t use disposable ones because they would just end up in the landfill. Boo! But I do miss those flexi straws. =o)

It’s getting to be a pain to lug my trilogy and 2 oxygen portables every time I leave the house. It was funny (after the fact) when K and I were about to leave for an appointment, that we pretty much fumbled through getting me out the door. It is so crazy! I have switch my source of oxygen to use 2 portables with a splitter, change the Trilogy hose to a 6ft one (instead of a 10ft one) and then detach my Trilogy from the base to leave the house. K carries it all as we walk to our vehicle. The first time we did it, I knocked over my tumbler of ice water all over the floor because the hose caught onto it when K was lifting the machine. My dog, Willow, loved all the free ice that scattered all over the floor. We were in a rush. So, we grabbed whatever was close to mop it up. Never a dull moment. We are finally getting a routine down for when we have to go somewhere. YAY! K says that it looks like we actually know what we’re doing now. =o)

I’m pretty much a homebody though. I honestly look forward to days where K gets me out of the house. I feel like I live in a bubble within my home. I stay busy with crocheting, reading, playing Elvenar on the computer and watching our favorite tv show called Tournament of Champions (5th season!). If you like cooking, that show is a MUST see! It’s on Food Network!

I’m also learning something new. We are going SOLAR! I am very excited about this. We will never be without power again which is a relief because, you know…. life support equipment! There are so many details with getting Solar panels and a battery backup. It’s been a huge learning process… There are so many things involved such as homeowners insurance, power company changes, solar tax credit, and so much more. We’re still in the planning stages but it’s going to happen!

I hope you are doing well. *hugs*

It’s blazin’ hot here…

Living On O2 for Life

For the past two weeks or so it’s in the upper 90s and in a few days the forecast is 105 degrees. What that means for me is: Stay indoors with the a/c cranked. Well, that’s what I would usually do but life has a way of creating drama. You know, the kind of drama like your “Check Engine Soon” light coming on when I least expected it. Then there’s the strawberry plants that stopped producing! What? I know… I was nearly devastated. haha! There’s more drama that happened but I don’t want to bore you. I want to tell you about the fun stuff!

K and I were fortunate enough to be able to visit with one of my cousins and her family while they were here with their church. There was a choir event that we went to and wow were the kid who sang good! We had a great time catching up. I hadn’t seen them in over 18 years.

You know from the last post that I’m slowly increasing my experience in yeast bread. Well… I experimented with making Honey Oatmeal Wheat rolls. Unfortunately, K doesn’t like wheat or oatmeal in his bread. Lesson learned! So, I shared them with his mother. See picture in the right column under Instagram. If you scroll down you’ll see them. It was a lot of fun! We also ate our first two ears of corn that K grew. Our experiment with growing corn has been successful thus far. We have 7 more ears left growing from a separate, later planted seeds. Whew.. they were delicious and I hope we plant more next year. I’m making quite the farmer out of my man. I’m SO proud!

Unfortunately, one of our pond goldfish kicked the bucket. He was floating belly up one day and we still don’t know why or what caused it. Rest in peace little man… But, we still have 7 left… so… HOORAY Goldfish! haha! My newest Need a Hug afghan is coming along nicely. I already have the recipient in mind to ship it to. I’m hoping to get it finished within a month. *fingers crossed*

This past week has been terribly hot and humid. It’s been trying to rain but in our area it’s only coming down in the lightest sprinkle occasionally which is making it HARD for me to breathe and tired a lot. I want to try to get that yummy Cinnamon Swirl Bread made today. K said, “Double to the cinnamon swirl!” So, if I’m not too tired, I’ll make it today and increase the swirl! haha! I’m going to share half of it with K’s mom. She really liked my first loaf. YAY!

Be well and be careful with this heat. *hugs*

My Rookie Experience in Trying a New Thing and How to keep life interesting.

Living On Oxygen for Life

The past few months, I have lost a lot of interest in doing a lot of things that I normally would enjoy. Part of it is from depression and the other part is a decline in health. I’ve slowed down quite a bit. I still “garden” but K waters the garden for me. I still crochet but it takes me longer to complete an afghan. I don’t leave the house on my own as much because it drains me a lot. But I still do it because I need to feel like my old self as much as possible. I get out of the house more WITH K than alone.

