Saturday, July 31, 2010

Chillin in one of my adorable annie and isabelle gowns! Thanks so much. I'm worn out today from getting rid of 4 tubes that will go unexplained, and my post surgery adrenaline: gone. Very sore and tired, but breathin' deep and can't wait for a fresh start tomorrow!

Friday, July 30, 2010

CysticGal Called Last Night

Last night CysticGal called me for a few moments at 10:31.  She sounded super.  She says it hurts when she coughs, and CysticDad is running around trying to find her a super great hard pillow like I had.  You hug it to you when you cough, and well, it makes you feel a bit better.  Lots of coughing happens after transplant because lungs get irritated after you say, take them out of a human and put them in another human.  They make a lot of mucus as a defense mechanism, but it is not CF mucus, rather, normal people mucus, it is just that there is a lot of it. 

And now for a surprise!  CysticGal text me this self-portrait, and told me to post it on the blog!  CysticGal, July 29, 11:16 PM.  That's about 42 hours after she got out of surgery!

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Progress for CysticGal

Another good day for CysticGal.  She looks great according to CysticMommy.  She went for a walk today.  They took her off of the heart monitor and removed the NG tube.  She is eating Jello and drinking Ginger Ale.

I forgot my other notes at work.  :(  If you have any specific questions, you can email me at peterstmusc@gmail.com.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Yay CysticGal is Rocking OUT

CysticGal is off the ventilator, sitting up, and talking up a storm!  She is my sister after all :)  xxoo

CysticGal trying to breath those lungs

CysticDad just called and they kicked him and mom out of the room in order to bronch CysticGal and also try to pull her off of the ventilator.  He said that they will give her a PCA, which is really a nice luxury I never had.  Go CG!  In the words of Dr. Duane Davis, "Breathe slow and deep like a normal person!"  :)

More CysticGal Progress

I just heard from CysticDad.  CysticGal is in ICU, and in and out of consciousness.  She has asked for her glasses.  Her eyes aren't that bad, but I bet that dope makes them feel blurry :).  She indicates that her chest hurts.  CysticDad feels like things are going really well.

Small Update on CysticGal

I haven't really heard anything from my parents, but I did hear that CysticGal was in ICU as of this morning and doing very well.  Hoping to hear more from the P's soon.

No Lungs, No Peace, Get Outta Here!

As of 5:26 AM CysticGal is out of surgery, off the bypass, and is scheduled to arrive in the ICU shortly. 

Whoo hoo!  Thanks to everyone for their well-wishes and especially to the donor family, for a faith that is hard to imagine.

Here are some of her Facebook and Twitter comments (names withheld):

