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*

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*

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

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!!!

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.

I’m moving my Need a Hug…

Living On Oxygen for Life

I just wanted to let you know that I’ve created a separate blog for the Need a Hug project that I do. I’m attempting to keep to create a home of its own to show you each afghan I create as I go along! I’ve uploaded every picture that I can find to that blog. If you have received on of my afghans and would like your picture on the Need a Hug blog, email me at goredrider@gmail.com

I’d love to show others how much people enjoy the afghans and lapghans that I send. Naturally, I don’t post any picture that I receive with your express permission. You know how I feel about privacy. So, take a look at my newest blog at Need a Hug Project. It’s REALLY new… so please follow if you’d like. *hugs* Thanks everyone! I also post on my GoFundMe page! Thank you so much for the generous donations I’ve received!!!

Love to you all!!!

I’ve had enough of July…

Living On Oxygen for Life

Lately, I have become a bit lazy and now I’m paying for it. It’s not really a laziness by choice. It’s one of those laziness that creeps up on you because you haven’t felt well enough to be motivated to do much. It’s a struggle for me at times. Right now… I’m trying to deal with this malady as best as I can.

It’s gotten to the point where I stopped calling friends & family or leave the house much for anything besides doctor appointments and grocery shopping with K. That, in itself, is bad. I need to push myself to do things because I don’t feel the energy to do them. I’m talking about making dinner, processing laundry (i.e.: changing loads, folding or hanging up shirts), and swiffing the wood floors. All of this seems really easy to do, right? It looks easy to me. It’s just that when I have a monumental Migraine *knock on wood* everything comes to a standstill. K picks up the slack and keeps things going. Unfortunately, this time, I didn’t rebound as well as I normally do.

Maybe it’s the Texas heat or maybe my breathing is actually getting worse. In fact, K actually picked up the laundry basket full of clothes, as he was making himself a sandwich for lunch, and placed it on the counter. I wasn’t sure why he did that. So I asked him and he told me he did it so I wouldn’t have to bend over and pick it up. He knows how bending over affects my breathing now. Sure, he could’ve carried it all the way to the bedroom but he doesn’t want to make it THAT easy for me. I need to keep active or my health will decline.

I’ve started writing a TO-DO List to get me going again. So far, I’ve accomplished one thing on it which is tonight’s dinner. YAY! I have been crocheting a lot and I’m getting ready to send out another Need a Hug afghan. Just please give me a few more days to get myself back into the swing of things. I’ll be posting more often again. This month has been so weird. It’s definitely NOT normal for me to be so quiet. So, I’m sorry for that. I’ve had enough of July’s laziness and I’m ready to come out swinging in August! Watch out! haha! *HUGS* to you all!!!

The above picture is one that I took a few days ago. The moon was low enough in the sky to take a pretty good shot at it. I love taking pictures! It only took about 15 tries to get one this clear because I didn’t use a tripod. I didn’t want to lug it outside. haha! Space intrigues me! I loved the pictures of Pluto! That was AWESOME!

[2015]

Random Picture Day #14

Living On Oxygen for Life

I had a very exciting 4th of July weekend. My older sister came down for a visit and Saturday, we all went to her in-law’s house to watch the fireworks display while sitting on a lawn chair on the sidewalk. How awesome is that? They had great food and HOMEMADE ice cream (two flavors… chocolate or raspberry). I was in ice cream heaven for a little while. Yum! While we waited for the Fort Worth firework show to start, the kids lit the sparklers and my niece (who’s 5 years old) had a hay day with the snaps that you throw on the ground and they pop like a fire cracker. K was so funny. Every time she threw one near him, he acted all scared and jumped and screeched. Oh the joys from the laughter she makes. Even though I had a LOT of fun, the fireworks smoke and the humidity became too much for me. I had to go inside after the show was over. When I got home, I was feeling it badly. Sunday, I got up to see off my sister & her family and after that.. it was a blur… We crashed for about 4 hours. A five year old can really wear you out!! Sheesh! Once again, Miss C, told me that she still has the little canula tubing that I gave her when she was about 2 years old. So sweet and precious.

I’ve been pretty busy lately with gardening, crocheting, and working on a new adventurous project involving my rubber chicken, Klondike. Maybe you’ve heard? You can read about it here. So, I’ve been getting him prepared to leave and head to my sister’s house so that he may continue on to PARIS, FRANCE!!! I’m gathering things that he might need for the trip…. He’s getting really excited and I don’t blame him one bit. *wink* I just think that this is such a sweet thing my sister is doing for me. Here’s what I have so far!