I try to find different things to experiment with to keep my interest and find the happiness I need to keep me getting out of bed while K is working. So, I look to Pinterest a lot. Recently, I’ve challenged myself into conquering Yeast Rolls. Since I don’t have a KitchenAid stand mixer or a bread machine, I thought mixing and kneading the dough by hand would wear me out. When I finally found a recipe the creates only 4 rolls, I thought… “What the heck! Even I can do THAT!” Right? So, my foray into baking with yeast begins. My first time I produce the 4 rolls but the crust was too hard and they were dense. The third time I tried, I found the perfect recipe! This recipe calls for more milk than water and 2 eggs. Wow! Who knew that these changes would produce awesome dinner rolls?

There are some people on my FaceBook Page (Living On O2 for Life) have seen my posts about my experience with baking yeast rolls and want the recipe of the rolls I made this week. So, here it is… I hope you understand my method of explanation:

Buttery Soft Top Yeast Rolls

3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs (room temperature)
4 cups flour + a couple of tablespoons if needed (I used all-purpose flour)
2 1/4 tsp of instant yeast (1 package or 1 pkg of active yeast)

I used instant yeast this time but you can use active yeast because I do the same process of proofing the yeast for either kind.

TIP #1: I use glass and tupperware bowls to make the dough.
TIP #2: When measuring flour, ALWAYS spoon it into your measuring cup without packing it in or shaking the flour down. Level off with a straight edge.

Combine milk, 2 tsp of the sugar (the rest goes in the big bowl) & water. Warm in the microwave about 30 seconds on high, stir and then microwave another 30 seconds and stir again. Test with a thermometer and make sure the liquid reaches approximately 110 degrees. NO HOTTER or you could kill off your yeast. (make sure you have the sugar in there for the yeast to eat!) Once your Milk/Water/Sugar is warm, add yeast and stir softly and set aside to froth & foam for 10 minutes. (it smells so good!)

Melt butter in the microwave in a small bowl and let it cool.

While using a blender (I used my hand mixer) to combine 1 cup of flour & 2 (room temperature) eggs and then add in the butter once it’s cooled but still liquid.

Add the frothy yeast/milk/water/sugar to the Flour/eggs/butter that you just combine with the mixer and use the blender while adding another cup of flour. By this time, unless you have a stand mixer, you’ll need to change over to using a rubber spatula to add the rest of your flour. I had to do this last part with a rubber spatula because I don’t have a kitchenaid stand mixer. Don’t worry, it’s not that hard or tiresome.

The dough will seem a little sticky after you incorporate the four cups of flour but it shouldn’t stick to the bowl. If you need a little flour, add it by the tablespoon. I only needed about 2 tablespoons of extra flour. It will be sticky but it shouldn’t stick to your fingers.

Let the dough rest a few minutes in the bowl (I needed a little few minutes of a break) and then knead the dough. I kneaded my dough in the bowl instead of on a countertop for about 5 to 10 minutes (closer to about 10). It saved me from getting my countertop dirty. I eyeballed how much kneading was needed by testing its stretchiness (something about a window of dough)!

After kneading, I just left the dough in the bowl and covered it with a Turkey Roasting oven bag since I had a box of them from when I thought I would try roasting a turkey one year. That didn’t happen. *rolling my eyes* The roasting bag fits nicely over the big, gigantic bowl I use to make the dough. I set the covered bowl in my warm garage (it’s in the 90s here now) and then the waiting started for the dough to rise to twice its original size. About an hour, maybe more, maybe less.

Meanwhile, I cleaned up my mess and read a book on my Kindle app while occasionally glancing at the TV. Yeah, I’m that good! haha! When the dough is twice its original size, I brought it back into the kitchen and pressed/punched it down. I used my cutting board and a 8-inch sharp knife to cut the dough in equal portions. You should be able to get 15 pieces that you can form into approximately 2 – 2.5 inch balls. Don’t over manipulate the dough. Just gently fold the edges under and pinch the bottom seam together.

Rolls after rising to twice their size.

Place dough balls, seam side down, into a Pam sprayed 9 X 13 inch pan. I put my pan with the rolls back into the Roasting Bag and moved them back out into the garage to rise again to twice the size. By the time they have risen, they’ll spread to fill the pan. Take them out of the bag, preheat oven to 375 degrees and used melted butter to brush on top of each roll. Add a pan or baking dish of water on the bottom rake in the over under the place the rolls will go. It helps to bake them with this water to make the tops softer. Bake for 13 – 16 minutes depending on your altitude where you live. They should be nicely golden brown on the top. When they are done, butter the tops again and sprinkle with sea salt (I used Mediterranean Pink Sea Salt). Then eat one! Or two or three! YUM.