Thinking of you today. Go get 'em.
Sending good thoughts your way! We love you!
Be the ones!! I won't hold it against you if we can't meet in Columbus because you got NEW LUNGS!!! Be the ones!!
Hoping, hoping, hoping
sending good thoughts your way
Yay!!!!! Peaceful vibes peaceful vibes peaceful vibes
Good, good, good thoughts from England!
So you got the "call"? Im out of the loop since my daughters admission.
Are you at the same place I got mine? It isn't Monday so this is not going to be a dry run! Your turn is today!
love and light your way all the time.
Love!
WHOA!! Such exciting news! Sending every ounce of good energy, love, hope, prayer your way!!
So much love to you !!!xoxo
Thank God! I am so excited! Let me know if you need any. Thing.
Yaaaay! Good luck girlie, keeping you in my thoughts
WOOOHOO! smooth surgery vibes heading your way! this news made my day, week, month....and more! i can't stop smiling....can't wait to hear that you are recovering and breathing easily again!
I'm sending such good vibes right now. Can you feel them?
Liking this so hard! Good luck!
Wow! Crossing my fingers and hoping like crazy for you....
Thoughts, prayers and hugs to you!
Yay Yay Yay!!! Remember when I am the Maid of Honor is this surgery! :) love love love
Countless good wishes, prayers, love, and really good juju your way, Sweetie. Will be attached to the computer from now on. Love, love, love you.
My thoughts and prayers are with you!
Good luck! I hope everything goes well!
Good luck ! Sending out the best vibes I have!
Sending positive thoughts, love and prayers your way!
 Finally!!! We will all be thinking good thoughts for you!! Love from us all.
Praying, praying, praying...and I just put on my CG-T-shirt for extra good measure...good vibes...everyone's pulling for you! Love!
Sending the most positive thoughts I have to you!!!
prayers and hugs to you!
prayers and love and gratitude and receptive peace.... and deep deep breaths of sweet cool air!
Good vibes are being sent your way!
Just read the message. I am praying everything goes well for you. It's been a long wait.
Sending good thoughts your way !!! xoxo
wooohoo!
love to you, friend. thinking, hoping, praying, sending good energy -- whatever i can do to get the message across!
I'm so excited for you!!! Please let these be the perfect windbags for you!
Thinking of you CG!!!
please send all the love and light you can spare over to [CysticGal] this afternoon as she waits for a possible lung transplant. go, CG, go!
sending good lung vibes to [CysticGal]! crossing fingers for "a go"! ♥
Fingers crossed that this is the right pair for you! I hope you packed your music and sneakers for walking around the ward after! Lots of love your way.
Wahoo  !!
I am just reading about all of this [CysticGal]...I am praying for you!!
Are you kidding? Have you seen my facebook status as of last night? This is awesome.
I'm looking forward in hearing from you soon. Good luck!
Good luck!!!!
You are in wonderful hands Beth, we are rooting for a smooth path for you. Wahoo !
is hoping her "no rejection, no antibodies" status lends positivity to [CysticGal] and her transplant!!! NLNP!
I am sending all my love and healing thoughts. Wake up rested and breathing deep my friend.
I hope this is the real deal. Then we can celebrate your birthday and new lungs later in August/September. These would be the best early birthday present you could get. Good luck and I hope everything goes smoothly for you.
hope it's going well ! love and positive vibes to you right now!
OMG!!! Yay!!!! Thinking of you right now and praying my little heart out! I'm so happy!
I hope everything goes great cousin!! Good luck!!
All a part of the master plan. You get new lungs, and I get a PIR director in the spring! Go, girl, go!
Hope everything is going well tonight. We are thinking of you and sending good thoughts your way.
Those docs should really let you text message from surgery, my Chicken Patty. Until they do, FaceBook must suffice. Guess that birthday party of yours will be from recovery after all!!! Love you!
so unbelievably happy for you, CG!
YAY!! Thoughts and prayers are with you!!
Sally!
All the love and light I can muster up is headed your way. So very happy for you.
Awesome news! Very happy for you. Thoughts & prayers are with you tonight.
Yay!! Go [CysticGal]!!!!
ALL OUR LOVE AND PRAYERS TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOVE YOU BETH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thinking of you and knowing that your greater than mine will ever be!
Lots of love. Lots of light. Lots of prayers. ♥
You have my absolute best wishes , hope to hear great news from you soon!
BEST WISHES , thinking of you!!!
Congrats Lady!! Such great news!! :)
Thinking of you!
@CysticGal u r in my thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery!!! ♥♥♥
3 cheers for @CysticGal. Getting her lungs as we speak.
Fingers crossed for @cysticgal who is getting a new pair of lungs (!!!) right now. Hope the surgery goes well!
Please send prayers out for mah friend @CysticGal who received a double lung transplant tonight. Crying for her (cont) http://tl.gd/2pk0oi
Please pray for my friend @cysticgal as she has a lung transplant for #CysticFibrosis
Heard from a mutual friend you're getting some new breathers. Just wanted to send you some good luck.My thoughts are with you! :) .
The @cysticgal news is the best news I've heard all week. And it's only #Tuesday. #cfusa #transplant
Lungs are tonight's reason to smile! @cysticgal
@CysticGal is just under the knife to receive her new air bags! I'm so excited for her! #transplant #cfusa
@cffatboy @unknowncystic perhaps simply wearing THE MOST BADASS article of clothing we own, in honor of general @CysticGal badassery.
What color do we wear when @CysticGal gets out? I'm not wearing pink, but I have salmon.

