When unexpected things happen…

Living On Oxygen for Life

I know… I know… It’s been since January of this year since I added a post to my blog. SOoooo much has happened since then. K had surgery on his eyes…. AGAIN, and his momma passed away which had hit us HARD to name a few. I even started a new heart medicine. It’s been a year full of challenges so far but we are taking each challenge head on. Battling them like you would expect us to do. Go team!

Yesterday, (Tuesday) brought us a new challenge or should I say frustration. K and I had a doctor appointment in Dallas that had us getting up at 5:45 IN THE MORNiNG.. Yeah, I know.. Me getting up that early is unheard of. I kid you not. I tend to get insomnia a lot, especially when I have somewhere important to go the next day. So, I don’t get much sleep the night before I have to wake up. K is always telling me, “Go to sleep Chris.” Ugh! I wish I could.

Well, I got up on time. I know, I’m very impressed with myself. I’m even ready to leave on time. WHAT???? Yeah… I’m shocked too. K filled both of my liquid portables for me AND took care of our dogs and cat for me. Awww. I know, right? He’s soooo sweet.

In my van, I have a 75lb liquid oxygen reservoir which was filled on the day before at 1:30pm (Monday) and K went out to the garage to strap the tank in. He also took one of my liquid portables out to my van so I’m only having to carry one portable when I’m ready to leave. He’s thoughtful like that. Well, he came back inside and told me my van reservoir was bone dry. He even led me out to the garage and pulled it out of my van with one hand. I was SO mad. Even though I have 2 portable that would last me 4 1/2 hours on 6LPM which is 2LPM less than my normal 8LPM I usually need, we can not risk driving all the way to Dallas with no backup, my reservoir, which I totally depend on. That means K & I had to cancel my appointment and I just hate doing that.

The inconvenient part of this story is that I called my oxygen provider and told them what happened. They were extremely nice about everything. They agreed with me that the reservoir should not have bled dry within 18 hours of being filled, even if the thing was turned on, which it was (on 6LPM) by no fault of ours. They told me they would bring me a replacement today (Tuesday) because I told them that I missed a doctor appointment this morning in Dallas. They even apologized but they didn’t show up today and I ended up waiting ALL day for them and I was exhausted even with getting a short nap while K waited for the phone call that they were support to make to let us know they were on their way.

So that was my Tuesday. They better show up tomorrow (Wednesday). Grrr…. =o) I just hope I don’t have to wait around all day again. You can count on me calling them first thing in the morning. Being on oxygen 24/7 and not able to function without it makes it a really scary to have things break on me. Thankfully, K is usually with me when we leave the house.

My next post will be good news! YAY! I hope everyone is having a great Summer. It’s scorching hot here (99 – 100 degrees this week) and I’ll be indoors a lot! Have a great day!!!! OH! And Willow, my puppy is just ADORABLE and I love her!! (and Rocco too!)

Life: full of fun!

Living On Oxygen for Life

Happy Day After April Fools Day! I’ve never been into the whole “April Fools” thing since the time my little sister wrapped a raw egg in foil and put it in my bed while I slept. Yep, I rolled over onto it and the egg broke, leaked egg guts and made a mess in my bed. Yuck! So, April Fools? No thank you! haha!

K and I have been BUSY lately. My garden is growing like crazy! We have little tiny cherry tomatoes growing (3 of them…wow!) and my potato plants are getting huge. I even ate my first strawberry from the garden and it was DELICIOUS! So sweet! Yes, I shared it with K. I didn’t really want to because it was so good but there was only one berry and it would have been rude of me not to share. Right?

I’ve started crocheting again. I had stopped in October since K was having trouble with his eyes. Things got hectic with his Glaucoma and Detached retina problems. And I thought taking care of my own problems was hard. Add helping K with his medical stuff (no lifting heavy things for 2 weeks for each eye surgery), it was a little crazy around here. Here’s what I’m working on right now:

I’ve been a little inventive in the kitchen lately. I created a protein shake that can rival Starbucks’ mocha, caramel frappuccino. It is delicious and I want to try making a peanut butter, chocolate protein shake (without the bananas). Here’s the ingredients that I used:

Rivals Starbucks Frappuccino!

