Daily Ponderings

I had a nice Memorial Day weekend, with great weather to enjoy and company. I spent Saturday evening with K. on the waterfront in Lewiston, and then we went to the tennis courts on Sunday morning for awhile. Now I can't go crazy trying to play tennis, but K. has been teaching me how to hit the balls and hold the raquet, and I have to say, I was doing pretty good! I kept focusing on the ball every time he whacked it back toward me, so I would end up hitting it right back, and we'd go for quite a bit until I messed up. lol I had fun! He left Sunday afternoon, and I had a lazy rest of the day. Monday I made crock pot boneless ribs and had my dad over for dinner. They turned out fabulous, and my dad raved about them to everyone. Yay! lol I slept so horrible on Monday night that I was beyond tired most of Tuesday. I didn't even go to rehab, I slept in. However, after only being up a couple hours, I had to go take a nap again. Then I'd read, which would lull me to another n...

When I was growing up, one of my favorite things to do with my sisters and friends in the neighborhood was to walk to our local Wilson Farms convenience stores for candy. Granted, this walk usually tired me out, but it was only about 2 1/2 blocks away, and we usually took our time getting there, and going back. We almost always took the same route, so we were pretty familiar with houses on the way, and the animals we'd meet, and the people we might see. We even nicknamed Wilson Farms "WIF," so when one of us felt like going there, we'd just say, "Does anyone want to walk to WIF?" We bought so much candy there, and even ice creams and other snacks, and I love the memories of just going there often.  I've noticed in the last few months that "WIF" has been changing over to 7-11 covenience stores, and it makes me a little sad. There will no longer be a Wilson Farms that I grew up with, and even continue to go there once in awhile nowadays. 7-11...

Gee whiz, the whole month of May has almost gone by since the last time I posted. My bad!! Well, as far as I know, the oxygen reservations have been made, both for Orlando, and for Cleveland when I go for my appointments the week before I go to Florida. For some reason I still don't totally trust the guy who set everything up, but I have the phone numbers of the places that will provide oxygen for me out of town, so at least I can call them to make sure things are set!! The last thing I need to do is bring a form to my local doctor for her to fill out about using oxygen on the plane. I need to have something with me when I go to the airport. Then I think I'm set! I've already started to gather things to pack for my trip, and I'm also trying to figure out what clothing to bring. While it's going to be pretty stinkin' hot in FL for June (like probably 90s with high humidity!), the hotel where the conference is located will most likely be cold. And I mean like ...

Well, after being totally irate with the o2 guy at the office yesterday when I listened to a message he had left me, I called him back. He just kept insisting that the one portable oxygen concentrator (POC) I wanted to use for my flight did NOT go up to 5lpm. I tried as nicely as I could to tell him that it indeed went up to 5lpm, and in fact, it actually went up to 6. I also told him I had seen one just a few weeks ago at my support group meeting, and I saw that it goes up to 6. AND, that the website says it pulses up to....6! Soooo, he said he had to go check. He got back on the phone, and I could hear him flipping through a manual. After a few minutes, he says, "Oh, oh I see, it looks like it does go up to 6lpm." I wanted soooooo badly to yell, "I TOLD YOU SO!!!!" However, I just nicely said, "You learn something new everyday, huh?" So, I pretty much have the oxygen for the plane set, although I did have to call back today and ask for 2 extra batteries ...

It may not seem like a big deal, but I spent about two and a half days not being able to use my laptop. It was the longest two and a half days ever!! LOL Late Sunday night, I heard an odd sizzling noise, and realized my laptop charger was crapping out. Greaaaaat. So I hurried onto Ebay and looked for a replacement before the laptop battery ran out. And then, well, the battery ran out! I was able to at least check email and Facebook during the day for the past couple days, but that was about it. I tried turning on my dinoputer Monday. It is just so terribly slow. I updated the virus software and was able to do check a few websites, but it just became so frustrating that I shut it down on Monday night and didn't bother turning it back on. I'm not even sure why I still keep it, but I guess I'm glad I have it for that "just in case" event! My mom hired someone to renovate my bathroom and the one in the apartment upstairs. The guy started this morning. He's doing...

I know, I've been terribly slacking in the Health Challenge posts. I'm behind several days now. Things have kept me busy from writing. I also don't totally love the topics. lol Hopefully I will catch up on them at some point!! I tried to arrange oxygen this morning for my two trips in June. We got as far as the addresses of the places I'll be, and then when it came time to talk about the portable oxygen concentrator (POC), things just went downhill from there. Basically it boils down to waiting for a reply from my doctor about whether or not I can be on 5 liters per minute continuous or pulse (meaning, the POC only works when I breath in). If he wants me on continuous, that means I'm gonna have to buy oxygen from the airline, which is going to cost a heck of a lot more money than I was planning. Plus, I don't think Southwest provides oxygen anymore on their flights. So if pulse works out, then yay! I'm just wishing my doctor would actually get back to me!...