Going to bed with prayers for @cysticgal. Her blog says double lung transplant has started http://bit.ly/19p8nM
@CysticGal We don't know each other but I caught a tweet abt ur surgery tonight ~ I'll say a prayer for ur speedy recovery..sending hugs!
Sending love & hope RT @chronicuriosity: @mccordalex your faithful, feisty friend @CysticGal is getting a double lung transplant tonight!

All my <3 to @CysticGal - new lungs at 21:00 EST! Tweet (or RT) the love, people! #cysticfibrosis #cfusa

Salty Dog, by CysticLady

First, an update.  CysticDad just called and said they came out and said everything is going textbook so far, they have put in one whole side of new lungs and they are getting ready to take out the next side.  Yay!

Second, a comment, I only have writing permissions on the blog, so I won't be able to approve any comments that you make.  Sorry!

I was reading my posts keeping the readers abreast of the status of my sister, when I realized that they lack that wonderful little thing called EMOTION.  This I attribute to me being a "salty dog."  For those that are not aware, that is a word/phrase used in the Navy and Marine Corps to describe an old and experienced sailor.  I think it is also specifically fitting to anyone with Cystic Fibrosis, since we are literally so salty.  And, by the time you are almost seven years post transplant you just roll with it. 

So, in the case that CysticGal goes back and reads my posts on her blog, these are my words of advice on how to survive your transplant:
1)  Slow and steady wins the race.  Thanks to Michael Reidy, M.D., for explaining to me early that this is a day to day process that will last forever, not a quick race to the end.  Just keep chugging along.
2)  Use people's strengths, don't make them be good at their weaknesses too.  For example, one of your a-hole doctors may have a personality problem, but may be the best physician.  Separate the two, and get someone else to give you warm and fuzzies.
3)  Don't get discouraged by bad times.  It is easy to feel disappointment or even failure when you have rejection, or a cold, or your PFTs have fallen.  It's just one of those things that happens.  See #1.
4)  There is no normal, there is only experience.
5)  Work harder than you ever had.  You want to pray?  Pray while you're walking.  You want to swear at people?  Swear while you're walking.  You want to tell people to SUCK IT?  Try the phrase, "I walked four miles around the nurses station yesterday, SUCK IT."  It rules.
6)  Brag like hell about how awesome you are.  (I think CysticGal has this one down already)

Will keep updating.  TP

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

It's a GO, for realz

Best update so far...  CysticGal surgery is started.  Her incision is made.  CysticParents are on the scene.  Storm in Charlotte held up the plane.  CysticParents sound tired.  Friend T^Money is still on the scene too.  Thanks for all of the warm fuzzies and prayers and all.

This is what I know so far

Beth is under anesthesia and my parents are... somewhere.  Real surgery to begin shortly.  My guess is that they were on US Air flight 1176 that was supposed to land at 8:14 and actually landed at 9:27.

Update - Looking Good

CysticGal Reports that "Things are looking good.  Dr. C-Boston-y is procuring the lungs.  They think surgery around 9."  That's 21:00 hours folks. 

Parents In-Route

CysticMommy and CysticDad are in the Charlotte Airport waiting to catch their 6:00 flight to Boston!  No update from CysticGal yet.

Post from CysticLady

CysticGal is at Brigham & Women's right now, having gotten a call that she is the candidate first in line for lungs.  The Cystic Parents have plans to fly up there and land at 8.  Exciting!