I told you I’ve been busy lately. In fact, K made one of my dreams come true. Yay K! My older sister dug up a pond liner (hard shell) from their yard when they moved into their house and gave it to us. Of course, K said no we can’t have a pond. So, many, many years I have been working on him about having a pond. Yes, we kept it THAT long. Out of the blue, he asked me a couple of weeks ago, what I thought about having a pond. Of course I was overjoyed, ecstatic even. Naturally I said YES! Picture me jumping up and and down cheering and then bending over out of breath saying… “Whew, I’m tired now. But, let’s do this!”

I have to let you know. I AM A PLANNER. I like researching things I want to do so I know what I’m doing once I start a project. K is the opposite. Kind of. So, it took us a couple of tries to stack the flagstone to make it look almost the way we want it. Let me tell you… those are so heavy! K did all the hard labor but I still wanted to help with some of the physical stuff. I tried moving the flagstone and after four stones, I was done. K told me to go sit down. I like being involved in our house projects. The way I was involved was helping pick out the type of stone, fish, and planning how the pond will look. K wanted to name the goldfish with Beatles names. Ugh! Really? I named one of the goldfish, Thunder! K named one of them White (not Whitey, he says)… So, I call him White Ghost because he’s an all white fish. Clever, I know! We have a total of 8 fish. 5 small goldfish and 3 medium goldfish. It was hard to get K to wait until the water was ready for fish.

Bamboos just added my dream pond.

I also have 9 flowers on my lemon tree! NINE!!!
Please don’t fall off… Please don’t fall off!
I even caught a sale at the grocery store for fresh green beans! Late last night, I washed and blanched them so that I could freeze them. They are so much better than green beans from a can. Blech! I only wish that I had bought 2 bags of them instead of one. Darn it!

Yes, life is good. I have things to look forward to every day. Feed my fish, check my garden, and pray for lemons to produce on my Meyer lemon tree. Hooray! All these things help keep me happy which distract me from bad breathing days which is awesome. I hope life is going well for all of you.

Crazy Awesome Weekend with Family!

Living On Oxygen for Life

I had a very long but fun weekend. First was the Pulmonary Hypertension doctor appointment and an Arterial Blood Gas drawn. Then we ate lunch at McDonald’s because we had other things we needed to do. We had to run to Walmart to return some stuff and pick up some forgotten thing from the grocery trip K did the previous day. Plus we picked up a new inhaler at the pharmacy. That was all on Friday.

When we came home from the errands, we got busy finishing up with cleaning the house because family was coming!!!! Yay!

After I made it to bed feeling exhausted, I knew I had to get up way early again for another appointment on Saturday that was a little over an hours drive away.

While we were at the appointment, my sister & her family already arrived at our house (we call it The Chateau), and we finally got home around 2pm. Yay! 

We got to babysit my niece for 4 hours, which was super fun but by the time they got back, K and I were wiped out.  My niece must have some sort of super-charged mega-battery that keeps her pumped up with energy.  I asked to borrow it but I didn’t think it’s transferable. Darn! 

We had so much fun but I’m glad we didn’t go to lunch with them today. It’s time for this girl to crash. I need sleep or at least down time. My niece is 7 and she asked me lots of questions (even taught me a two person hand-slapping song that was called Lemonade. I think?!) about my bipap mask that I was using when she snuck in my room to see if I was awake yet yesterday during my very short nap. She wanted her own cannula. She also wanted to see what it felt like with it connected to the oxygen. 

