National CF Awareness Month!

May has been declared National Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month. I look at this month as an opportunity to share my story and spread awareness of CF.

If you look at my facebook page... you can tell during the Month of May I stay a little focused on CF.

Why? and Isn't it depressing? No.

Yes, it is sad thinking back to memories with friends with Cf that have passed; however, that is EXACTLY why May is so important to spread the awareness of how CF affects us.

I think of all the time I spend pushing CF awareness (esp. in the month of May) is for all of my friends who have passed away, its their memory that motivates us to make sure future generations with Cf have a better chance from the start!

Losing friends to CF, and not being able to see the ones that are alive ( due to bacteria spreading-its frowned against)is tough, the toughest aspect of CF. I would love to see my friend Laura, but we both know it is better to not be around each other.

We write alot, FB, email, etc. I'm looking forward to Skyping soon with her!

How Fostering and CF impact my work

I haven't been on my blog much.... I think that is because most of my blogging is currently been done on Health Union's Cystic-Fibrosis.com (here is link to all my posts on their site: https://cystic-fibrosis.com/members/cherizkunkel/ ). I decided last fall to step away from real estate after 3 years in the business. It was tough to say good-bye, especially since I had tripled my volume and business in the last year. However, I didn't have time to add any new clients; I kept saying, maybe next week, next month I can fit more work into my schedule. The truth is fostering takes a lot of time. We have between 5-8 monthly visits at the agency, 1 court ate a month, 2 home visits from the caseworker a month, plus e have 2-3 doctors/specialist appointments for our current kiddo. We have lots of paperwork we fill out, gas mile logs, receipts to add, and more! Our kiddo also participates in gymnastics and dance two nights a week. We go to a fosterparent support group with our kid ...

Today's BIG Appointment

I discussed last week about my recent struggles & goals. I have been dealing with a lot all at once! Family planning (update on that in 2 weeks), my Grandma's funeral, lower lung function. Through it all I have remained very compliant with my meds! My health is VERY important to me. So this last weekend I took my vest machine, wabi sterilizer system , and packs of ensure to my parent's for the weekend. I wanted to make sure I did everything. While it was a sad occasion, it was still pleasant seeing almost all of the family together again. Actually 27 out of 29 of the cousins made it to the funeral. Grandpa is in the middle of the picture (can you find me?) LOL On top of my medications I have been doing some dancing & walking, but no jogging or anything. I'm still counting calories on my fitbit (hitting over 3000) a day (& 40 grams of protein, 50 grams of fat at least). I knew I was feeling a bit better than before, but wasn't sure what to expec...

Antibiotic Free Streak Over

Clinical Trial & Uh-Ohs: A lot happened this weekend. Thursday was my clinical trial and yay!!!!! my lung function was still same. It's 55% by Docs standards, but by the trial standard it would be considered 60 still. So don't freak out and think my lung function has dropped since I wrote the Blog Post Welcome to the 60s (read it here) . So that's good news. In 2010, I was struggling in the high 30s and low 40s. Then in 2011 I switched to Doc B, also I was done with school. I had more time to focus on meds and exercise. My extra effort and my proactive doc brought my lungs up to 58 in 2011. And Thursday I was happy to see it at the same place. No decrease in 3 years!!!!! However, I've gotten into the mid 60s before. But that was only after hospitalizations and IV treatments. Well, in the last year I have been enrolling in a couple clinical trials. Most trials are 6 months long. I'm currently in one now. Its a 3rd phase trial and the 2nd phase trials show...

Cheriz: My life with Cystic Fibrosis

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