Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Where's the Energizer Bunny When You Need Him

This week we have Thanksgiving to look forward to. As I am writing this, I'm looking forward to the Thanksgiving Feed my Bible study is having Tuesday. Pretty excited since it means I get an extra day of eating.

My doctor appointment went fairly well. My weight is slowly creeping up. No change in lung function, but using the oxygen while I exercise seems to help me with the gaspiness (They call it shortness of breath or SOB). The doctor says the exercise will help keep my heart and muscles strong. So that seems to be the goal. Try to keep everything else in working condition while my lungs go down the drain.

He did say that some CFers last quite awhile where I'm at now. I told him it wasn't a problem of "lasting". It's has to do with my quality of life. I'm very adaptive, so while I can't run or swim, I keep my mind busy and I'm okay. But what happens when I can't keep my mind occupied? And besides, it's pretty depressing sitting around and watching everyone else doing all the things you used to enjoy. I did say that if I hit a point where I can no longer eat, I'm calling it quits. Food is more than nurishment to me. It's an experience. And taking that away would make me completely miserable.

On a happier note, my niece visited this weekend. Since it was way too cold outside (cold air gives me severe coughing spells), we stayed in and had a picnic on the living room floor. She really seemed to enjoy it. Then we put on aprons (my grandmother made my mother and me these cute aprons out of Hawiian style fabric). I took pictures of my niece wearing my mom's apron. It was too cute. Then we baked chocolate chocolate chip cookies. She had fun with all the mixing. The hard part was not letting her eat the raw cookie dough. Children don't understand why they can't just lick the bowl. Besides the health reasons, I didn't want her having a sugar high with no outlet for the energy. The cookies turned out great. My mom took my niece to deliver the cookies to nearby relatives. She was pretty thrilled.

When they returned my niece donned on the apron again and helped my mom make dinner. She enjoys putting all the spices in.

After my niece had returned home, I was pretty worn out. I don't have much energy to begin with and she seems to take all I have. I love having her over though. It's just that with kids this age, you have to change up activities every 15 minutes or they get bored and start getting into trouble. Fifteen minutes is about the max for their attention spans. I have learned to divide big tasks into several little tasks and with that I can keep her busy longer.

I do envy her energy. I miss the days where I could just go, go, go. I miss singing without getting light headed.

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