May 30th, 2011

Most of you know the drill by now--lack of updates is good news (usually). I've still been keeping busy with exercise three times a week, and then clinic appointments at St. Mikes in between--it's absolutely riveting stuff.

Clinic on Tuesday was nothing overly remarkable, my PFTs stayed put at 25% (.72 L), weight dropped a tad (which isn't surprising since my appetite is nowhere to be found, yet again), and I decided to have my PICC line removed (doesn't really go with the summer attire). Since there hasn't been much change, I graduated to monthly clinic appointments and hurried on home after spending 11 hours in hospitals for the day (TGH exercise in the morning and St. Mikes in the afternoon). Speaking of TGH, I did my 6-minute walk on Tuesday morning (which I had successfully dodged for about two weeks) and my distance improved since my last test. I was able to cover 502 m in 6-minutes on 3 L of oxygen (though my oxygen did drop to 84% during the test, but no one seemed overly alarmed). Great news, except that I felt like puking the rest of the day (graphic) and required multiple pitstops as I walked from TGH to St. Mikes... but hey, if you don't feel like collapsing and grasping for the straws of life after a 6-minute walk, you probably didn't try hard enough. That's my motto anyway.

Moving on, this year my aunt and sister put together a team for the Great Strides walk, which is a major walkathon that raises funds for Cystic Fibrosis Canada annually. The team consisted of family, friends and friends-of-friends and it was named "Lungs out Loud" after (you guessed it) this blog. We all agreed that for something that was so last-minute, we were quite successful! Although the final numbers are still being crunched, we have roughly raised $10,000 as a team. And if anyone is reading this blog that would like to sponsor us still, online donations are still being accepted until June 4th correction: June 15, 2011 and can be accessed by the link below (goes to my personal page, to view our team you must search for our team on the main page):
http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=1111220

Now this is cap-worthy:
THANK YOU TO MY TEAM AND SPONSORS FOR THE SUPPORT!

Now I can't wait to do it all again next year, bigger and badder.

That's all for now folks, enjoy the sunshine!