So, like a fun Auntie that I am, I used it as a learning experience for her. I got her a 7 foot cannula (like the ones used with portable tanks), connected it to one of my oxygen tanks, and I turned the oxygen on to 2 liters first. She wasn’t really impressed. So I told her, “Ok, now this is was it feels like at the amount that I have to use which 6 liters.” Her eyes got really wide when she felt it in her nose and she said, “Whoa! How do you do that?” “Baby girl, I do it because it helps me breathe.” 

I always want to make sure that she knows it’s ok to ask questions about me or my equipment. Curiosity can be a good thing when paired with learning about something that will expand her mind. We had a great time this weekend and I feel happy as I always do when I get to see one or both of my sisters. It’s like medicine to my soul. Sounds a little corny but it works for me. 

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*

Our Vacation Experience with Oxygen

Living On Oxygen for Life

Keep in mind as you read this blog post that K and I are very experienced with traveling while loaded down with multi reservoirs of liquid oxygen. We are safe drivers and we take precautions before we head out on the road for vacation to ensure that our vehicle is in what we call, “Vacation Ready” mode. That means we take it to our favorite auto repair mechanic and ask them to look at our vehicle and make sure it’s ready for a road trip. We ask them to take a good look at the tires, brakes, belts, and to change the oil. They fix anything that needs to be fixed because we don’t want to be miles away from home and have car trouble. Thankfully, we have AAA (triple A roadside service) Membership.

Everything we need for vacation, including medical supples.

When we plan a vacation, there are a lot of factors that go into the planning. The very most important factor is the location of my DME company in relation to my vacation destination. We also take into consideration whether there are any Lincare’s along the way. For the ones along our route to and from our destination, we could possibly set up a refill for my liquid oxygen reservoirs by asking my local Lincare office to set it up. The Lincare that I stop at for refills have to have the capability to fill liquid reservoirs. Some Lincare companies no longer do liquid oxygen.

This year we decided to find a beach that we’ve never been to before. We love the beach and for the past few vacations, we’ve only tried to rent beach house one other time. The only thing with this house that we rented on the beach was that it was on stilts. We didn’t realize the stairs to the house would be so darn steep. When we finally got the keys and drove the short distance from the office to our rental house, we pulled in and saw the stairs. We brought with us 2 – 100 pound reservoirs of liquid oxygen that weigh about 165 pounds full (but feel like you’re lifting a ton!). It took both of us, with K doing the lifting. I was standing behind him supporting his back with one of my hands pressed hard against him making sure he didn’t fall backwards. By the time we got that tank and the 75 pound reservoir up the stairs and into the house, we decided that the other 100 pound reservoir could stay in the vehichle since it was parked in the shade under the house. We were both sweaty and hot after that. It was so humid.

We planned an extended vacation this year. My health has been declining. So, we both knew that I would need extra days when we arrived in Alabama and even in-between to adjust to the heat and humidity. It took me 2 days resting off and on before I could get outside and start having fun. K was super kind about not pressuring me to do anything that I didn’t feel like I could do. I arrived at the beach house with a migraine headache because the drive was stressful for me. The first day we drove we stayed overnight at a hotel. We came out the next morning and found one of our tires was flat from a piece of wood embedded into the side wall of the tire. Luckily, K had a tire air compressor in the back of the van and he aired it up enough to take it to a tire shop where he bought a new tire.

The second day we drove, K stopped to fill the van with gas, it was my turn to drive this time. For some reason, as I was sitting there waiting for K to come back from the bathroom, the fuel light went on but the fuel gauge stayed at full. I don’t know what made me do it but I actually pushed the tripmeter to zero it out. At least I would know how many miles I’ve gone with the gas that I have in the tank. Anyway, the fuel gauge scared me by dropping all the way to EMPTY while K was a sleep. Ten minutes later, the fuel gauge would start raising back up to full and the light would go off. That was creepy scary. I let K drive after that. Apparently, there’s a wiring problem. Ugh!

