If you missed last month’s update, it included the first part of October in with September. I fell quite behind last month due to some unforeseen health issues. You can read about those in my last post. October has been a crazy month, although when do I not have a crazy month?! I spent most of the month recovering and catching up after an unexpected hospital stay. I am learning that as I get older, it takes more and more to keep this little ol’ body healthy.

Lung Health

My lungs have improved greatly this month. In an attempt to cut down my symptoms, we tried a new antibiotic this stay. I have always been on the same two antibiotics my whole. So we decided to switch it up. This was a tough decision because that required a hospital stay instead of starting directly on home IVs. This is because you have to be monitored at first to make sure that you don’t have any bad side effects from the drug. I was hoping to only have to stay a few days, but ended up staying a week. That was no fun. My lungs weren’t improving as fast as we hoped, mixed with a holiday and overbooked PFT lab. Grrr, but understandable.

PFT Update

At the beginning of the month, my PFTs were down quite a lot… unexpectedly. I knew I was coughing a lot, but I had grown so accustomed to it that I thought nothing of it. However, I went in and the results showed a significant drop. My doctor wanted to admit me directly from clinic. I had some work arrangements to get in order and a meeting to lead that night. This is one of the reasons that making the decision to try a new antibiotic was difficult. I didn’t want to miss any more work. I had just been admitted a couple of months ago. I had a vacation coming up. I had life responsibilities.

The knowledge that I was going to continue on this path if I didn’t try something new was what finally convinced me. My support system knew it was the right decision too, even if it was the hard one. After 14 days on antibiotics, 7 of which were in-patient, my PFTs were back up. Not to what they had been at my last discharge, but significantly better. I am not surprised by this, but glad that I was able to make improvement.

Cough Update

My cough was the worst it had ever been before being admitted. It was miserable and debilitating. After my 14 day course of antibiotics, my cough was the best it had been in almost 10 years! I was amazed! Apparently I made the right choice in trying a new antibiotic.

I can’t begin to tell you how relieving it was to not be coughing almost every second of every day. To not having to have strangers worry about me. The relief I had this month is just incredible. I could go on and on about how grateful and ecstatic I am. If you have been keeping up with these monthly updates I have been doing for the past few months, you know how my cough has been my most frustrating symptom! SWEET RELIEF.

Mucus Update

My mucus has been pretty stable. It adds to the curiosity of what is going on with my body. Typically an infection leads to an increase in mucus coupled with an increase in sputum (mucus) production. I had a slight increase in sputum production, but my mucus has remained the same yellowish-green color. This is one of the reasons that my team and I keep thinking my ABPA is acting up. My blood levels keep coming back normal. So for now, it is still a mystery.

Other Health

In other news, things have been fairly stable with my other health. This has been due to a lot of trial and error of what helps and hurts my body. I have made some lifestyle changes in my diet and exercise that have been very helpful. In previous posts, I had talked in the various subsections about stomach aches and exhaustion. While these are not perfect, I have been able to manage the symptoms. I do things now!

Weight Update

I lost a lot of weight over the last few month. Starting around the time that I started these monthly updates, actually.. October brought some stability. At the beginning of the year, I switched to a primarily pescatarian diet. Not strictly. but generally. This was after a trip to New Orleans. After eating only seafood for a week, Andy and I felt AMAZING. Upon reflection at some point in the year, I realized that changing my diet to primarily vegetarian coincided with my strong environmental beliefs. This was an easy transition because I had been cutting out certain foods gradually… and I’m not super strict.

After a few months of cutting out meat from my diet, I realized that I was getting significantly less stomach aches. I do want to stress that it is important to make sure that you are still getting enough calories. I have been supplementing my calorie loss with Ensure and ZoneBars, which I receive from the CF CareForward program. Shortly after, I was reading about coconut oil and all its benefits. So I started cooking with that instead of butter or other oils. Man, that made a world of difference!! 10 out 10 – would recommend.

My weight has stabled after my hospitalization this month. I was coughing like mad, so I’m sure my body was using way more energy than I was putting into it. Again… SO glad my cough has improved!

Energy Update

Besides my cough, this is definitely the area I struggle with the most. I’m sure it goes along with my cough because it sucks up any and all energy I have. I started out the month lethargic and not doing anything outside of work again. The funny thing is that it happens somewhat gradually, so you don’t think anything of it. Once I got out of the hospital, I was a new person!

Even while on home IVs, I was able to do many activities. The one that I was most excited for was going to the pumpkin farm with my family. Fall is my favorite season and I am so glad that I got to enjoy it! The other fun activity that I’m glad that I had energy for was my road trip. Andy and I drove down to Florida for a nurse of mine that moved down to Tampa. You can read about her awesomeness in this post. It has been a blast so far!

Mental Update

This is something that is hard for me to admit, but I have been having more and more anxieties. Not about my health, but just when I get stressed about something. It may be small, but for some reason it affects me more. My theory is that when I am not feeling well, my body doesn’t have any spare energy to tell itself that everything is going to be fine. I have always been extremely proud of my positive attitude. That has certainly in no way gone anywhere. It just means that finding it is a little more difficult.

Luckily, I have an amazing support system. It is so important to keep those around who truly care about you and not so much the ones that don’t. As independent as I like to be, I am learning that it is ok to lean on the ones around you. That is what they are there for. Love is a two-way road. Use it.

Still over the moon about the cough improvement!