Cheriz: My life with Cystic Fibrosis

Family Planning Part 2: I already talked quite a lot about Andrew and I's reasoning for starting a family now and choosing Foster Care in this post here ! But, we have a few steps we need to take before we can actually become Foster Parents.  1. Move (hopefully buy a house) 2. Take the classes, etc. 3. Prepare our home for Children Realistically we have our lease at our current apartment through August. So at the earliest these steps will not be finished until at LEAST September. If we find a house between now and then, get classes taken, etc then we will right on track. We aren't too concerned about the classes or paperwork yet, we want to get the new place and move first. Why do we need to move before we have children? Well, a few reasons. First being we want to foster more than one children, preferably foster-to-adopt siblings. I do know we need 1 bedroom per child and currently we have a 2 bedroom apartment. Secondly, this apartment with all the stai...

Doctor Appointment: Yesterday was my 2nd follow up since I had gotten sick at Christmas. Read my 1st and 2nd post about that to catch up! As I said Doc really didn't want to put me on IVs (my numbers didn't improve after them in 2015 anyway AND I always have secondary problems from them). There are also no oral antibiotics options for me (I'm allergic to all of them). Which means when I get sick its super hard to get better. BUT, as you read in my last post, I did get a little better! We just added prednisone for a week and an extra set of nebs. I also talked about how I'm using my fitbit to challenge me to workout more, count calories (to gain weight), and keep me accountable in general. Well, great news! It is working. Since Christmas I have gone from 103 to 107 lbs AND climbed from the 36% in lung function up to 56% (highest I have been since 2014) yesterday. Doc honestly thinks I can get back to 60%. His office just got some new equipment and he is going to sta...

Staying Focused: I'm trying to stay focused and keep on top of my health. But I do struggle and it can be hard sometimes. In October of 2015 my lung function was around 50%. I like to be around 60% but in the last year or so I have struggled to get back there. I hit 64% once after IVs in 2014, but since then I have been around 55% most of the time. Overall, I had gotten used to this and didn't think it was a big deal. But then slowly throughout 2015 I kept decreasing bit by bit. It's tough seeing those numbers drop at each appointment. Tons of questions race through my mind. - what if I can't get my lung function back? -will I always struggle to breathe?  -how will this affect my future, kids, Andrew, etc? So in October when I was 50%, both Doc and I knew , I had to be careful. One cold, one infection, and I can lose a TON of lung function and it gets harder to get it back the older I get. I'm allergic to Keflex, Leviquin, and Bactrim (along with some p...

Hit a Snag: Well, unfortunately we cancelled my doc's appointment for today. So I do not have an update on my lung function for you. I know, sounds crazy to cancel right? Actually, it was the smart thing to do. Considering our plan was for me to take prednisone for 6-7 days and do a Collistin Nebulizer treatment 3 x a day didn't work out too well. I got the prednisone filled right away, I had the pharmacy and Doc office receive and set up my new nebulizer on Monday/ Tuesday. However, the insurance needed a prior authorization and  they have a standard 15 days to decide if I get the new nebulizer. Since I'm already taking Cayston this month (another antibiotic nebulizer) they will prolly (yes, I always say & type prolly) deny it and we will have to fight it, etc. This is why it's hard to get lung function back after being sick. It can take so long to get the meds and treatments that we have twice as much work once we do, and sometimes its already permanently dama...

Normal "beginning of the year" troubles for Andrew and I only really consist of one topic: Our Deductible [please no Obama, or government bashing] I've always had high deductibles ALL MY LIFE (no matter who was president). The problem is I hit my deductible within the first week of January. In the past I have always prepared for this and since I was still on my father's insurance (up until last year) he typically paid the bill (at least for medical stuff). And in the future Andrew & I won't have such an issue with this. We will be able to save and plan ahead for the $3,000 (for my deductible, his is another $3,000). However, this year was more difficult. We saved all 2013-2014 for our wedding & honeymoon, plus had our deductible saved too. But Real Estate was a pricey career to start, I've put almost $5,000 into it (classes, dues, licensing, exam, advertising, etc). So needless to say our deductible disappeared, thanks to my new career. Wh...