After I was ready to get out of the beach house, I hit the beach! Even from the wrap around porch of our beach house on one day, we could see a few dolphins swimming off the coast!

It’s easy taking my oxygen to the beach. K had set up a tent with two beach chairs beneath it for me to relax and watch K wade into the water. When I wanted time in the water, K would either carry my portable on his shoulder and hold my hand as we walked into the waves OR he would have me connect my 50ft tubing to my portable and clip my portable to one of the beach chairs that he’d move closer to the shore. I’d bury the feet of the chair in the sand to give it more stability. I’d just need to sit my tank right in the seat with strap clipped to the top of the chair. Perfect! I could walk up to 50ft into the water or just sit on each of the tide.

Dolphins along the coast of Gulf Shores, AL	This is how I sit at the beach under a tent on low beach chairs.
Rocco would sit with me while I crocheted on vacation.	We went out to celebrate my 47th birthday and our 24th Anniversary!

We really had a good time on vacation. We didn’t want to come home so soon even though we spent 10 days in the beach house. I think next time we are going to try to stay longer. It all depends on how well my health holds up. *fingers crossed* YAY!

I wasn’t ready for a change…

Living On Oxygen for Life

For those of you who read my blog and use oxygen, have any kind of breathing problem or any kind breathing device, you know life can be challenging. Life is filled with highs and lows. When you get in those high places, it feels like you are accomplishing the things you want to do in life. Unfortunately, those high places don’t always last as long as we want them to last. At least, that is how it seems to me. Sometimes the lows can be pretty low and lasts for what seems like a lot longer than I’d prefer.

Switching over to Tikosyn from Cordarone involved a lifestyle change for me. It’s been a crushing blow to my happiness. Instead of one step back in health, it feels more like two steps back. It made me really frustrated, thinking and wondering what I did wrong. It’s made me have to, once again, reinvent ways of getting things done around the house. Some of the things, K has completely taken over which adds more stress for him. Both of us were hit hard with this unexpected change in my ability level. I get short of breath from scooping a cat box (which he now does) or using a broom on the floor.

K takes good care of me and I’m grateful for his love and understanding. He’s come a long way. *wink* He stopped thinking that I was just being lazy about ten years ago. He’s always known that I have breathing problems as well as the pulmonary hypertension on top of everything else. He just didn’t realize or understand how much & how quickly the Pulmonary Hypertension would progress over a relatively short amount of time.

So now, I’m going to take care of him. I’ve decided we’re going on a much needed vacation since we haven’t gone on one in 3 years. Right now all I can think of is how good the sand will feel under my feet with the water washing over them. This will involve a lot of planning for my oxygen needs but it’s always been so worth it. I’ve already secured our accommodations and I’ve even bought travel insurance just in case we have to cancel at the last minute or if one of us becomes sick while on vacation. It’s good to have a backup plan just in case there’s a hurricane too!

We both really need this getaway. We rarely watch TV while on vacation. We leave our worries behind while on vacation too. So it’s like we’re on an island made for us.. though, technically we’re not. This is our way to get back to a healthy mind and release all the stress even if it is for just a little while.

I just wanted to let you know that I’m getting into the swing of the new changes we’ve made. I’m back to blogging and YES Klondike will be going with us on our vacation. My sister sent him back to me! Yay! Stay tuned in for more blog posts from me! Stay well everyone! I enjoy talking with you on Facebook and by email! goredrider@gmail.com is my email address for those of you who have questions or would like to say Hi!

–Christine

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

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!!!

I’m a genius!!!

Living On Oxygen for Life

I’m a genius! Ok, well, maybe I’m not technically a genius or even very intellectually smart but I’m pretty darn creative. You see, I have a problem. I want to go to a movie. Normally that wouldn’t necessarily be a problem because K would go with me and carry my oxygen. Right? Yep. He would.