Give yourself, your condition, or your health focus a mascot. Is it a real person? Fictional? Mythical being? Describe them. Bonus points if you provide a visual! Many PH patients are fighters, trying to live their new normals after being diagnosed. So, I would create a PHighter as a mascot. The PHighter would be wearing full armor that is periwinkle in color (since periwinkle represents PH). The mascot would also have a giant sword, used to fend off PH symptoms as they come forcing their way to attack! The PHighter is always on guard, all day and all night, to allow a PHer to live their life to the best of their ability without worrying constantly! Now, if only I knew how to Photoshop or create digital images, I'd share a picture of the PHighter!!

Write about whatever you like. The weather was crap today. We had beautiful weather on Friday, in the 70s. K took me to Chestnut Ridge, a huge park that I've never been to before, but always heard about on the news. We had a little picnic, and enjoyed watching everyone soaking up the lovely evening! Then things changed. The weekend got cooler, which in all fairness was really the norm. But we were supposed to get this huge April snowstorm. It was predicted all week, we were warned incessantly by the weatherpeople on all the channels that it was coming. Be prepared! Niagara Falls saw about 5 minutes of snow mixed with a little rain earlier in the afternoon. So much for have a snowpocalypse here! Areas south of me, especially ski country, really did get slammed. The only thing I really hated about today was the dreariness, the dampness, and the cold! I couldn't warm up for the life of me for hours, no matter what I did! I tried blankets, wearing more layers, and even a few cups...

Visit http://thingsweforget.blogspot.com/ and make your own version of a short memo reminder. Where would you post it? If I made a short memo reminder, I'd put it on my bathroom mirror. It would say: PH changes your life. Learn to live your  new normal. 

Go to : http://languageisavirus.com/cgi-bin/madlibs.pl and fill in the parts of speech and the site will generate a poem for you. Feel free to post the Madlib or edit it to make it better. Ok, this is one weird poem. Not sure I like it. LOL beautiful table's beautiful table gingerly i have never flying, utterly beyond any needle, your cupcake have their enormous: in your most red light are things which wandering me, or which i cannot eating because they are too slowly your pretty look angrily will unjumping me though i have waking myself as dryer, you walking always lamp by lamp myself as necklace stressing (listeninging terribly, bleakly) her fabulous slippers or if your blanket be to blogging me, i and my chest will driving very confidently, infrequently, as when the port of this needle washing the treadmill logically everywhere smellinging; nothing which we are to singing in this bicycle exercising the remote of your shaggy coffee: whose car understanding me with the kitte...

Write a news-style article on a miracle cure. What’s the cure? How do you get the cure? Be sure to include a disclaimer ;) Well, I'm behind a few days with this challenge!! I started writing an article on Friday, when this was supposed to be posted, but it somehow got lost. So, I just decided to skip this question and move on to the next!!

Sunday evening as I was driving to K's house, I noticed an awful lot of little things flying by the car. Not birds. It took me a bit to realize they were butterflies. What?? Butterflies this time of year?? No, that couldn't be right! I thought maybe they were moths then. But a couple of them came so close to the windshield, that I knew they really WERE little butterflies! And by the time I got to K's, I had seen hundreds of them! They were darting everywhere on the highway, most of them alone, but some of them also in pairs. The pairs of butterflies looked like they were doing a dance with each other. It was all so overwhelming, and I got a bit teary-eyed as I was driving because they all reminded me of Euan. So by the time I got to my destination, I was a bit emotional! A couple days later on one of the local news station websites, I saw an article about how so many people in this area had been seeing the butterflies (which I have continued to see every day this week!). ...

Who are 5 people you’d love to have dinner with (living or deceased) and why? These dinner guests are in no particular order: 1. My Grandpa S.  - It's been 18 years since my Grandpa S. passed away. I was 19 when he died, and I had known him my entire life. I loved him very much, and I still miss him every now and then. I would love to have one last dinner with him. I'm hoping he would bring some meatloaf, because it's still the best I ever had (funny inside family joke!). 2. My Grandpa K. - I was 2 years old when my Grandpa K. died, so I never got to know him. I've heard all the stories over the years about what he was like. I would just love to be able to actually meet him and find out what he was all about, so I definitely would love him for dinner! 3. My Grandma S. - I never met my Grandma S. She passed away when my Dad was a young man. He has told so many great stories about her over the years, that I would truly just love to meet the mother he adored. 4...