Passport with Klondike’s picture, Mad Money, a Beret and matching scarf.

I’m also having some gardening luck this year. I actually have 3 whole lemons growing! *shocker* It’s the first year since I’ve had the Meyer Lemon dwarf tree that it’s produced fruit. Hey, maybe they will be edible! One could only hope.

Next is my raised flower bed that I got for last Christmas. My spinach didn’t make it… bummer… but my yellow onions, garlic, chives & basil all are growing well. It’s my first time growing onions and garlic. I hope they survive because I’m really getting into fresh food. I can’t believe how much tastier a recipe is with fresh garlic. I mean, wow! hehe!

The other thing I’ve been working super hard on is sending out Need a Hug afghans. I love doing this. If you need a hug and have trouble breathing, you email me! goredrider@gmail.com It’s free thanks to some really wonderful and generous donors. Here’s the afghan that I just sent out last week. My current afghan that I’m working on is going to Illinois!

June 2015 Need a Hug Afghan

I hope everyone is doing well this Summer. *HUGE HUGS* I love hearing from you. Be well! Sign up to follow my blog so you won’t miss any of the exciting things I write… even Klondike’s adventure! YAY!

[2015]

I can’t believe it… but I should have..

Living On Oxygen for Life

I use a splitter to connect an oxygen concentrator and a 100 lb liquid oxygen reservoir together to provide me with 6 LPM of oxygen to conserve my liquid oxygen. I have my refill days for my liquid oxygen on Wednesdays. So, on the 3rd of June I had my tanks refilled. For some reason, since then, I had been feeling sluggish, tired, worn down more than usual. I thought maybe Mary, my cat, may have chewed kitty holes in my tubing again. So, I checked my tubing multiple times and there were no holes. Then I checked the green Christmas tree that connects my tubing to the reservoir tank to see if it was screwed on tightly… it was. Figures, right? I mean, it couldn’t have been THAT easy!

Now, I know it’s been raining like a monsoon here in Texas and it has taken its toll on my breathing but it has stopped raining.. *YAY!* and that couldn’t be the reason since I’ve been staying indoor as much as I’ve needed to be. Was my breathing getting worse? I was really worrying and so was K. I was using my inhaler, taking my diuretics as prescribed but I still felt puffy and so short of breath. It just wasn’t normal for me. I certainly didn’t want to call my PH doctor.

As my last ditch effort, and almost by fluke of chance while I was filling my portable with liquid oxygen to go to a doctor appointment, I decided to switch the reservoirs (I have two 100 lb tanks) to join with my concentrator. What could hurt, right? When I pulled my tubing off my reservoir to switch them around, I noticed something weird. The one I was about to switch out wasn’t putting out oxygen even though it was almost full. So what that means was that I was only using half of the oxygen I needed for 3 days. Once I connected the other reservoir to the concentrator, I started to breathe much better and now I feel like myself again. I understand now why my sleep, short of breath, and energy level was so bad.

From now on, I’m going to start checking the flow from both tanks when I get my reservoirs refilled. Equipment can fail and I will be reporting this come Monday so that I can get a replacement.

In other news, I’ve been crocheting like crazy! I have a box nearly ready to send out to a preteen girl who is awaiting a double lung transplant. I’m including a secret gift that I can’t tell you what it is until after she receives it. I don’t want to spoil the surprise. I have another box about to be sent out to Michelle & then one to Sara. After that, I’ll be trying to finish up my daisy afghan to go to the next recipient, Vincent. I couldn’t do this without the generous donations going to my GoFundMe.com/helpneedahug. Read how you can receive a Need a Hug afghan if you have breathing problems and need a hug.

I hope you are having a great weekend!!! *hugs*

May Update 2015

Living On Oxygen for Life

You may have heard of all the rain Texas has been getting over, what seems like, the longest month of May in history. Even my garden plants have developed a fungus on the leaves. I’m hoping I can salvage the vegetable garden I’ve put a lot of work on.

It’s been extremely humid here and that has taken a huge toll on my breathing and energy level… not to mention triggering a number of migraines. When I get this way, I tend to get in a funk. I hate funks! So, if you’ve noticed me being pretty quiet on my blog lately, that’s why. I was getting a bit of the funk. Even the kitchen reno has taken a pause. Yikes! That’s scary!