But what if this is a movie that he REALLY doesn’t want to see even though I have been waiting for this movie a whole year for it to come out on the big screen? Not a problem because I have a cart for my portable oxygen, right? Ok. That sounds logical. Just use my cart to pull my oxygen around so I won’t become exhausted from carrying it. Great!!!

Only one huge problem with that… the movie is over 2 hours long which means I’ll need two liquid oxygen portables. (Remember, I use 6LPM of O2) Not to worry because I have two portables. However, the problem is that I have a cart that only carries one portable. And before you ask or say it, I can’t carry one and drag one in the cart. I’d be wiped out before I got to my movie seat.

So now I’m in MacGyver mode. I came up with an idea last night. I don’t care what the end product looks like as long as it works to carry both portables with ease (and maybe even my purse too! Sweet!!!). All I need is my plastic tub that I use for trash in my van, my handy duct tape (my home is NEVER without duct tape!), and my luggage carrier. This morning I was looking all over the house for my luggage carrier and couldn’t find it. I thought my MacGyver moment was doomed already from the start. But, I texted K because he remembers EVERYTHING and surely he’d know where the carrier was hiding. In fact, I thought he took it to work. Don’t ask…

To my surprise, instead of a text reply, he FaceTime’d me back and he walked with me through the house to find it. I know why he did that. It’s because I told him last night that I thought about going to this movie on just one portable. He thought otherwise. With my breathing becoming worse while on the new PH medicine, Adempas, he put his foot down saying take both portables. He wants me to get out of the house more but wants me to be safe and smart about it. Sometimes I’m so excited about something that I don’t always remember I’m not really Wonder Woman. *GASP!!!* Shhhhh… Don’t tell anyone! Aw… He’s so sweet.

Now that I have everything I need, I will begin the construction phase of my MacGyver moment. I will build myself a cart for two oxygen portables! Wish me luck! Pictures of my hopeful success coming soon. haha!

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.

PCV13… the other Pneumonia shot..

Living On Oxygen for Life

Yesterday, I went to my Primary Care Physician to receive my shot called PCV13 (Pneumococcal Conjugate vaccine). This shot is what I like to call the “other pneumonia shot.” Based on the website Vaccines.gov:

There are currently two types of pneumococcal vaccines: pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) and pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23).

There are more than 90 types of pneumococcal bacteria. PCV13 protects against 13 types and PPSV23 protects against 23 types. Both vaccines provide protection against illnesses like meningitis (infection of the covering of the brain and spinal cord) and bacteremia (blood infection). PCV13 also provides protection against pneumonia (lung infection).

If you’ve already had a “Pneumonia shot”, most likely you’ve had the PPSV23 as it came on the market in 1983. It was called Pneumovax and made by Merck and now referred to as PPSV23. You can read all about what these vaccines are and when they were created at: Immunize.org. It’s all so confusing.. I know. Just give me the shot already! Sheesh!

But wait… for some reason, you have to be of a certain age or have a qualifying illness to obtain the PCV13. They are expensive and not all insurances will cover it. From what my doctor has told me… they are about $100 per shot and he has to order them in small amounts at a time. It’s not like ordering a batch of flu shots where the doctor knows they will be used up.

Technically, I do not qualify to receive this vaccine. Check the list at the Vaccines.gov website. However, my doctor felt so strongly that if I were to come down with Pneumonia… Well, let’s just say that better not happen *knock on wood*. Seriously, it’s a thought that I don’t even want to imagine because it would be very, very bad if not fatal for me. Sorry for the doom and gloom there.. My bad! Anyway.. ALL of my doctors agreed that I should get a PCV13 shot and so I went in on Friday because my doctor finally got it (it took about a month).

