A Bit of FUN!

It’s been a fun week of adventuring for my awesome rubber chicken! I’ve decided to change her title to a WORLD TRAVELER MASCOT. Birdee is my newest rubber chicken because, may he rest in peace, Klondike passed away from a broken neck. However, while he was with us, he sure had fun in France, Germany and a few other locations in the USA!

Since I can no longer travel like I use to, people are lining up to take Birdee on her next adventure! Lucky bird! Honestly, I’m excited about it as much as Birdee is! I have to finish crocheting her new backpack to get it ready for her next adventure. I’ll have to “renew” her passport too. *wink*

Over the past week, she had her first international flight to Cozumel! You’re probably wondering why I have a rubber chicken, that acts as a “Flat Stanley,” if you will. It makes me feel like I’m experiencing the vacation in a small way. It just works well for me… trust me. It also gives me great joy to see all the pictures coming in from Birdee’s vacation adventure. My husband bought my first rubber chicken YEARS ago and I named it Poke. So, it all started with Poke and the roadtrip mascot was born.

This time, my sister volunteered to take Birdee to Cozumel. She’s not shy about carrying a rubber chicken around with her in public. Sometimes, she stuffs my rubber chicken in a backpack to carry around but that’s ok! What an awesome sister, right?? BIG *HEARTS* to her! Especially since every time Birdee is squeezed, she screams REALLY LOUDLY. lol!

Birdee experienced some daring and exciting things: Flying in an airplane, boating, scuba diving and then got seasick. Poor Birdee. I hope she feels better soon! Below is a slide show of the pictures of her big adventure. I hope you like them and put a big smile on your face as it did mine.

Next post will I will be updating you on what’s going on with me health wise. It’s been a little overwhelming. So that’s why I haven’t posted about it yet. However, I think I’m ready to discuss it now. *big hugs* I hope you are dealing with the heat safely. Don’t forget it’s almost time for a Flu Shot! Yay? lol!

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  Birdee has arrived in Cozumel! Birdee has just arrived in Cozumel and seen the ocean and beach! She is my World Traveler Mascot. Thanks Birdee for going places I can not go!

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  Birdee looks a little anxious trying on the scuba gear that looks way too big for her.

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  The Captain allow Birdee to steer the boat! Whoa what a cool captain!

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  My sister diving with Birdee! Wow what an adventure!!!

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  Birdee is totally amazed with all the coral and look at that huge lobster!!

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  Birdee said “squawk” (that’s HELLO in Birdee speak!) to the big turtle!

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  Birdee really close to that shark. Now what????

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  I think Birdee was trying to float away from the shark who’s in the background.

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  Uh oh! Birdee might have had too much fun. She sure got seasick… Poor thing.

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  Ohmygoodness! Birdee!! You naughty chicken! Eating some of the birthday girl’s cake. I’m sure she was just trying to celebrate with her.

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  K and my tradition for our anniversary and my birthday. My sister did this for me because I can’t get to a beach this year. Love her so much!

Life Has Changed!

An opportunity has come along and I’m grabbing it with all I’ve got to give myself a chance at some fun and excitement.

Everyone knows how bad Covid has been. I’ve been stuck in my house for over a year and I’m finally starting to get out in the public. Having Pulmonary Hypertension along with other breathing and heart issues, K and I have taken this Covid19 seriously. That means, I didn’t leave my house unless it was for my monthly labs. Even at the height of Covid19 lockdown, my doctors had me only going every other month for labs instead of monthly. Naturally, that’s when my lab results started to look concerning. So back to every month I went. I finally got smart and made appointments for the lab work. Less waiting around.

Now I have an exciting event to go to this year. My little sister is getting married!!! She wanted me to be the Matron-of-Honor but I had to pass the torch of to another one of our sisters. The stress of being involved in the wedding party would be too much for my health. As sad as this makes us, I decided to go all out and dress up and have fun with attending. It will require some traveling which means our dogs will be going with us! Roadtrip!!!

K took me dress shopping. He was great! We had me in my wheelchair looking for the perfect dress. Let me tell you… it took a while. Since I have scoliosis, dresses don’t normally fit very well. After I found the dress that I liked, we decided to take it to a place who specializes in altering formal wear. The picture above is the dress before it has been completely altered. It’s a little long and it needs taken in on my left side at the strap and bodice. Darn that scoliosis!

