September & October 2011

Ok, so we are going to have to back up a little bit on the happenings in my family life. JUSTIN THIS IS FOR YOU! :) Clear back on July 1st (or 2nd...) Samantha had gone on a date with this guy in her Young Single Adult Ward...his name is Justin Mello. I know I've heard the story several times, but I don't remember all of the details, like when the first date actually was or other things. Soon after that first date they started seriously dating each other. Sam met Justin's family a few days after the first date. Justin wanted to come over & met our family but Sam wasn't going to give into that just yet. Well she did give in on our Dad's birthday. Justin had dinner w/our immediate family during Dad's family birthday dinner. Justin bought shot gun shells for him because he wanted to impress him. He did a great job of that, that was the perfect gift!!! Anyway, I could tell that Justin was smitten right from the start. Sam was too, she just didn't know it yet. Justin is hard to get to know. He is VERY quiet (& MELLO) & the complete opposite of Sam. I wasn't so sure about him at first. Of course I probably wasn't easy on him anyway. I wanted to make sure that he was right for my sister & that he knew & understood what CF really is all about. He seemed to take it all rather well. When I was in the hospital in August (& was "fat Sara"), Justin insisted that he wanted to go with Sam up to see me & visit me. After that hospital stay & all the teasing & joking that I put him through he was still around so then I knew that I would like him & that he would eventually be a part of our family. During September & October Sam & Justin were at our house making dinner almost every Wednesday night & maybe one other night as well. They would also work on homework together at our house. (yuck!) It was during this time that Curtis & I were making bets on how long it would take them before they got engaged. :) But that story is for another post. So Justin, you should now feel honored because I have included you on my blog. You may not like the pictures that I picked out to put up here, but since they are also on FB I figured you didn't mind. :)

Ah...Justin Mello...

The cute couple again. :)

Justin, Sam & Katy rockin the 80's!

I was pretty wiped out during the months of September & October. Having your lung collapse takes a lot out of you!!! I do have to back up a little bit here w/some health info...Earlier in the year we had diagnosed me w/having pulmonary hypertension, & I was starting to really have a lot of problems with this, especially after my lung collapse. According to the Mayo clinic, pulmonary hypertension is: a type of high blood pressure that affects the arteries in the lungs and the right side of your heart. Pulmonary hypertension begins when tiny arteries in your lungs, called pulmonary arteries, and capillaries become narrowed, blocked or destroyed. This makes it harder for blood to flow through your lungs, and raises pressure within your lungs' arteries. As the pressure builds, your heart's lower right chamber (right ventricle) must work harder to pump blood through your lungs. They had first diagnosed this back in February by doing an ECCO on my heart (or an ultrasound) that included a "bubble study", where they put small tiny bubbles into my vein & watched how they moved through my heart. It was pretty cool to watch. :) The doctors wanted to do this test because of my health at the time & they knew at some point in the next couple of years we would probably start talking about a lung transplant. This is one of the tests that they have to have done, so they figured they might as well have a baseline test done before we even got to that point. The treatment for pulmonary hypertension is pretty simple...turn up your oxygen when you are moving/active. So for me I was on 2 liters continually & was suppose to turn it up to 4 liters when moving around. (there is medication that you can take that can help it, but they haven't really tried it much with CF patients, but other pulmonary hypertension patients use it a lot, it's called Viagra, & you may laugh, (I did) but the actual intention & purpose of the drug was to treat pulmonary hypertension...they found out about the side effects of it later). I'll admit that at first I didn't think I needed to turn up my O2 & didn't always turn it up to 4....but by summer I could tell you exactly what it was that would exhaust me & I would turn it up automatically. When I was in the hospital in August we were going to do the next test that they use to help diagnose pulmonary hypertension...a right heart catheterization, but after my lung collapsed we put that test off. So I had it done in October when I was doing a little better. This test also helped to give the doctors a baseline for the day that I may start the lung transplant process. It wasn't a horrible procedure. It's almost they same exact procedure that they use to stop bleeding in my lungs, so it honestly didn't phase me. There were a bunch of numbers, or pressure readings, that were taken & I don't remember what they were or if they were good or bad except that it showed that I have mild to moderate pulmonary hypertension.

We had a family BBQ over at Grandma & Grandpa Ward's house in September. They wanted to celebrate me getting out of the hospital & they also wanted to meet Justin. Parley also wanted to have the BBQ because he had cut up a few cord of wood for Grandpa for the winter & he wanted help unloading all of it. It was a very memorable event that had a few embarrassing or awkward moments for Justin....but I'll keep them between us & not share them here. :) I did want to share some pictures of the family. :)

trying to figure out where they should stack the rest of the wood

3 amigas!

Love Grandma's beautiful Smile! :)

Mary, Blaine & Sam

Chatting after the wood was done being stacked

I love my Grandpa Ward!!!

Gotta love family!

A few days before BSU had their 1st home game of the 2011 season (that was on Sept. 24th) we had been given tickets from St. Luke's hospital to go & attend the game. (Several departments were given a certain number of tickets to give to some of their patients). Of course I HAD to say YES to the tickets because it is actually kinda hard to get BSU football tickets, especially a few days before the 1st home game of the season. For me it was one of the best days to go. I hate being cold at the games, but the temperature for this game was actually in the 80s or 90s & then cooled off after half time. We didn't get to pick where we sat in the stadium because we had north end zone tickets, which are open seating. There are some crazy fans that sit in the end zones....but it was a lot of fun! You really have to go to a game in the stadium, see the fans, watch the players & see the blue turf. It's amazing!!! (of course I could be a little bias since BSU is my & Curtis' alma mater...) So here are pictures of the BSU vs Toledo 2011 game...