Ohh YAA

Wow. Been a little bit since I updated, eh?

Well I celebrated my 21st birthday on August 2nd. Who thought I'd ever make it this far? Well...I made it this far...no point in giving up now.

So...updates..updates.
Alright, well last time I updated, I was going on about how I still felt sick and didn't feel like I was getting any better. Well, my old nurse came back (she had been out for awhile) and is hittin' the ball. She gave me a call asking how I was. My god was I ever glad to hear the voice. I told her how I felt. She had me go in for a bunch of tests that day. Then I went back in the next day to speak with a different doctor since mine was out of town.
At first glance, they thought it was still pneumonia..hanging around my collapsed lobe. So they put me on another antibiotic.
They also upped my therapy routine to three times a day, want me to drink 2L of water a day and wanted me to start walking twice a day (preferably not in the daytime where it's been like..40C outside..icckkk)
So I did start to feel a little better after doing the routines. Then I get a call not long after. See, this last visit was different because for the first time..like ever, I was able to give a sputum sample. Apparently this is what I needed, because they found out what was actually going on with me.
It seems had been growing Staphylococcus Aureus and Pseudomonas.
They put me on the antibiotics for an extra week. I've kept up the routine and am doing great. I've had a few 'down' days but that's to be expected.

I'm now looking for a job finally, and am going into Drivers Training very very soon =D This is big for us. I'll be able to take Teeka out to places like the park and what not when it's nice out.

Teeka's had a huge impact on everything. She went back to stay with my mother for a bit..and during that time I didn't do so well. She came back to visit me one day and I well...we couldn't be separated.

She's my permanent buddy haha. She accompanies me on my walks, we both need it.

We are both doing great, and I shall update later one ^^

When I'm 64

It's been rough, to say the least. Everyday I think I'm getting better, I end up feeling like crud again. I'm starting to wonder if this is all in my head or not. I'm just tired..all the time. Even if I get a decent or even perfect amount of sleep...I can't get out of bed. It takes everything I can just to get up. I have to though; I need to drag myself up. Teeka and the other animals need food and attention, she needs to be walked, cared for, loved. It's just getting rough. I thought I was getting better but lately I seem to be back at square one. I get to the end of the road and I'm already hacking up a coughing storm like there's no tomorrow. I take Teeka out to run, and I can't run after her. I can't play with her. Kevin does most of the playing with her when we take her out for her runs...because I can't seem to do it. He tries to get me to run around with them, and I can't. I can't even seem to get that initial take off to break into a sprint.

My cough is back, or maybe it never went away. I'm positive it was getting better. I've called clinic and keep getting the same answer..."it's the air. Allergies. Pollen." ..right..but I've never had issues with any of these before. And I don't have allergies..The worst I ever really had an issue with was fog.
Hell, my last appointment when they took me off the IV...they didn't even give me a chest x-ray. I had a PFT which no one even looked at or seemed to care about (I know this because I had to run around like mad just to give them the results. When I gave them the envelope explaining that the results where in it they just looked at me like I had three heads. They took it and went on there way). When I saw the doctor..he wasn't even aware I had a PFT done that day, nor did he make any effort to go get the results which they now had. Asked how I was feeling...I explained I seemed to be getting better but I still wasn't 100%, I could tell. But my lungs sounded clear (which..they always do. This is nothing new). And they told me I could come back in 6 months....which I then had to ask what was being done about my IV, finally they said it can come out -__-

Ranting aside, it's just me wondering if I really got over the pneumonia...or if it's still lurking there. Clinic doesn't seem to be in any rush to see me, and I'm just frustrated...and tired.

I'm not going to just roll over and give up. I can't. No way in hell. But I need to know. I want re-assurance.
It's just frustrating.

Well I'm off to nom some stew, and wait til this little shower lets up to take Teeka out.

We are the sky

So since this is the first post in our blog, it's going to have to be a long one. See..cause I have to explain why I am doing this blog in the first place, what brought Teeka to me and bring everything up to date with today's progress. Just warning you now haha.

So, to avoid having to tell a complete background history, we'll start at this. I am a 20 year old Cystic Fibrosis patient. Up until recently I have managed to avoid hospitals for years. Between the ages of 10 and 18 I had only been hospitalized twice.
For the past year I have been fighting an ongoing battle with pneumonia. It's been a rough go. I've been on home IV antibiotics twice, and hospitalized once (so far). For awhile, I started to give up..as..dramatic as that sounds. I felt like I would never get better. It seemed that whenever I was given a step forward, I ended up falling two steps back. I was constantly sick, and some days couldn't even drag myself out of bed. I was told I needed to get out, and exercise. Bring my lung function back up. Some days,however, I just didn't see the point.

Right around the time I got taken off my home IV in May, my parents started moving into a new house. They have three dogs. The two younger boys would have no issue staying in a kennel for a day or two while they did the move; Their older girl Teeka, on the other hand, would have gotten to stressed out in a kennel. So I agreed to take her while they did the move.

I ended up keeping Teeka for a few weeks. During that time, a seemed to have developed a small improvement. And Teeka seemed to be enjoying her stay here and didn't wish to leave. We started developing a close bond. When I lived with my parents her and I had been pretty close, but after I moved out, she seemed to ignore me anytime I went to visit. I am pretty sure she was mad at me for leaving.
It was then decided that Teeka would stay with me permanently, becoming my dog.

Being an older dog, Teeka has no problem walking a slow and steady pace. This was perfect for me, as I now had a reason to go for a walk every day. We discovered a few nice clearings in the woods nearby, and we typically take a walk up there and I let her run. She used to play with my parents two dogs, but they where much larger, younger and a bit rougher than her. Now she seems perfectly content to run and run, and play "chase me" with my boyfriend.

Having her here as put me on a schedule; I need to get up early to feed her breakfast and take her out. I need to take her out to use the bathroom, I need to walk her, I need to feed her supper and I need to go to bed early..because she gets cranky if we don't go to bed on time XD She starts sighing haha.

So that's basically the beginning. Since her arrival here, we've formed a tight bond. If I go somewhere, she's right behind me. Kitchen, bathroom, bed. Even if I try to sneak, she still follows me everywhere. Almost like she feels she has to keep an eye on me all the time haha.
To be honest, I am starting to think of her more as an "untrained" therapy dog, my companion. She's helping me recover, and teaching me the responsibilities of being a dog owner.
I made it as short as I could without leaving anything out. This blog is going to follow our progress as a team as we work together and I hopefully recover.

Because together...nothing can stop us.