Got a CALL

As the primary recip. ...
Will update. Gotta go to hospital!!
Big prayers and love and light my way, pls.
xxoo, cg

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Next Time I Hear "You Shouldn't Meet Others with CF" . . .

from someone in their thirties or forties who's been involved with CF for 15 years tops in a sort of academic 9-5 way, when we've all been fighting it every hour of every day and night for 30 or 40 years in a sort of physical, kinesthetic, life and breath way, I want to tell that person to read this blog entry :

http://fromatopink.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/a-look-into-the-thoughts-of-a-cfer/#comment-518


by a lovely Cystic Gal who really needs some support and just isn't getting what she needs from her non CFers and the g-damn internet.

And p.s., I'm waayyyy more likely to have gotten all of my bugs from the doctors that come in my room, insist on shaking my hand, sit down on my bed after they've sat on 100 other patient beds, dangle their germy ties in my face, or sloppily forget to wash their hands-wrists-stethoscopes, than I am to catch comething across a room from another CFer with a mask on.

And don't CFers still get together at the CFRI conference? And isn't there a big difference between going to camp in the 80s and doing our nebulizers in the same room all at once, and then sleeping side by side, than meeting for lunch once a freaking year to feel like you know someone who is at all like you- aren't those things different? AREN'T THEY?!

Okay, enough about that. I guess I'm ranty this July!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

well this'll be a quick post

I have had so many wonderful visitors this month of July that I have not been doing that many high-quality posts, so many of you wonder what's going on... I'm going to try to give you a top ten list as quick as I can (another guest on the way) to tell you what's going on:

1. I started developing websites for me theatre colleagues and friends. I really enjoy this and wowsers, I'm good at it to.

2. I've been packin' and shipping Cystic Gal t's! Already sold out of gray adult medium! Contemplating 2nd order.

3. Preparing 2nd printing of UNTO THE EAST.

4, Reading, but not  writing, many poems. Feeling sort of blank.

5. Had 2 dry runs but you know of those- and 2 other "offers" that did not result in even getting a call.

6. Needing new clothes as my ever growing BMI dictates that nothing fits me. As someone who hasn't changed sizes since the year 1997, this has been daunting to me. In a good, but annoying, way. Most of you don't know this about me, but I am super cheap when it comes to item-procurement, and super uncheap when it comes to convenience/experience. Buying clothes, as a most inconvenient boring experience resulting in the procurement of items, is a real chore for me.

7.  Spending time with B-Kitty who is acting super old lately now that she is single and apparently, not ready to mingle.

8.  Watching lots of old episodes of THE CLOSER. I love that sassy lady, and I love a good cop show.

9. Wondering why I have been on the list so long and preparing to face the music that it's been 9 months. If this was a maternity time, I would have a stupid baby by now. I mean, a smart baby. You know what I mean.

10. I have been "consulting" for a theatre. Apparently, this means when you continue to do what you used to do, only without showing up. I really like consulting.

xxoo, probably no post til Tuesday,
cg

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

It's official

We're sleeping together.
Don't forget to vote for my mommy's ridiculous Cystic Gal picture http://inkspot.customink.com/iotw/photo/the-cystic-gal-chillin.html.
Have a great night.
Love, BecketTheCat

CFF events, cardiovascular activites, why, oh why?

Since I wrote the below email, I did receive a follow-up email stating that in the future, this event will have a box on the invite that directs those who want to volunteer or participate without climbing, to contact the CFF office. I take that as a little bit of progress?

Also, just this morning, I was invited to a walk-athon- several miles, for CF, that also did not have any information on how to participate if one was not able to do the long walk. ? But because this theme has overwhelmed this damn blog this week, I will spare you that email exchange.

