I'll just come out and say it, I'm not a fan of the ran. I enjoy watching fantastic lightening storms from my bedroom window (esp. the first one of the year, when snowstorms have ended their shift), and the pitter patter of rain drops is a soothing sound, but my lungs hate rain. My version of singing in the rain involves high-pitched wheezing as I walk through the soggy streets of Toronto. Last I checked, this type of pitch would not be appreciated by none-tone-deaf ears--but maybe the tone deaf would approve? There is hope yet for my 'singing' voice to be praised.

Today it took 30 mintues for me to walk to work, it should take 15-20. In part, I can blame the rain, but a quick scan of my bookbag will identify other factors. Starting with the fact that I packed a lunch: 1 lb? Planner: .5 lbs? Wallet: 1 lb? And I carried a tea mug AND umbrella. It doesn't sound like much, but it adds up, and my lungs don't appreciate the resulting sum.

So how do I fix the equation?
For starters, I love my tea mug, it's ceramic and pink with white polkadots. I feel wrong when I drink tea from a plastic or cardboard cup...but carrying my beloved ceramic tea mug has become too much. I haven't used it in weeks, but now that I have (and have experienced the arm pain??), I realized that it can no longer travel long distances with me--at least until I get my strength up again. But I came up with a solution (there is always a solution, no?), I will leave it at work and make my tea there every morning. Easy as pi.

Another adjustment? I have downgraded my purse size. When I went shopping in Buffalo on the weekend (spending an exorborant amount of money on clothes for work--completely necessary), I purchased a wristlet wallet from fossil (like the size pictured below). This is in contrast to the huge red purse I bought in the Fall, but I love the design and I'm happy to no longer be the person guilty of knocking people over with my giant purse/weapon. Now I just use my pointy elbows.

Fashion Sidenote: I'm in love with Fossil purses and wristlets. In my opinion, their collections are way nicer than anything Coach has to offer. I have visited Coach quite a few times and have never seen anything I would want to purchase and I never understand why it is so crowded... maybe I don't get it? Someone please explain? Until I DO get it, I direct everyone to Fossil. Better quality, nicer designs, and better prices**in the factory store... lol**... but that's just my opinion... so it's probably right. *ahem*

I am officially 'free' today! I had my picc line pulled (which is like a giant iv--I had left it in to make sure my infection was completely gone). Which means I can finally shower, stretch and wear a jacket with ease!

My pfts dropped slightly from 27% (.80 L) to 25% (.73 L), but I'm feeling great and have no infection symptoms, so we decided I was done with IVs. Apparently I'm a little bit of a wheezebag,  so we've increased my dose of Oxeze (like a ventolin puffer) to help me out. We're hoping the slight drop in pfts is just due to leftover inflammation from the infection.

I also have to start eating more (still). I somehow lost 1 kg in 2 weeks...gross. Some people would be happy to have their weight just melt away with ease, but I'm not so impressed. Haagen Daz round II, here I come! 

Today, hopefully (and probably) is the last day I will have my PICC line in. Tomorrow I have clinic at 8:30 am sharp (the way I like it) and I will review my pfts and make sure everything is a-ok before getting this lovely contraption removed from my arm. Showering is about to get a whole lot easier.

In the meantime, I have improved immensley over the past week. It's quite shocking how much better you can feel after getting used to being 'ok' for so long. My treatment times don't take near as long (they were taking close to 2 hrs each before IVs... that's 6 hrs a day), I'm actually hungry a lot (and I can pack back a lot more food) and my energy is waaaaaaay up. This last point is particularily useful becuase I've been a busy gal. Not only am I still enjoying my internship at Canadian Family, but I'm also working on a fashion show fundraiser with a group of fabulous girls (including the director of the whole thing, H). The funds raised at this event (on August 26th) will all go to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The event is already going to sell out, so we're pretty excited about that!

H and I are also hoping to devote the summer to raising awareness about Cystic Fibrosis and Organ Donation--that's where I come in. I'm trying to reach out to any media outlet available so we can spread the word. I also tried to simultaneously put up our website, which is very bare-bones right now, but then I realized... hey, I'm not superwoman. Maybe I do suffer from the prednisone side effect of mistakenly feeling godly. So we're hoping to find a designer (we may have found one, hoping she pulls through) that can just use my photoshop sketches and content to build the whole thing on Dreamweaver. I realize all this may sound like mumble jumble to some people, so I'll translate: Dreamweaver is a program that sucks the life out of me, so I want to pass it on to someone else.

I also suffer from hyperactive inspiration. I will literally be sitting quietly (well, never quietly, my mind is always racing or daydreaming or doing something wacky) when I am suddenly inspired and the ideas just start pouring out. Anyway, all this means is that I really enjoy working on this with H and a great group of girls. Girls who are equally as inspired and insane as I am, so I don't feel so bad in retrospect...

Stay tuned!