Let me know if I made any mistakes or if you have any helpful tips in the comment section.

Life is amazing!

Living On Oxygen for Life

For most of us who have respiratory problems, the Winter months can be tough to get through. I try to stay home as much as possible so that I’m not exposed to people who are sick. I know… I wish they would stay home too. Because I stay home, I get cabin fever. Seeing it overcast outside and cold, really makes me feel blue.

By the time January rolls around, I’m getting excited because I know the next month I’ll be planting my garden beds. Hooray! So, I get out the graph paper and plot out where and in which bed I want my seeds. We also decide what our newest “experiment” crop (K likes to call them crops now. He’s slowing getting into being a farmer. *wink*) will be. This year I let K decide. He chose something that I have wanted to try since last year. Corn!! How exciting, right?!?

Now we don’t have a lot of “farming” space for corn. So we are only planting one row of 6 or 7 plants in the actual ground (not a raised bed). We also decided we need more strawberries and more of a variety of tomatoes. K got pretty handy and found our old window planter boxes for the strawberries and I had an idea to mount them on the side of the garden beds. Nifty!

2018 Spring Garden

I love getting creative! We have hanging baskets of cherry tomatoes too. Hopefully they will be successful. I don’t have a lot of energy to take care of all of this but K has really taken the lead on the watering the garden so that I can enjoy watching all the vegetables grow. There’s just something rewarding about watching & caring for the things you plant to grow into the vegetables you later eat. This excitement helps motivate me. The joy and motivation I get from my garden is the main reason K is onboard with helping me with it. He does what he can to keep me moving and exercising my lungs. Not to mention all the yummy vegetables we’ll get to eat!

So are you ready for some warm weather??? Lots of love to you all!!

Staying Active…

Living On Oxygen for Life

I AM SO EXCITED!!! K built me a second raised garden bed so that I can plant even MORE vegetables this year. He knows that my energy is waning but he is wanting me to keep active so that my lung function stays stable. Plus, staying active makes me happy even though it takes a lot more energy. So, this year, K has committed to helping me with my garden whereas, last year, he told me it would be my responsibility to take care of it.

Here’s some of my gardens:

I planted 8 seed potatoes this year.

Carrots, Broccoli, & Herb garden.

I know what he’s doing and I appreciate it very much. He’s getting more involved in hopes that I will be encouraged to keep moving which has declined over the last 6 months. In fact, we even went out clothes shopping for me last week. I normally hate shopping but I hadn’t had any substantial new clothes in years. I’m someone who will wear what I own for years before I become willing to shop for new stuff. Shopping makes me tired and again, K was so instrumental in helping me make shopping for clothes really fun. He helped me pick out clothes (because he’s SO good at! haha!), came in the dressing room and helped me get clothes on and off if I needed it, went out for exchanges for different sizes, told me to rest when he saw I was getting tired, AND told me, as I was showing off each piece of clothing, how much he liked it or asked me if I liked it or will I be comfortable in it. You see, I have scoliosis and clothes don’t always fit right. It can discourage me a lot when I go out clothes shopping. So having K there in the dressing room giving his opinion was SO helpful. He’s never gone into the dressing room with me before. So, yeah, he’s noticing and really trying to make a difference in my life and our happiness.

Today, I have February’s Need a Hug afghan being mailed out to a sweet lady, Linda. I’m still working on March’s afghan. It’s about half done. I hope I can finish it by the end of this month. I hope everyone is doing well. Much love to you all! *HUGS*

P.S. I just told K that I need a new Rubber Chicken. *sniff* Klondike’s (my current chicken) finally broke his neck *cringe*. It’s so sad because he’s been on some amazing adventures! When I get a new one, I will need help with naming him (or her). I’ve never had a girl rubber chicken before! Yes, I know I’m a bit strange about these chickens but they are our Road Trip Mascots. They go on our vacations with us for good luck. *sigh* So far, over the last 29 years, we’ve had Poke, Poke Jr., Mr. Chicken, & Klondike as our mascots. It really is a fun thing to do. haha! Like I’ve always said, finding something fun to distract me from my health, no matter how silly it can seem, is how I deal with life.

Life isn’t easy… is it?