I’ve never done this with any of my clothes before. However, now that I’ve experienced how easy it is, I’m asking myself why I haven’t done this before???

I hope that everyone is doing well. I pray that everyone is staying active and as healthy as you possibly can be. *hugs*

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!)

I need advice… and an update.

Living On Oxygen for Life

I’m alive!!! I know… It’s been since November 2018 that I’ve written on my blog. There’s huge reason for that. We all know that the holidays are difficult being that it’s stressful and cold, not to mention, it’s also flu season. So, I stayed indoors a lot. K got me a PUPPY! I love her but she is super energetic and wore me out for the first month. Who am I kidding… she still wears me out but it’s not as bad as it was when we brought her home. FYI: She gets car sick. UGH! For those of you who follow me on Facebook or Instagram know most of this. In fact, if you don’t follow (which is totally ok!), I have a section down on the bottom of the right column of my blog that shows my Facebook and Instagram feed! Yay how convenient, right? No need to have the app!

I also ended up in the hospital in January due to severe shortness of breath and inflammation of my lungs and the doctors couldn’t figure out what caused it. That is so frustrating, am I right? I’m sure you can see me rolling my eyes. haha! When I got home from the hospital, I felt good but a week later, I started feeling worse than when I went into the hospital. You can imagine how nervous and scared I became. Don’t worry though. I put my thinking cap on as well as had a CT Scan with Contrast and a Echocardiogram that showed NO PULMONARY EMBOLISM (Yay!) but it did show that my Left Ventricle Ejection Fraction (LVEF) was 35%. Normal is 55% – 70%. That means my left ventricle (bottom left chamber of my heart) is have a hard time pumping out oxygenated blood to my body. YIKES!

I noticed with my SOB, since my doctor increased my Thyroid medicine, Syntroid, back in November, my breathing became much worse over the course of 2 months time. So, without telling my doctor after I started getting worse again in February, I split the pill in half. I do NOT recommend doing medicine adjustments without discussing it with your doctor. I plan on telling him. Within a weeks time, I started breathing better. K and I started becoming optimistic about my future again. My cardiologist started my on Entresto. He sent my home with samples and asked me to ask my Pulmonary Hypertension doctor to check into any possible interactions it might have with Tracleer/bosentan because he’s not super familiar with Tracleer. It took my PH doctor nearly a week but she gave me the green light to start taking it. I’ve been on it for a week and a half and I think it is causing a moderately annoying side affect of itching on my head, face, shoulders and the back of my neck. So, now I need to call my cardiologist about that. *sigh*

But all of this is NOT what I need advice on. Sorry! I’m getting to it. *grin*

Last Tuesday, I received a phone call from my DME company, Lincare, who services my LIQUID OXYGEN. They told me, as of April 1, 2019, they are stopping all liquid oxygen service. I freaked, even though I was warned by one of my wonderful blog readers, Cindy. Thank you so much Cindy! Lincare gave me the names of 4 companies in my area who still service Liquid Oxygen. One of which I’ve used before years ago and one of them is a Nationwide company called Apria.

What I need help with is: Can any of my readers, who have had experience with Apria, tell me your thoughts of this company. If you have an opinion, please don’t just say that you like them or don’t like them… Please tell me why in the comment section. This could potentially help so many people who use Lincare for their liquid oxygen and have high flow oxygen use that won’t typically benefit well from switching to e-tanks for portability purposes.

To go on vacations, we loved Lincare because they also are a Nationwide company who arranged refilling my liquid oxygen reservoirs at our vacation destinations as long as they had a shop there. Selecting a local company for my future liquid service would definitely make it difficult for any future road trips which is crushing to K. Ok, me too but K REALLY loves the beach!

So, if you can help me with your opinion of Apria, I’d really appreciate it. Thank you so much! *HUGS*

When you least expect it…

Living On Oxygen for Life

Sometimes life throws us a curve ball and how we react to that can really show us how much of a team we are. We’re not just married and love each other; we are all-in through thick and thin with all the rollercoasters and good times that make up our life.

Throughout this year, K has been telling me that he really, really needs a vacation on a beach. He’s experienced an emergency visit to an ER clinic for himself at which time I had to bail on him because I developed a MASSIVE migraine while waiting in the patient room with him. Thank goodness his sister came to our rescue so that I could go home leaving him there alone until she got there. (I felt so guilty!) He’s had to deal with working in 100+ degrees heat over the summer. There’s also been my up and down health with the fact that I could no longer do the chores around the house that I used to do, which meant that K had to do them. That’s not all of it but you get the gist, right? So, yeah, he really needed a beach vacation.