But slowly I’m coming back around… that fun, personable, groovy self that you all know and look forward to hearing from, right? haha!

On May 22, 2015, I had my Pulmonary Hypertension appointment where I was hoodwinked into doing a 6 – minute walk. Darn those doctors!!!! I have no idea how far I walked. I forgot to ask. I walked with 6 LPM of oxygen and still felt really winded. Oh well.. better luck next time, right? I don’t pay much attention to the results anyway. They are way too easy to skew the results. hehe! Even K thinks so. We had a fun discussion about that.

After the PH appointment, I had my CT Scan on my heart. It was to measure my ascending aorta (my aorta aneurysm — it sounds more dramatic saying aorta aneurysm!). My Cardiologist measured it with a Echocardiogram at 5.1cm late last month, which TOTALLY freaked me out. At 5.5cm, he would order a stint. But, he wanted the CT done because my heart is positioned in a way that it’s difficult to measure.

I have to tell you that I was pretty stressed over it. I wanted to know the size of it, right NOW! Luckily, with a bunch of people thinking about and praying for me, all has ended much better that I could hope for. Thank you so so so much, y’all! Much love to you! The CT Scan came back with the measurement of 4.3cm which is significantly lower but still considered dilated. My Cardiologist will continue to monitor it annually or semi-annually. It’s just so weird because I don’t have a reason for this aneurysm to happen.

I did get to go to Oklahoma to see my niece in her first ever dance recital and on the way (I drove alone!), I nearly had ANOTHER blowout with a tire that looked almost brand new. I had to pull off the highway because my van was making a really weird noise. When I looked, I couldn’t see the missing tread because it must have been on the bottom of the tire. That’s got to be Murphy’s Law! Thankfully, I was very close to my sister’s house and my brother-in-law handled it from there. This is a prime example of why we have AAA.com.

May has been a very trying time interspersed with a bit of joy. Just when we thought everything was going well in the beginning of the month, our heat pump (a/c) died and we had to get it replaced. That was NO FUN! But I did set up a donation GoFundMe account so that I can continue to create and send FREE of all charges crocheted afghans and lapghans to those who have breathing problems. This project has been so important to me. I recently sent out an afghan this month and will be sending out a few more within the next couple of weeks. It really keeps me busy and makes me feel happy to spread joy and comfort to those who need a hug and reminded that we all care about what they are going through. I want them to know that they’re not alone. So check out the Need a Hug tab above to see how you can qualify to receive a special made afghan/lapghan. Or, if you can spread the word about donating to this great cause, please do! www.gofundme.com/HelpNeedaHug. I keep this page updated as much as possible.

Have a great day everyone!

Congratulations to the newest recipient…

Living On O2 for Life

I wish to thank everyone who have generously donated to the Need a Hug project that I love doing. It’s where I crochet afghans/lapghans for those who have breathing problems. I’m posting today to let the newest recipient know that, all he needs to do is email me his mailing address, so that I may send him an afghan! YAY Tom Witterbottom! Email me at goredrider@gmail.com

If you have breathing problems and need a hug… email me your name, mailing address and why you have breathing problems. Those of us who have breathing difficulties understand first hand how we can have off days and just need a hug to get us through the day.

Need a Hug is funded by wonderfully generous donations from people who really care about what you are going through. It doesn’t cost you a thing.

Please spread the word about Need a Hug so that I keep it going and make many people happy by wrapping them in an afghan hug.

I will be posting soon about living on oxygen again. Love to you all!

Need a Hug Update…

Living On O2 for Life

Just a quick update for those who have been thinking about donating to my Need a Hug project. If you would prefer to donate through the mail with a money order, I now have a P.O. Box address. Please email me for the address if you’d prefer to donate by mail. goredrider@gmail.com

I won’t post the address on my blog for personal privacy issues but if you will request it by email, I will let you know what it is. *hugs* to you all!

I want to publicly thank everyone who have already donated and are intending to donate to this awesome cause. Your generosity is much appreciated!

Love to you all…

Christine

Need a Hug Continues…

Living On Oxygen for Life

Good afternoon everyone! I LOVE to crochet as one of my many hobbies. Last year, [2014], I made it my New Year’s Resolution to crochet many lapghans/afghans to just give away to those who have breathing problems all at my expense. My afghans have reached out to people who live in New Zealand, the UK, Canada, and various places in the U.S.A. My goal with sending these afghans was and still is to give the recipient a HUG and to let them know that someone cares about them. So, I named the project: NEED A HUG giveaway.