I was sitting there in the doctor’s waiting room when the nurse called my name and that’s when some sort of dinging started to go off. We both looked around asking what was that?? I knew that I heard that noise before. I said, “Could that be me??” and I lifted my purse up to my ear and sure enough it was my phone. K was trying to let me know that he’s been texting and calling me but I had my ringer turned down. Hey, I’m in the doctor’s office! It’s a rule to turn the ringer down. Sooo… I was explaining to my nurse as she whipped out the syringe that K and I have our phones linked and we use the “Find my Phone” app to know where each other is at anytime. It’s great because on that app you can play an alert tone so that you can either find your phone or get someone to answer their phone! The nurse and I were laughing and that’s when she stabbed me in the arm. I was NOT prepared for the shot to sting like it did. I was like, “Ouch that hurts!” She said, “Oh yeah, it will sting a little bit.” No kidding, right? But, I wasn’t going to be a baby about it. I’m tough…

By the time K met me at the mechanics to drop my van off, I was already starting to feel the vaccine move into my shoulder joint. The Flu Shot does the same thing. It makes my joints in my arm hurt for a day or so but for me that was child’s play compared to how I responded to the PCV13. I’m not saying that my reactions will happen to anyone else. I think it’s just that my body is not very strong and it wasn’t quite prepared for this. By the time I got home, about 30 minutes later, the joint pain spread to my left rib cage and it hurt to inhale deeply on the left side. That freaked me out a bit. K had to help me out of his car. We took a nap and I slept with a heating pad which helped me get a little sleep. When I woke up, K helped me sit up in bed because my arm just wasn’t getting the job done and my breathing wasn’t as good as it should be. The stress of dealing with the side effects of the vaccine was wearing me out. I knew I had to just get through a couple of days of feeling like crap, and then I’ll be right as rain.. right? And before I forget, I asked my nurse if I still had to get my flu shot in October and she said, “YES!” Ugh! Another stabbing! haha!

Today, I just feel really tired and slightly warm as if I have a tiny fever (it was only 98.9F). No big deal. My arm is doing better now. I can lift it up without too much aching. I think because I kept moving it around yesterday really helped make it feel better today. The heating pad helped too! Thank you K for the advice even though it was the last thing I wanted to do was to move around an arm that REALLY hurt.

Would I do it all over again, if I knew what I know now? Yes I would because I will protect my body from whatever illness I can. I love living and I love life. Most of all, I love K and I want to continue to be with him for as long as possible. I can hear you saying… “Awhh!” I know, I’m so goofy and that’s a good thing. If I can find humor in things while feeling not-so-good, life will be ok. Love to you all!! Hey check out my NEW Need a Hug Project blog. That’s where I will be updating all the packages of afghans that I ship out. FOLLOW it if you don’t already. Have a great day!

Update about this and that…

Living On Oxygen for Life

I am so excited! I finally finished my Shutterfly Christmas Family photo book and I’m eagerly awaiting for it to come in the mail. I thought it would be here today. I actually had K leave his mailbox key for me so that I can check the mail myself. That’s how excited I am. I don’t check the mail normally. To do so would mean for me to fill up my portable and walk across the street in the rain and freezing cold weather. Don’t call me lazy! I’m preserving my health and conserving my liquid oxygen. And no, I can not walk across the street and back without using my oxygen. Just not safe or wise or logical. Unfortunately, it did NOT show up today. I am sad. I’ll just be that much more excited tomorrow when it BETTER show up! Grrr! Even my Amazon order didn’t show up today. It must be all that “inclement” weather we’re about to have… or at least that’s what was texted to my phone. *sigh* I’m so impatient. hehe!

In other news, I got my second Vericella shot. So maybe now I am safe or safer from getting Chickenpox in the future. *shrug* We shall see! I also got back my lab results for my Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) and was SHOCKED by what I read. (More about that in a minute…) Remember back in August of 2014 when I was admitted into the hospital because I was super short of breath? They tried to tell me that my heart medicine was causing me to become Hyperthyroid but I didn’t believe them. You see, my heart medicine has the possibility to make me HYPOTHYROID not HYPER… thyroid. I do believe, and I told the doctors this, that the cause of my Hyperthyroid was from taking Opsumit. I had been taking and still was taking Opsumit, the newest Pulmonary Hypertension medication available, for 3 months prior to landing in the hospital. It’s the only thing that had changed in my health care. Over the course of those 3 months, I had slowly developed worsening shortness of breath to the point where I could hardly talk without getting short of breath. Since leaving the hospital, I had switched back to taking Tracleer and started to see an Endocrine doctor to straighten out my thyroid problem.