I told K that, with the way our budget looked, we were going to have to get creative about being able to afford going on vacation. I knew he really needed it but I was concerned, not only for the financial aspect, but also I wasn’t sure if I could make the 10-hour drive this year. I didn’t want to say no. He works so hard and does so much for me. Thus, came his idea. Out of the blue he said that he wants my help in selling all his McFarlane action figures on eBay and that’s what we did.

We got incredible lucky with a German buyer who bought 5 really large boxes filled with K’s action figures, earning enough money to pay for the hotel in South Padre Island. We actually earned quite a bit of money! So, everything was looking good for our vacation plans. That is until K mentioned a little problem a week and a half before we were to leave.

K had noticed some floaters in his GOOD eye and he knew that he was suppose to call the Optometrist right away. They got him in the next morning. A few hours later, I got a phone call from K while he was in the doctor’s office, asking me if I had already taken my diuretic. *cue the drama music* Luckily, I was still in bed because it was only 10am. (Hey… I sleep in! Don’t hate me because I can! *wink*) He wanted me to get up *UGH*, get dressed and he was on the way home to pick me up because he needed eye surgery within a few hours. *Wait..what????*

I was freaking out. I was worried about K having to go through surgery again, having enough energy to be in the waiting room, having to run all the prescription pickups, taking care of K after surgery and then of course paying the copay bill of the surgery, the doctor and the anesthesiologist. What worried us the most was the amount of time K was going to have to take off work. Sick leave and vacation pay only covered most of it but it’s the few days that was unpaid that worried us.

We are NOT rich but we just sold a huge amount of K’s action figures and we had that money but that means we had to cancel our anniversary/my birthday vacation that I just reserved. That hurt… In fact, I cried.

But looking back at this whole situation, this whole thing felt like everything aligned just for this moment. Somebody up there was looking out for us. We’re not out of the woods yet but this shows us how well and how much of a team we are.

Not only K and I are a team but also K’s sister and my sisters too. My older sister came down and cooked 2 quiches and a huge pan of lasagna so that I didn’t have to cook. My sisters and mother kept texting me encouraging support to me, which helped a lot. I’ll try to blog more often. You can catch me on my Living on O2 for Life Facebook page or ChristineLovesDaisies Instagram if you have those apps.

So, this is why I’ve been mostly quiet. I don’t like posting things that seem negative or stressful but I wanted to let you know that we’re ok and alive. =o) Lots of love to you all! *hugs* FYI: if you start seeing a lot of floaters in your eyes, that could be from tears in or a detached retina. Get it checked out ASAP (within a few days!)

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.

2017 A Year’s Review…

Living On O2 for Life

Life during 2017 sure has been interesting. K and I have found ourselves confronted with many challenges that mostly were unexpected, which usually is the case for us. However, there were a LOT of good, fun, adventurous times throughout the year for us too. Thank goodness… because we really needed them.

January 2017 started with a visit from BOTH of my sisters at the same time! It was shockingly fabulous because it’s difficult for the both of them to have the same time off with their work schedule and then they’d have to drive down to see me now. I don’t travel well anymore and they are starting to understand that a little better now. It’s one thing for them to know their sister’s health is declining but it’s another thing to actually see it first hand. January brought the gift that I’d been waiting for… Christmas cookies made by my older sister and frosted by me and my sister and decorated (little kid style) by my very adorable niece.

February 2017 brought all kinds of exciting fun planning of my vegetable garden. We tried growing new things this year, like broccoli, squash, and tomatoes. I tried to keep up with the garden but with my health and the Texas heat, it started to get me way too tired just trying to keep it watered. A couple of times, K would tell me to just go inside because he would see me struggling with my breathing. So, he took over the garden for me. He’s my hero!

If you haven’t ever grown your own vegetables, it’s a sight to see and it’s actually very therapeutic. No, really… I swear! In March, the potatoes and our two tomato plants were growing like crazy due to amount of rain we’d keep having! Yay!!