Now that it’s 2015, I have decided to continue this project but I need help to buy the yarn and pay for the shipping. That’s where your help comes in. My goal is to make this more of a community feeling of reaching out to give HUGS to those who have trouble breathing. If you’ve experienced breathing problems, you know just how difficult life can be. So, with your help, let’s send warm hugs to them. *hugs* These breathing problem can be anything such as: Asthma, Restrictive Lung Disease, Pulmonary Hypertension, COPD, and so many more that it would take forever to list. Even people who use a Bipap or a CPap can be a recipient. My goal is to make your sad day better, to wrap you in a warm hug with one of my afghans, and to remind you that people care about you.

I have opened a GoFundMe account to help with the cost of only Yarn and Shipping in order to continue the Need a Hug giveaway. So, please tell your friends and family about this project. All money donated will only be spent on the purchase of yarn and shipping expenses. If you feel the urge to donate to this project, you can do so at: Help Need a Hug.

If you would like to enter the Need a Hug giveaway, please email me at: goredrider@gmail.com and include your name, address, and a brief bio of why you have breathing problems. I will make them and give them away in order I receive the entries. It generally takes me 3 to 4 weeks to make one afghan. So, please have patients. *HUGS* to you all!!!

I just want everyone to know that if you don’t have the funds to donate, please don’t. If you do have the funds, any amount of help is appreciated… whether it’s a $1, $5, or whatever… I’m not doing this to profit. Whether or not you donate, you can still enter yourself in the Need a Hug giveaway.

August & September Need a Hug Giveaway Afghan

June 2014
Need a Hug giveaway

January 2014 Giveaway Lapghan
Deadline for entries is January 31.
Drawing on February 1, 2014.

3 inch granny square afghan.

A better than expected day!

Living On Oxygen for Life

Today has been awesome! I can’t believe how much I’ve accomplished today. I started the day with taking my diuretic which is alway super fun. haha! But, before it kicked in, I gave my friend a jingle on the phone. She’s a super fun person who knows that we both can vent our frustrations when the needs arise. I think every person needs a friend or two like this. Someone you can trust. After throwing myself through the shower, I went to Walmart… partly for food but really I want MORE YARN! I use any excuse to get more yarn. Who are we kidding, right? *wink* Mainly because I love crocheting but the real reason is because I’ve decided to continue with the Need a Hug give away. I have the next name selected and her name is Jennifer H. Please email me at goredrider@gmail.com with your address… so that I can mail the afghan to you.

After I got home from Walmart, I actually was able to unload and put away all the food myself… K was at his mom. Also, I wanted to do it to show him that I can still handle a partial grocery run on my own. It felt good to do it and be successful and yes, I bought myself some ice cream as a reward. It just wasn’t Blue Bell. *pout* I miss you Blue Bell!!!! I can’t put into words how awesome that ice cream is. Trust me. It’s great! Today, I bought Blue Bunny. The name is close and it even tastes pretty good too.

I couldn’t believe that I still had energy left after the grocery and yarn run. So, I went to K’s mom’s house where several family members met over there to work on her patio re-build. It was fun but I got a splinter when I tried to help K for a minute doing something super simple and I declared that that was enough manual labor for me! Besides it was getting too warm for me and I was starting to get a little sunburned. Not good. So I came home.

Now it’s time to take the evening diuretics. Yay and yippee for me! *blah* It never ends. hehe! So here I am, blogging to you. I have decided to announce the newest, selected winner for the “Need a Hug” giveaway. I have 3 people left from the 2014 giveaway. I plan to open a GoFund Me account to help fund the shipping costs and yarn. If you would like to contribute to this fund, please know that it is appreciated (It’s not set up yet!). All of 2014, I funded this projected from my own money. It was SO worth it to me to hear about the happiness from the recipients. I’ve thought long and hard about opening a GoFund Me account. I really want to continue this project but if you can NOT afford to contribute to this fund, DO NOT contribute… maybe your friends or family can! It will have no bearing on whether or not you can enter the giveaway. After all, the point of this project is to spread HUGS and Happiness.

In other news, my magnolia tree is blooming. K and I planted the tree when we first moved into our house. It started out as a 6 foot tree but now it looks as if it’s about 15 feet tall now.

I hope everyone will continue to follow my blog, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. I really enjoy hearing from you. Email me… don’t be shy! *HUGS*

[May 2015]