Living On Oxygen for Life

November 2016

Throughout November and December, life was difficult because I was so depressed even though my sisters came for a visit on New Year’s Day. I finally got off of Tikosyn and back on Cordarone. I had to buy it from Turkey because the U.S. doesn’t produce brand name anymore. Don’t worry… I had the approval of my cardiologist, that I’ve seen for about 25 years, to take the Turkey Cordarone. So he knows me pretty well. Now that I’m back on Cordarone, I’ve started feeling more myself, as in my heart has settled down. However, I went through a month of feeling as if I had no motivation and all the Christmas stress was getting me depressed. K was noticing. It was definitely a struggle there for a while. I even stopped crocheting for about a week and a half. *SHOCK!* Whaaaat??? Say it isn’t so! I know, I’m surprised about it too. But don’t worry. I’m back at it and I finished the December Need a Hug afghan and have started January’s afghan! Yay! I still need to get the December afghan in the mail. Ergg… Sorry!

Because my breathing has been worse, I exchanged my 5 liter oxygen concentrator for a 10 liter concentrator that I use with my liquid oxygen. I still use a splitter that I can connect the two (concentrator with the liquid oxygen) to use together to make my liquid oxygen last longer. There’s another reason for upgrading to a 10 liter concentrator. I need a machine that will give me more oxygen for when I need it in the future. Plus, it will make vacations a lot easier because we will only have to travel with one 100lb liquid oxygen reservoir and one 75lb reservoir as well as the 10 liter concentrator. I’m thinking ahead for my future. You may be wondering why I still use my concentrator with the liquid oxygen bled in together. Well, the oxygen concentrator does not put out 100% pure oxygen like the liquid oxygen does. My lungs are very sensitive and they just need a higher concentrated level of oxygen. Plus, using 6L of oxygen from both 100lb reservoirs using the splitter (each on 3 liters) doesn’t last me a whole week. My O2 guy only comes once a week for a refill. I tried just the oxygen concentrator at 6LPM but everyday I slowly started feeling worn out. It’s as if I’d use liquid oxygen on 5L… I could do it but by the end of the day my body would feel weak and my breathing would be much more difficult. Here’s a picture of my splitter.

O2 spltter

But now for the good news… K and I are planning to go to two concerts!! U2 and Roger Waters! K has been waiting for what seems like forever for U2 to announce a concert date in our area. The really neat thing that’s kicked me out of depression is that K has finally decided to help me do a MAJOR Spring cleaning. It’s not the type of Spring cleaning that you may be thinking of, but it’s more of the kind where you take all the stuff out of every closet and my craft room. We are sifting through all of it and deciding what to throw away, what to donate and what to shred. I have TONS of paper work to shred. We had to get an extra paper shredder so that K could help. The one I already have is slower and shreds less paper at a time. K is parting with his McFarlane action figures and he has a LOT of NHL series 1 thru 12 plus variants. (We are looking for a place to sell them. Most likely below cost.) We’re talking boxes and boxes of dolls. Oops! Did I just say dolls? I mean action figures. *wink* It’s good to get the house uncluttered. It makes me feel like I’m accomplishing something. I work on it everyday and even though it makes me feel exhausted, I don’t want to stop until my house is just the way I want it. Finally!

I plan on blogging more often. So keep coming back! Thanks for reading and stay well. *hugs*

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

Klondike’s Adventure Begins! Off to Germany!

Living On Oxygen for Life

Yesterday was so exciting! K & I drove to meet my sister & family at their hotel for a visit before they take off today for their vacation. It was so great! Yesterday, though, I got a text from one of my twin nephews asking if I’ll make his favorite cookies. The whole family loves Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies. I texted back.. “Of course I will!” I made a whole batch yesterday morning at 5am because I couldn’t sleep any longer. Before I started, I was kind of freaking out because I thought I ran out of sugar and thought I didn’t have enough 1-minute oatmeal but I finally found the new bag of sugar that was hidden away and the oatmeal ended up being enough. Whew!

I made Klondike a new hat, an English to German dictionary (like his French one), a fun tourist map of Germany, some miniature old newspapers of WWII as reading material for my chicken while on the plane, his wallet & money, his Germany Travel Journal (different from his Paris Journal) and his passport. My sister said she will get some German stickers to cut down to size to add as customs stamps to his passport. How clever is that? She’s very creative like me.