In March, K and I were shopping in Home Depot and my liquid oxygen tank flew out of the cart and landed on the cement. What a scene that was! K was so worried about me but I handled it amazingly well after I realized it still put out oxygen. Whew, right? By the end of March, I was harvesting my first strawberries! Yummy! In fact, K was so interested in my strawberries that he filled two hanging baskets with strawberry plants to grow some of his own. Wow. I’m slowly turning him into a farmer! haha!

In April, K’s Aunts and Uncles came down to visit but stayed with his mom and his aunt here in town. By May, I had a lot of tomatoes I didn’t know what to do with them. I mean, we could only eat so many slices of tomatoes on sandwiches and for salads. So, I looked up on Pinterest how to make homemade tomato sauce. The process was tedious and it felt like it took forever but it sure was a success. I even had to call my mom for advice.

I didn’t get to go to my niece’s recital or birthday party because I can’t drive myself that far alone anymore. It just wears me out being the driver for that long. In between the missed trip to my sister, to the time I got to go see them later in the year, K and I went to 2 concerts. We saw U2 and then we saw Roger Waters (think Pink Floyd). Those concerts were a gift from me to K for his birthday and Christmas of last year. We used my wheelchair and I a bought a cup holder that I could attach to the arm of my wheelchair from Amazon. It was SO handy.. so convenient and affordable! Yay.. we all love affordable, right? Going to the concerts with K reminded me of the old days of dating K. We had a good time dancing, singing and acting goofy back then as we did for these two concerts.

In August, my older sister road the train to my city and drove me in my van to her house. I stayed with her for 10 days and then she drove me home and caught the train home. How sweet was that??? I know, right? I have to admit that I missed K something fierce. After I got home and rested up, K and I went on an adventure to South Padre Island for our 25th anniversary. We hit every art gallery and tried various restaurants and did all kinds of fun things. It was a great 10 days but on the way home, the front grill of my van flew off and went over the top of the van. I’m just thankful that it wasn’t me driving because it sure was scary. We didn’t see where it landed and thankfully no one was behind us. I knew we should have taken Klondike, my rubber chicken (road trip mascot). We got an estimate to replace the grill but it was an outrageous price. K and I had an idea but we didn’t realize that we were both thinking the same thing until we started talking about Plan B. We’d the grill replacement part on Amazon, order it, and K thought he could put it on the van himself. So that’s what we did for so much less! I’m so impressed with K’s skills! Though, he’s not much of a car guy but he can fix simple things. My MacGyver, he was! *wink*

From October up to now has been rough, K has had a lot of trouble with his eyes that scared the ever-lovin’ bejeebers out of us. He’s had to have 2 surgeries and I needed to take care of him while he recovered. It reminded me of just how much he actually does for me with my health needs and all done willingly and without complaint. I’m so lucky. I have to mention that he’s got some great ophthalmologists. One of them has the most awesome waiting room filled with jigsaw puzzles that anyone can work on and even a blanket rack that has CROCHETED afghans! *shock* Wow! K said his doctor wanted to meet me. Apparently, K had been telling him about me and the doctor has a daughter with scoliosis like me. So, without giving names, I’d like to give a shoutout to her! “HEY! If you are reading this, here’s a big hello to you and hoping that you are doing well.” *hugs*

Christmas was great! I got to help K decorate the house with new creative ideas this year. We try to add new ideas every year to the decorations! This year we added 5 wreaths we decorated together, 3 hung in our family room windows and one for two large mirrors we have. I had to go at a really slow pace hanging Christmas bulbs, wrapping ribbon around trees, and creating my 3 wreath masterpieces but we got it all done in about 5 days. Hooray! And now it’s January 2018. We’re ready for a better year. *fingers crossed* We’re already planning some exciting things to look forward to which is how we stay optimistic during the tough times.

You can see the pictures I take if you look in the right column of this blog under the Instagram heading. You don’t need to have an account to see my pictures. I just didn’t add them to this post because it’s already so long.

A Long Awaited Update! September/October 2017

Living On Oxygen for Life

Let’s be honest… I’ve missed blogging and I know it’s been since before my birthday (last month) that I’ve posted anything on my blog for you to read. In my defense, the last two months have been incredibly… what’s the word I’m looking for?… trying?…no. Hectic? You could say that. Let’s throw in challenging with a bit of a MacGyver twist and super stressful at times. If you wrap all that up and include my two road trips that I took (one to Oklahoma to see my family & one to South Padre Island for my birthday/25th anniversary), I have to admit, it’s been a pretty awesome adventure.