Choose a book and open it to a random page and point to a phrase. Use that phrase to get you writing today. Free write for 15-20 without stopping. I am currently reading Mitch Albom's, Tuesdays With Morrie . I opened it to where I placed my bookmark last night, circled my pointy finger around in the air, looked away from the book and place my finger down on it. This is what I read: " What happened to me? I asked myself." If someone told me when I was in grade school that I would eventually lose the huge eyeglasses that took up half my face, that I'd be more outspoken that I was during that time, and that I'd be helping countless people learn about a crappy disease, I would have just stood there in shock not believing a word you were saying. But when I think back to my younger days, I really can ask "What happened to me??" I used to not say a peep in the classroom. I was incredibly shy when I was invited to a party, usually sticking to the walls o...

What’s a lesson you learned the hard way? Write about it for 15 today. Ever hear the phrase, "I wish I knew then what I know now?" I often wish I could go back and time and do things differently in regards to Euan. He was a big part of my life for several years, and I only met him twice in person. It's not like we were terribly far away. In fact, he was about the same driving distance as K's house. It was just that he was in Canada. And no, it's not like I couldn't go over there. I just had fears of driving over a bridge that was on the way to his house. I wish that I had just sucked it up and faced my fears. If I had, I may have gotten to see him more in person, and connect with him even more with direct contact. I have never felt so close to a man as I did with Euan. We understood each other on so many levels, and I'd never had that before. I'm not sure I'll ever have that again, but in a way that's ok. I will always remember what Euan and ...

Create a pinterest board for your health focus. Pin 3 things. What did you pin? Share the images in a post and explain why you chose them. I used to have a Pinterest account, for like a month. I deleted it after reading a lot of articles about copyright infringement and such while using Pininterest, and I just decided to delete my account. I'm not sure I was finding all that useful anyway! So technically I can't participate in creating a board, but I can certainly still post 3 images I'd use if I were going to create a board! I chose this image because it represents what Pulmonary Hypertension means: high blood pressure in the lungs. So many people think that I have regular high blood pressure when I say that I have pulmonary hypertension. Maybe they just hear "hypertension" and think I just have high bp. But nope! My bp has been great all along!  Periwinkle is the color that represents Pulmonary Hypertension. Periwinkle is a tricky color. It's mo...

What’s your writing style? Do words just flow from your mind to your fingertips? Do you like handwriting first? Do you plan your posts? Title first or last? Where do you write best? I have kept a journal of some sort ever since I was a little girl, and the only thing that has been pretty consistent all these years is that I don't always write often! I tend to write when I have something to say, a funny happening to write down, or a thought that occurred to me. I've been known to not write anything for weeks or months at a time. Recently I've been a little better with the blogging, but there are still so many times when I just don't write anything. I need to find ways of being inspired so I'd write more often! Many times my posts are a little pre-planned. I don't really take notes or jot down ideas. I just think of how I want to write about something, and when I finally get a chance to sit down and type, I go for it. I almost always have to write the title fi...

Describe your ideal day. How would you spend your time? Who would you spend it with? Have you had this day? If not – how could you make it happen? My alarm goes off at 7am, yelling at me to get up for work (instead of telling me to take a pill). I get dressed, washed up, and eat breakfast after I feed Mittens. I rush off to work, where at 9am I am chatting with a room full of children ready to start their day at school (instead of being woken up for the day by another alarm and the realization that I need to take another pill). At 10:30, I am herding children into the gym for class (instead of taking yet another medication). My day is filled with lessons about punctuation, addition and subtraction, a science experiment, and an outdoor recess (instead of lounging around the house because I'm not feeling too well). At 2pm, I'm preparing the children for their final hour at school (and not swallowing another pill). The bell rings at 3pm, and I wave my children out the door for t...

Write a list of the 10 things you need (or love) most. This list is really not in any particular order. I am also going to stick with THINGS I need the most. Obviously, I could never feel complete without the people who surround me in my life. If I added them to the list, I wouldn't have room for much else, because they are so important! So, here goes my list! 10. Pulmonary rehab - I totally love going to rehab. Well, most of the time. LOL I can't believe how much of a difference it has made in my life. I've been going for almost 4 years now, and I at least know that twice a week, I will be getting exercise. Lately, I've been motivated enough to also work out at least twice a week here at home. But I know if I had to give up rehab, I'd probably have a difficult time keeping myself disciplined with my routine! 9. My smartphone - Ok, so maybe it's a sad fact that I would totally be lost without my phone. Not only do I make most of my phone calls with it, but...

Start with the sentence “_______”just write, don’t stop, don’t edit. Post! Ok, I have read the directions for this particular health challenge, and I feel as if I'm totally missing something. Start with what sentence?? Did the person writing the idea for today forget to put in the prompt sentence? I don't know! I think I'll just pass on this challenge for today. I was so busy all day that I had no time to even try to write something, and now it's almost midnight and I'm getting pretty sleepy! I'm sure whatever I'd start writing would eventually make no sense, or I might start to ramble!! lol