The first picture came in today as they are getting ready to head to the airport. Klondike is a PRETTY COOL DUDE! I can’t wait to share his adventure with you and hopefully brighten your days to come like it does for me. Being on oxygen, we need all the fun and exciting things we can get to help us get through life. So, even though owning a rubber chicken who goes off on adventures is a little silly, he does his job in brightening my day. He really makes me laugh so much! lol!!!

Klondike is wearing his fuzzy wolf ears from the hotel and enjoying his first Chocolate Oatmeal cookie. He’s ready to travel!

This is the cover of his dictionary. It’s only 2 inches tall. Everything fits in his backpack.

Stay well everyone!!!

A fun adventure to get me outside.

Living On Oxygen for Life

Sometimes it’s hard to get motivated to get my butt outside, especially when it’s either cold or hot outside. K likes for me to stay as active as possible while on my days of feeling good. He also likes for me to push myself a little bit (just a little bit mind you!) even when I don’t feel 100 percent. Ok, well, that’s virtually everyday but let’s not be technical about it, right?

So, what gets me excited enough to get out in my yard? Gardening! Not just any kind of gardening, you know… With flowers and what nots.. I’m talking about growing food! Now my yard isn’t big. K says it’s about the size of a postage stamp but I make it work for me. That’s right… I use raised garden beds and half whiskey barrels because, having Pulmonary Hypertension, bending down is difficult for me. This year, I’m growing potatoes (red & white), spinach, carrots, cilantro, thyme, chiles, Bibb lettuce, garlic and a few onions.

This year (2016) K built this raised bed for me to have more garden space.

Last week we had 2 major hail storms that damaged our house and K’s car. I feel a little bad because my van was in the garage. hehe! Here’s a picture I took of the second storm. It was so loud!

This hail did some damage to our house and to K’s car.

Thankfully, and quite unbelievably, my gardens survived both beatings! Maybe it’s because of the netting I have over them. I use it to keep out the bugs. I’m looking more and more like a farmer everyday! Even my dwarf orange, lemon, & lime trees survived.

My first attempt at growing carrots!

My first attempt at growing Bibb lettuce.

Because I use a Bipap, I tend to have a problem with too much air in my tummy sometimes. When I eat iceburg lettuce or onions, it only makes the problem worse. I like salad but most salads have iceberg lettuce in them. I can eat spinach with no problem though. I thought I would try growing the Bibb lettuce as a way to eat a Spinach & Bibb lettuce salad instead.

I like to work around any problems that come up. I call it MacGyvering! Don’t forget to follow my blog to stay up to date with all of my adventurous moments. Happy Easter Sunday everyone!

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

Springtime brings the good and the bad…

Living On Oxygen for Life

Spring is coming!!! Ok… Here in Texas, it feels like Summer will be here soon. It’s already touched 80 degrees. So, that has encouraged me to string my 50ft cannula out the back door to watch K construct my newest raised garden for planting vegetables. He asked me how big I wanted it to be and I told him at least 8 feet long. He replied, how about 6 feet long and 2 feet wide? And then we began the negotiations for the height. I accomplished 16 inches in height which means we both were happy in the end. He was afraid if he made it bigger, it would tire me too much. He said he’d build another one if I wanted later. We just want to see how I do with this add-on garden. Don’t forget… I still have my 4ft elevated bed from last year that I’m using again.

This is a great way that K and I keep myself moving and motivated. There’s nothing like watching something grow into a plant you can eat!! Remember my 3 lemons? I made some awesome lemonade?

I made lemonade from the lemons I grew!

Lately, I’ve discovered myself in a battle with a nocturnal cat. The stinker likes digging in my gardens and darn near killed my basil. Well, I’ll show it who’s boss! I went to Walmart a bought a whole bolt of toile netting and then off to Home Depot with K to but some PVC tubing. I feel a MacGyver Moment coming on. I created a dome netting to cover each garden!

My 2016 garden adventure!

In the upper left corner of the above picture shows a bunch of orange blossoms on my dwarf orange tree K bought me about a month ago. Even my lemon tree is budding flowers again. Yay!

Ok now the not-so-great news. With the warming weather, it brings along pollen and other breathing irritants such as what seems like more air pollution. With warm weather, my body starts to retain water causing swelling and difficulty breathing which means I have to move a little slower. Well, ok, a lot slower. Right now, I’m starting my practice of getting my body ready for our Texas summer heat. I go outside on warm days for short periods of time and then go back inside to rest. I only go out in short bursts and gradually increase my tire outside allowing my body time to adjust.