It all started with my birthday/anniversary vacation that we try to take every year. We both took turns driving down to South Padre Island which took us about 9 hours even while having to stop nearing every two hours (when K was driving) to get out and stretch our legs and walk the dog. Rocco loved sniffing new territory but I hated having to use convenient store or McDonald’s bathrooms. Not just because I never knew what to expect going into one of those things but also because getting in and out of the car and walking to the bathroom now wears me out and makes me short of breath in the worst way. That’s something new.

We made it to Padre and it was overcast but that’s ok because we knew Hurricane Harvey just past by and almost everything was up and running again on the island. Yay for us! Two days after we arrived, a boat washed up on the beach which drew everyone, including the Padre Beach police, to check the boat out. We should have set up a beach chair next to it and charged people for us to take their picture! It took nearly a week for the boat to wash up this far on the beach.

K and I normally go for a nice steak dinner for our anniversary celebration. But who knew that there wasn’t a restaurant on the island, nor close by on the mainland, that sells a good steak? Instead, we had a small party of two at our condo with a gigantic birthday/anniversary cake that K intended to share with the waitstaff had we gone to a restaurant. Thankfully we brought our big ice chest and I had some square foil pans to save the leftover cake to freeze and take home. You better believe that I ate it all once I got home (K had the last piece..darn him!). I LOVE birthday cake!

We really had a lot of fun and took a few goofy pictures. I was even a pirate! Argh! After ten days in Padre, it was time to go home and on the way home, the craziness began. We were north of Austin, Texas when it happened. I was reading and K was driving… thankfully. Our grill from the front of our van broke loose and flew over the hood and smacked our windshield and then continued over the top of the van. It scared us so bad. Thankfully, no one was behind us and we looked but didn’t see it land on the highway. We get home ok and called our mechanic to see what it would cost to get it replaced. $600! Are you kidding me? The thing was made mostly of plastic. K and I had the same idea… look on eBay for the part. K said he could fix it himself and I was, like, “You go Rambo…you get into that MacGyver mode!” Sure enough, it cost us a total of $200 and K attached it with no problems! YAY K!

What K didn’t tell me was that on the way home from Padre was that he was starting to see floaters in his right eye. Then when he went to work, he called his optometrist and they told him to come in RIGHT NOW. He had a detached retina. I was so worried because now he had to have surgery and this was his eyesight!. The first time I went with K to his optometrist, K told me that he had been telling the doctor about me because he has a daughter who has some similar health conditions. Let me tell you that I have no problem that K talked about me. I mean, I blog… so of course I don’t mind. I was really excited about meeting this doctor to learn more if he wanted to talk about it. Naturally, I knew this appointment was about K but I did bring a printed copy of an x-ray showing my scoliosis. This doctor was really neat and very personable. K and I really like him. But what excited me the most was his waiting room. Holy cow… the moment I walked into the building, I was thinking that EVERY waiting room should be like this one. There were crocheted afghans on a blanket rack next to the door and in each waiting area there was a card table with a puzzle to be put together. I immediately zoned in on the puzzle. K knows. I love puzzles and there was an older man sitting there working on the one I noticed. I just blurted out … “Oh yay a puzzle!!!” (I know you’re visualizing that.. aren’t you? haha!) The man heard me and started to get up saying that I could work on it. I told him to please stay and I can work on it with you. I told him that I love puzzles and this reminds me of when I worked on puzzles with my dad. Awww! I know, right? I was so engrossed that I didn’t even hear K’s name called by the nurse. What’s so awesome was that there was ANOTHER puzzle in the waiting room in the back! I was in waiting-room heaven!

K’s surgery went well but I wore myself out having to drive him to appointments and waking up to check to see if he wasn’t sleeping on his back for the first week after surgery. That was stressful but after the first week, he could sleep on his side but NOT on his back. You would think that it wouldn’t be a big deal but people move around while they sleep and K is accustomed to sleeping on his back. So, I had a lot of waking up to do to check on him. With everything that was going on with K, I truly had an eye opening experience about how much he does for me without complaining. He drives me to doctor appointments that are an hour away, he pushes me in a wheelchair when I need it, he takes care of everything in the background when I have migraines, not to mention doing most of the chores and all of the grocery shopping now…and most of this is done without me having to ask. I got a taste of what he does for me when I needed to take care of him for a change. I was definitely humbled and I gained a new appreciation for what he does for me. Not that I never appreciated it but my health is changing faster now, requiring K to do more and I don’t always see what he does for me.