Back to my lab results… The normal range for my TSH should be: 0.40-4.50 However, since I’ve been on Thyroid medicine and off of Opsumit, my TSH levels have definitely changed. Now my levels are: 14.75 I was like, what the flimm-flamm is going on?!?!? *throwing my hands in the air* I know you’re picturing that. *wink* It all becomes a little clearer to me now. For the past week or so, my breathing has been way off and my heart has been racing when I do mild activity. Ugh! I’m ready for this problem to be under control.

I know there are people out there who use oxygen and struggle with it. By writing this blog, my hopes are that when you find it and read it, I can help you in some way. If you know of someone who does use oxygen, let them know about my blog or my Facebook page. Y’all are NOT alone and you shouldn’t feel like you’re alone just because you have to use oxygen. *hugs* I enjoy your emails! Keep them coming! goredrider@gmail.com

[2015]

A little off topic but I had to share…

Living On Oxygen for Life

Before I started taking medicine for Pulmonary Hypertension in 2006, K and I would go dancing. We’d only go to a dance club for about 2 hours, which is about how long my energy would last from dancing the whole time. Plus, there were smokers in the dance club and that bothered my breathing. I love to dance. Granted, I’m not that good at it and it is REALLY hard to dance with my portable hanging off my shoulder or sitting on the dance floor at my feet. But I did it because it made me SO HAPPY to get out and have fun even though it made me tired and that I could only do it for 2 hours. I still dance at home just to have fun and also to make K smile.

When we went out, I would get all dressed up and looking nice because, hey… I’m looking nice for my man… not for anyone else who’d see me there. It’s all about K and making fabulous memories with him. My words of wisdom: “Just getting out and trying things that make you happy for a little while will give you the memories you may need later on in life.”

So, when K and I were driving to the dance club, I had a ritual that I did every time I got into the car. It had to do with the time he took me to see The Blue Man Group. I fell in love with one of their songs that I’m about to share with you. He bought the cd for me and when we were driving to the club, I’d put that cd in and play that one song. I would start singing it so loud and acting out the song the whole way. It got to the point where K would start asking me if I was going to put in my “Going Dancing Song.”

Songs can change moods. They can lift you up or drag you down depending on the song. I try to stay away from sad songs. I don’t have many songs on my phone but there are some songs that are those “feel good” songs… and this one is like that. It expresses how I feel for K. I hope you like it too. Now get up and dance along!!! Love to you all..!!

Top 5 Things You Don’t Want To Have Happen As An Oxygen User…

Living On Oxygen for Life

As an oxygen user, I think we’ve all experienced mishaps. I know I’m one of those people. Here is my top 5 things that I don’t want to have happen as an oxygen user.

TOP FIVE LIST

1. Dropping a highly expensive medicine pill out of the bottle into a wet bathroom sink and it goes down the drain and/or on the floor where a pet could find it.

Not good!

      2.  Taking your diuretic pills and then forgetting that you already took the medicine only to take them again and ending up staying up all night suffering the consequences.

      3.  If you use liquid oxygen: Having the portable and/or reservoir tank freeze open to spit out liquid oxygen when you absolutely have to go somewhere.

      4.  While using your oxygen, one side of the nasal prong comes completely separated and not having a spare canula!

       5.  Having a car mishap (engine trouble) in the middle of nowhere near a pay phone because you realized that you forgot your cellphone.

I have had all of these happen to me. My life is full of these fun adventures. What are your top 5?