My first Homemade fresh fruit Popsicles that I made. Raspberry (sieved to make seedless), mango, lemon.

For a while I’ve wanted Popsicle molds. I finally found some cute one and tried my hand at making my very first fresh fruit Popsicles. Getting the seeds out of the raspberries with my sieve was super slow going. That was a lot of work. I hope they taste good. I made them a few days ago. I’m going to try them tonight. K and I are trying to eat fresher food. We no longer eat canned vegetables. Food tastes so much better fresh.

I have exciting news coming up in my next post. I thought I’d catch you up with what’s going on in my life. I hope you are doing and breathing well.

I’m still taking questions for my Q & A video that I’m going to make and post on my blog. If you have a question about me, oxygen, Bipap/Cpap, living with oxygen, Klondike (my rubber chicken) and his adventures, or even Rocco, you should email me your questions at goredrider@gmail.com I’ll try to answer your question in my video.

Q & A video?

Living On Oxygen for Life

Most of you know that I’ve done YouTube videos about my Bipap or the “Meet Christine”, right? If you’d like for me to make another one, I’ll do a Q&A video if you send me your questions. They can be about me or about oxygen or just silly stuff. Keep them clean questions. Just message me or email your questions at goredrider@gmail.com when I get enough for a video, I’ll make one. Sound like fun?

I finally figured out what I wanted to do with the 3 large lemons my dwarf Meyer lemon tree produced. What’s better than freshly squeezed lemonade? It was so delicious! If only my tree grew more than 3 lemons!

I made lemonade from the lemons I grew!

Here’s the updated picture of my January’s Need a Hug afghan. Get yourself on the list of recipients if you feel in need of a hug because you’re having a tough time breathing.

January Need a Hug afghan Update

GO Broncos!!! Need I say more? hehe!

Yes, I’m supporting Peyton Manning for the Super Bowl.

I’ll be attempting more gardening this year. K is building me a raised garden bed that will be about 16″ high. The size of it will hopefully end up being 2’x 6′ and 16″ tall on the ground. I’ll be growing potatoes, Bibb lettuce, cilantro, and spinach this time. Also, the chives and basil are what I grow every year. I hope like crazy that I’m successful and that it doesn’t make me too tired. K is going to build this extra garden next to the tall raised bed. That way my oxygen tubing will reach just fine. He’s so thoughtful. He had to move all my half whiskey barrels to make room. Aww… he’s so sweet. He loves me but this is his way of trying to get me motivated and outside so that I don’t become sedentary which would make my lungs weaker. I don’t need them any weaker. Trust me on that. erg! I’ll take pictures of the garden progress and blog about it! It will be fun!

So send in your questions and I’ll try to answer them. Think of it as a way to get to know me and remember, no question is a dumb question. If I can answer it, I will. Just keep in mind that I’m not a doctor. My answers are based on my experience during my life. Have a great week!!!

2015 Happy Jar Revealed…. she opens the jar!

Living On Oxygen for Life

Happy Jar

This post is more about becoming more motivated about living life while on oxygen. It has shown me that even though my year was filled with challenges, I still had many happy moments to add to my Happy Jar.

This is the happy jar that I made for my 2015 Happy Jar project. I filled it with written down happy moments that happened for me throughout the year. I’m now reusing this jar for my all-exciting happy moments of this year [2016]. If you’d like to read about what Happy Jars are used for, click and read my post that I wrote titled, Happy New Year!! It’s nearly 2015!.

Today, I dumped out the 2015 happy moments and started to read through them. Last year was a tough year for me. I struggled with motivation and breathing problems. With all of that going on, I didn’t think that I had slipped very many “happy” moments in my Jar. As I read through the “moments,” I found myself smiling while I remembered the fun and exciting times I had. This “Happy Jar” has been a great idea! In fact, I’m hoping to fill it up this year!

I hope you created one for yourself last year with me. If you didn’t, start one now! It’s not too late. You don’t have to be super creative with your jar. Mine is a clean Spaghetti sauce jar that I ran through the dishwasher and then painted and used polymer clay to decorate it. Give it a try and do it your way!

I thought I would share my happy moments with you. Let’s see how many I have. Maybe you will recognize some of them! Granted… not every happy moment of 2015 made it in the jar. It was fun pulling out the papers and reading the things I nearly forgot about that happened.