Lots of love to you all! Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog to follow along! Leave a comment too! Have a great day!!!

Little emergencies can be big problems.

Living On Oxygen for Life

This was a bad moment at the doctor’s office today. The doctor recently started having an oxygen tank at her office because I told her it would be a good idea. You know, just in case. Well, today was that just in case moment when my tubing snapped off as K was switching my tanks.  We were all panicking until K remembered the recently acquired office oxygen tank (with cannula!) kept tucked away for emergencies. I had to hold my broken tubing onto my second full tank to try and get enough oxygen until they found another cannula. Thankfully, K moves fast and keeps a level head in a crisis. All I was in charge of was concentrating on breathing calmly until rescued. We have spare tubing in my van but that was in the parking lot 7 floors below. It would’ve taken too long to get it.

Life has a funky way of reminding me how fragile my body is but I can’t live in fear and never go anywhere. Lately, I’ve become a homebody because my breathing has gotten worse. I have to get myself out of the house more and I’m going I’m going to accept this challenge head on. Well, as soon as K fills my gas tank. I’ve decided that’s a “man’s job.” Honestly, I can’t handle the gas fumes. So, I have K fill my van for me.

What about you? Have you had some oxygen emergencies? Share your story in the comment section. Love y’all!

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*

Day Three — Tikosyn & the following month

Living On Oxygen for Life

By now, you probably realize that I went home with a seven day supply of Tikosyn. Hooray and Lucky Me! I get to be on another high-dollar Specialty medication that THANKFULLY my health insurance will cover. I’m kneeling down and thanking Jesus right now….and…. *amen!*

Getting Tikosyn from a pharmacy was a pain in the rear end because it is a Specialty medicine and it must go through the “specialty” mail order pharmacy which is different than the regular mail order pharmacy. I could have gotten my first month’s supply of Tikosyn through a regular pharmacy like a CVS or Walgreen’s but I would’ve had to pay $600 for the 30-day supply. Yeah, right. I don’t think so. I’ll do the little extra leg-work to get the prescription faxed to my “specialty pharmacy” myself. That’s what I did. I got the correct fax number, stopped off at a CVS, explained what I needed them to do (showed them my notes I took while on the phone with the specialty pharmacy while in my hospital room), and off the fax went into cyberspace to hopefully not get lost on the way. I called numerous times everyday until they could verify that they received it but it had one tiny problem on the prescription. There was no pill count on it, making it impossible for the pharmacy to process it. Now I had to somehow get the doctor’s staff on the phone with the pharmacy (each saying that the OTHER needs to call them first). OH! You’ve heard of that game too? Grrr… I finally got the pharmacy to put me on hold to dial the doctor’s number to correct the prescription. Finally, that’s taken care of which was great because I wasn’t going to go back into the hospital for 3 more days because they couldn’t iron this problem out in time. I had to have my 30-day supply within 7 days or it’s back in the hospital for me to restart Tikosyn.

Tikosyn is NOT a medicine that a person can take just whatever time she or he remembers to take it. Oh no! This stuff, I actually have to set my alarm clock on my cellphone at the same times everyday, twelve hours apart. Granted when I left the hospital, they had my doses at 4am and 4pm. If you know me like I think you should by now (okay… I’ll cut the newest readers a break.. Here’s your chance to learn something new about me. *cheesy grin*), I am a night person. I don’t like waking early in the morning because that’s when I get my best sleep. Makes sense to me too! So, over the first week and a half at home, I slowly bumped the night time medicine time an hour later every few days and adjusted the morning time accordingly. By the end of two weeks, my medication time was 7am and 7pm. That’s a bit more achievable for me.

Now that I’m good and into taking Tikosyn, I’ve noticed that my blood pressure is back to normal but I have increased shortness of breath which is very noticeable. I’m getting very discouraged because I went today to the Cardiologist who prescribed Tikosyn. He ran an EKG and said it was normal and that my shortness of breath isn’t from the heart medicine. If I got paid for every time I heard THAT sentence…well, I could buy myself a whole lot of ice cream with the money! Ugh! I just realized I’m out of ice cream too! I should have stopped on the way home. Drats!!!

