Daily Ponderings

I grew up hating the taste of coffee. I ADORE the smell of it, and often find myself in the coffee section of the grocery aisle sniffing in deeply. But the taste? Yuck! Until recently. I have become a "coffee junkie" as K. called me the other day!! Now, the biggest reason I have been drinking coffee every single afternoon for the last, oh, month and a half, is because of K. However, in the last several months, I have tasted coffee again and haven't found it to be too bad. It made me realize that the only way I had tasted coffee was when my dad had it as a kid, and I think he had his black. I definitely cannot have it black!! But with a little flavored cream (and there are sooooo  many out there!), I've been able to drink it, and like it a lot! I got the cute little 4 cup coffee maker above awhile ago from Amazon.com. It's perfect for me, and for whoever has coffee with me (mostly K.)! Like I said, I use it pretty much every day. I try to drink mostly decaf,...

Wednesday was just one of those days where everything seemed to go wrong. The worst part about it was that it involved the oxygen I'm supposed to use all day, every day, and the tanks that hold the liquid oxygen. I realized the day before that one of them wasn't working, and the other one had only 2 bars left. Considering that I get the tanks filled on Fridays, I knew I wouldn't really have enough to last until then! So Wednesday morning I called the office and told them that I now had no bars on the working tank, and no backup. That is the part that frustrates me the most. Ever since I got liquid oxygen, I have not been allowed to have a concentrator as back up in case something happens to the tanks and I'm stuck. Like Wednesday!! Anyway, the one guy doing the liquid o2 route called me back to find out what was happening, and told me he would rearrange his route to include me and that he'd be there before noon. Ok, sounds good. He got here and switched out the non-...

The weekend sure went by quick! I spent it cleaning during the day on Saturday, and Saturday night and most of Sunday with K. We had a very nice time together. Mexican food and a movie was our Saturday night date, and playing tennis on his Playstation was most of Sunday's happenings. I wish sometimes we could spend more time together during the week, but oh well. I take what I can get on my weekends! I'm still kind of in a state of shock that I'm actually going to Florida in June. Sometimes when I think of all the phriends I get to meet at the conference, I actually get teary-eyed. Some of them I've been talking to for years and years. I am very nervous about flying, but I keep trying to build myself up and telling myself I'll be fine. I'll probably not end up thinking about it until June comes around, and I'm sure by the time the day comes to leave I'll be trying not to throw up. lol  I might have to ask my doctor for something to keep me relatively ...

I applied for the scholarship to the PH Conference in Orlando in June back in November. I found out a couple weeks ago that I got a partial scholarship to go. After two weeks of trying to figure out how to get there and with who, I have finally gotten everything settled!! Today I was registered for the conference and hotel rooms, and I also have.....PLANE TICKETS!! Yes, despite the fact that I truly did not want to fly to this, I finally decided it was something I needed to do!!  I really want to go to Hawaii some day, so I guess I might as well start with a fairly short flight, right?? I am going with a phriend and her two daughters and grandbaby! So, I will not be alone on the plane. We're going down the day before everything starts, so if I'm not feeling well after the plane ride, I'll have some time to rest. And we aren't leaving right after conference, we're staying for a couple more days! So it's not only conference, it's a mini-vacation!! I'm just...

Yesterday the world learned that Whitney Houston died at the way too early age of 48. Investigation is continuing into her death, but so far foul play has been ruled out. In the last decade or so, she was more known for her strange behavior and drug addiction after marrying Bobby Brown, but it seemed as if she was trying to make a comeback in the last few years of her life. But despite all the news on her behavior recently, I truly admired Whitney and loved her as a singer. That voice of hers...believe me, that voice was amazing to me. I am not a singer. I know I can't carry a tune. Does that stop me from belting out songs at the top of my lungs? No. Despite not being able to sing, that is one thing that I truly wish I was able to do, and I admit to being jealous of some awesome singers out there. Whitney was definitely one of the top artists I envied. Her voice was just beyond anything I'd ever heard, and I have tried to sing almost every song of hers that was released. Obviou...

I went back to my first post of the new year, to remind myself what some of my goals were for 2012. It's been almost a month since I wrote that post, and I have to say that I've been making plans for 2 of them in the last month! I have booked the rooms for 3 support group meetings, April, July and October. I have one speaker for the meeting in October, and I'm in the works on getting someone to talk at the other 2 meetings. I think I'm also going to pick a couple days on the months we don't meet to have just a general coffee get-together somewhere. I want my group to feel like they don't have to wait months before seeing each other again. I'm hoping this all works out well. I got a letter in the mail on Thursday from the PH Association. I've received a partial scholarship to the conference in June! I have until the end of the month to accept it, because if I don't go, they can give that money to someone else. I'm working on how to get there. I ...

Today marks the beginning of Congenital Heart Disease Awareness Month! I was born 36 years ago with an ASD and VSD, known then as Atrioventricular Canal Defect. I was also diagnosed with PH when the holes were discovered at 9 months old. The entire combination is known as Eisenmenger's syndrome. My holes have never been repaired, and are actually helping the pressures in my lungs, although they are still high. Doctors didn't give my parents much hope back then, but hey, I'm still here!!