HAPPY JAR 2015

~ I just made a batch of Oatmeal Scotchies (cookies) and cleaned the mess. AND I’m not even tired from it! Hooray!

~ Results are back on the CT Scan. My aorta is only 4.3cm instead of 5.1cm. YAY! Whew!

~ Going to Oklahoma for 5 days for my birthday/anniversary!

~ I finished an afghan for my cousin’s baby! I love babies!

~ Made Rocco some doggy biscuits- homemade! He loves them!!

~ I finished the family Christmas photobook. I ordered an 8×8 book just for us to see how well it turned out. Can’t wait!!

~ My mother-in-law gave me a gift of a t-shirt that’s black with blingy cats. I LOVE IT!

~ Sore from painting last night. So, I made brownies as my motivational reward. Then, I continued taping trim and walls! Happy Day!

~ I finished my Happy Jar (added the cat on the lid) and made decorative papers for my Happy Jar! So Happy!

~ I sent an afghan to one of my parents! He wanted my name and date on it. Awwww!

~ I went to the doctor today to get the paperwork started for a new Bipap! Saw K at work, mailed a Need a Hug afghan, and then made dinner in the crockpot & cleaned up the mess. SUCCESS!

~ Family came for a visit and they tested out the Margarita Machine I got K for Christmas! Great weekend!

~ I’m so happy. K and I finished painting the family room walls, hung curtains, and pictures. Then cleaned our mess. It looks awesome!!

~ Klondike goes to Paris with sister and her husband.

~ Pictures are now coming in from Paris! Klondike is having a blast!!!

~ I finished Klondike’s Adventure in Paris photobook that I made for my sister as a thank you for taking Klondike on their vacation.

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.

Klondike News!

Living On Oxygen for Life

You may already know this… I have a rubber chicken as my road trip mascot. I say road trip because I can no longer fly. Even though the airplane cabin is pressurized, it’s just not enough for my lungs at that altitude. My lungs are pretty weak. So, my husband, K, and I will pack up my van (HEAVILY packed!) with my medical equipment and hit the road for a fantastic vacation the scenic way. About 20-plus years ago, I really, really, really wanted a rubber chicken. Hey, if Magnum P.I. could have one stuffed in his junk closet… why can’t I? And so the legacy begins. K bought my first rubber chicken which I aptly named, POKE, because his beak. poke, poke, poke.. he would tap with his beak. I know, my logic back then as a 20ish year old was weird. Hey, you only live once, so let’s make it fun. Right?

Poke, died…so sad because he melted on the dash of our car. My bad! Next, came… POKE, JR. Oh don’t give me that.. I know it’s not orginal but POKE was such a great adventurous chicken. Not to worry because POKE, JR.. carried on the legacy in style. Unfortunately, he melted too. Not to worry.. I’ve finally learned my lesson. My next rubber chicken, named.. Mr. Chicken, came inside, the house or hotel, with us. Mr. Chicken was far out cool. He posed on a cannon and went to Las Vegas and happily went up in the Eiffel Tower that’s connected to the Paris Hotel. Unfortunatley, Mr. Chicken died too.. We think Rocco, my dog, got ahold of him and broke his neck. It was sad.

You probably are wondering why I have a rubber chicken at all or make such a big deal about it. Well, because I have breathing problems and a few other health problems, I look for ways to keep me excited and motivated in life. This gives me a little pep in my step. If a rubber chicken will do that, great! Plus, my imagination runs crazy with this kind of thing! hehe!

Now, I have KLONDIKE and Klondike is going to Paris, France. He’s packed and ready to go! Pictures are coming in. FOLLOW my blog to watch his adventure!

Klondike is packed and ready for his adventure to Paris, France! (2015)

This JUST in!!! He’s in the air! Oh lands sakes… he looks a little nervous. It’s his first time flying. Be safe Klondike (and my sister & her husband).

Klondike is flying! He’s on his way to Paris. (2015)

Klondike you are so cool! Thanks for having this adventure for me! I’ve always wanted to see Paris! If you’ll notice, Klondike is wearing a beret and scarf in the color of Pulmonary Hypertension Awareness which is a disease that I have. Pulmonary Hypertension is a rare, incurable disease that leads to heart failure. Learn more about PH by going to the PH ASSOCIATION *hugs*