Technology!

Wooohooooo! Well, today was a busy day. I got up and worked a bit and then headed into the office. I went to our staff meeting and had to leave for an appointment shortly after. Today I officially became a Patient Family Advisor at Emory, so that's pretty cool. I got my own namebadge and valet parking validation. I felt pretty official walking around the hospital with a namebadge. I was nominated and interviewed for this last year, but it took a little bit of time to get off the ground. Basically I'll help make recommendations for improved patient care at the hospital. Pretty cool!

Then I headed to my doctor's appointment which went pretty well. My PFTs were exactly the same down to the hundredth of a point. I'm glad they didn't decrease, but I was kind of hoping for an increase. Next time! I also got referred to an endocrinologist because of my bone density scan. BLAH!. Now, for the highlight of my appointment...

When some members from the CF team came to see my benefit show, they gave me a card with a picture of a Nike+ sportband. Now, I didn't realize at the time that they had truly ordered that for me. I just thought it was a metaphor or something. Well, today at the appointment, the doctor walked in with a little box and it contained the sportband. I'm pretty stinkin' excited. It has a little wristband thing and a sensor that goes in my shoe and it will document my workouts - like my pace, distance, etc. I think it's gonna be a good motivator. I was tinkering with it this afternoon and realized I need shoes with a sensor holder or a little pouch to put it in to attach to my shoe. I'm going to figure that out tomorrow. I went and worked out hardcore today, though, because I was excited about it. I can't wait to experiment!

My Braves are about to destroy the Phillies. It's 5-0 in the bottom of the fifth. Come on, boys! I'm confused because it looks like it's raining at Turner Field, but I haven't seen it here yet...

Hmm, yep. That's about all I have to say. I'm getting really sleepy.

Dodging a bullet

Well, y'aaaaaaaaalllllllllll........ My doctor's appointment went surprisingly well today! I'll start at the beginning. I got to Emory right at 10:00 a.m. to start my glucose tolerance test. When they finally drew (DREW!) my blood at about 10:30 a.m., I felt like I was going to faint. I survived the blood draws and then drank the special orange drink, which actually tastes pretty decent when you're starved beyond rational thinking. I then headed over for my DEXA bone density scan. After that, I headed back to the lab and had to wait until 12:30 p.m. for my post-orange DRANK stick. The worker was so helpful and, given how weak I was feeling she packed me a baggie with two 4-packs of Oreos and two apple juices, which I thought was really sweet. I want to write her boss and commend her work, but every time I plan to do that it's difficult to follow through...

From there, I headed up to the real doozie - the CF appointment. I didn't have to wait too exceptionally long before completing my PFTs. Believe it or not, my numbers had IMPROVED from the study visit, but were still down a little bit from my baseline. I couldn't believe that I would have improved considering the fact that I didn't feel so great, but I did...so I'll take it! My bloodwork from the morning looked great, with my glucose tolerance test showing that I was normal.

Interestingly, though, the doctor did notice that a particular liver enzyme was elevated. It didn't worry her too much, but she did take note of it since some CFers end up with liver disease for a variety of reasons. Then, we got to talking about the pain that I'd had (the ER-inspiring pain), and she was convinced that the pain was in my gall bladder/liver area. She said that lungs don't really have pain censors, with the exception of when the lining is inflamed, but my pain didn't seem to be affected by my breathing. So, with the combination of the pain and the elevated enzymes, she wants to do an ultrasound of my gall bladder/liver if the pain returns. Hopefully it was just an odd occurrence, and I'm optimistic since I've been painkiller- and pain-free for a week.

Needless to say, after all of that news, I don't have to go to the hospital and I don't have to return for a follow-up until June 1. YAAAAAY! The doctor also mentioned trying to get me back in the study, so I'm hopeful for that. I let that fall to the back-burner temporarily because obviously my current health is the most pressing, but lately I'd been thinking how I really hope to get to participate in the study even though my initial screening indicated otherwise. I'll keep you posted on that.

I don't really have too much to say, as the doctor's appointment was the bulk of my day. Drew's Crew is at $9,367. I'm excited! I think my next endeavor is to encourage friends to email everyone they know. We've come a long way, but we're still only halfway to my aspirational goal!
Thank you to everyone who sent well wishes my way; they helped!