My cardiologist said for me to talk to my PH doctor. Sometimes, I feel like I’m on a Merri-Go-Round without all the pretty horses to ride. Or is that a Carousel? At least I still have things to look forward to in life. It looks like Klondike, my rubber chicken will be off on another adventure next week and next month I will attend the PH International Conference. I’m super excited about both. My next post will be about Klondike’s adventure! Stay tuned in!

Be well! Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog so you won’t miss anything exciting!

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!

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.

What a day yesterday was…

Living On Oxygen for Life

By some chance and probably by miracle, I was feeling fantastic yesterday. It was probably because I knew.. I just KNEW Santa was coming in a few days! I mean, I’ve been good. Haven’t I? Let me think about it.. ok ok… I’ve been pretty good. Well, anyway, I’m holding out hope that Santa is coming this year. *stomping foot* For sure!

I rolled out of bed and hit the shower to end up at the lab to pray that the lab order was in their computer system like it was suppose to be. Guess what? It was!!! (shocker.. I know!) Ok, so the lab technician had to stab me twice even after I told her not to stick me where she went first. I was showing her where the sweet spot on my arm was the whole time. I swear I feel like I need a little target tattoo on my arm for all the lab techs to know where to draw blood from me. For those of you who have to have lab work on a monthly basis, you know what I’m talking about.

After that was done, I actually still had energy left over. So, I went to Walmart. I can hear you all saying… “Are you CRAZY, Christine???” Um, yes, I probably qualify as being not the brightest bulb on the string of Christmas lights. In my defense, I had to get some stocking stuffers for K and a couple of things for dinner. Ok, I am getting to the point of this blog post. So, listen up. Keep reading… or wake up! Just pay attention… Yes, it’s about Walmart.. indirectly.

I was at Walmart circling the parking lot for what seemed like an hour when I THOUGHT someone was getting into their car to leave. I saw them from the corner of my eye. So, I’m not even sure I saw what I saw. I waited and I waited in my van thinking this dude is going to back out and I’d get a GREAT parking spot. And I waited and waited some more but I looked closer and couldn’t see anyone in the car! So, I pull past the car and what do you know? The person finally decides to back out but I’m far past him now! ARGH! But don’t worry, I eventually find another good spot to park and finally make my way inside. Let the shopping begin!

I’m making my rounds through Walmart.. through the toy section, through the movies section, I closed my eyes to bypass the yarn section (sorry yarn, you know I love you!), and I’m standing in dog aisle looking at all the toys. I heard this child wailing near me. They were in the Customer Service department. She was probably about 9 years old with no shoes or socks on (don’t worry.. it’s in the 70s here still) and her father was pulling her arm, telling her to be quiet and to stop going on like that. That he’ll take her into the restroom… I didn’t hear what he said after that.

I briefly looked at them. I was at a total loss at what someone would do at that kind of moment. I was deeply moved to say something. I could tell something was different with the child. I was a little worried at his tone of voice. I didn’t know if he would hurt her. I moved to the adjacent aisle where I could hear him but couldn’t see them. I had that internal battle of “Should I do something, say something or should I not?” I closed my eyes and was like, please God, tell me what to do. I opened my eyes and the man and child walked to the aisle that I was in and stopped. We looked at each other and I just opened my mouth and out came… “Having a rough day?” and he said something about her not having any patience. I was thinking that maybe he was the one with no patience but I didn’t say that. His daughter (I assumed it was his daughter) was staring at me. I asked the man if she has Autism. He said a really long name and that it was form of Autism. I asked her if she was looking at my oxygen. So, I told her about it and that it helped me breath. She walked over and felt the tubing. We started getting into other peoples way so we ended the conversation by saying goodbye and waving. I told him to have a nice day. When they walked away, I noticed that the girl was quiet now.

This gets me wondering about all the crumby days this last week that I’ve had with bad breathing only to have ONE good day, yesterday, and I end up in Walmart at exactly the perfect time to help distract a little girl so she and her dad could calm down. It makes all those bad days seem not so bad to have been able to help someone a little. I’m so thankful that I had a really good day yesterday to be able to get out of the house. It gave me a chance to be kind to someone else. That’s what living is all about. Be kind to one another.

Stay well everyone. I want to wish everyone a VERY Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I would love to hear your thoughts. What would you have done? Or have you ever experienced a moment of “Should I say something?” Has your oxygen ever helped you in an unusual way? I love hearing from you! *hugs*