The bottom line is, if you're going to invite me to a CF Fundraising event, you better make it clear to me how I, a patient with end stage lung disease, could support the event other than just giving money. As a theatre administrator, I have never worked for a theatre company that did not go to great lengths to advertise the ways in which their events are accessible to all audiences - why does a organization that serves a community with accessibility issues completely ignore them, I do not understaaaaaannnnnnd!'

k-read below, oh and then vote for my picture on CustomInk.Com so I can get $100 off my next order: http://inkspot.customink.com/iotw/photo/the-cystic-gal-chillin.html

<
This seems to be an event that many adult CF patients, like myself, would not possibly be able to participate in. Is that the point of it, like its supposed to be a play-on the idea? If so, that needs to be articulated.

Is there some way to make the event accessible? There is no mention on the invite of how/if a person who cannot climb a million flights of stairs could participate and gain pledges. Couldn't there be a simple message that non-climbers could gain pledges and take the elevator up- its about the donation, not the athleticism--- right?

I am continually confused as to why the CFF plans almost exclusively cardiovascular fundraising activities and alienates much of the actual CF population. Whatever happened to Bowl for Breath? Now that's an event that everyone can participate in.

Don't get me wrong, I think every fundraising attempt is great and for a good cause, but people are always asking me to articulate why I don't think the CFF adequately supports the adult population, or reminds parents of children with CF that there is an active, thriving, growing adult population - by hosting events like this one that might as well say,

IF YOU HAVE ADVANCED LUNG DISEASE, YOU CANNOT PARTICIPATE. PLEASE STAY HOME BUT DONATE ONLINE. WE'D RATHER NOT ACTUALLY *SEE* YOU.

Just my two cents,
Thank you,
Cystic Gal [Real Name Here}

On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 1:51 PM, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, [...] wrote:

July 2010

CLIMBING FOR A CURE
47 FLOORS, 94 FLIGHTS, 1,034 STEPS - STRAIGHT UP!


Good Afternoon!

Whether you are an avid climber, a CFF supporter, or both, please visit[edited] to register online or to make a donation to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation's 21st Annual Climbing for a Cure!
This fun, high energy event will be held on Thursday, November 18th, 2010 at the US Bank Building in Downtown Milwaukee. After participants climb to the top of the tallest building in Milwaukee, they will have the opportunity to enjoy amazing panoramic views of the city before heading down to the post-climb reception complete with food, drinks, entertainment, and awards!
For more information and to register online today, click here!
FUNDRAISE TO FLY:
The KEY to FUNDRAISING is SET A GOAL & START TODAY!
All participants who raise $1,000 or more by November 18th, 2010 will have their name placed in a drawing for one pair of roundtrip airline tickets courtesy of Frontier Airlines!Restrictions apply.
A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO:
Frontier Logo
START YOUR FUNDRAISING:
Climbing for a Cure is a pledge-based event with each participant raising a minimum of $50 in pledges to participate and to receive a Climbing for a Cure T-shirt!
Here are a few FUNdraising ideas to get you started!
  • Do an online letter writing campaign!
Once you register online, you have the opportunity to edit your personal 'Climbing for a Cure' webpage with a meaningful message and favorite photo, create your fundraising letter to email to supporters, make a donation and view donations. You also have access to other fundraising tools such as, the fundraising tool kit, videos and more!
  • Hold a Jeans for Genes day at your office or your child's school!
  • Ask your favorite restaurant or local bank to get involved in a pin-up campaign.
Please click here for additional fundraising ideas. For further ideas and/or additional assistance, please contact [edited] at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
Net proceeds from this event will go toward CF research, care and education programs.
Thank you for taking steps to help add tomorrows everyday to the lives of the 30,000 children and young adults with cystic fibrosis.
Sincerely,
[edited]

Vote for my photo! "The Cystic Gal Chillin'"

 Vote for my silly photo so I can get a $100 discount on my next CG T-Shirt order!
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <iotw@customink.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 6:40 AM
Subject: Your Ink of the Week photo "The Cystic Gal Chillin'" is now live!
To: patientpress@gmail.com


CysticGal,

Congrats - your Ink of the Week photo is now live. You are officially entered in the CustomInk.com "Ink of the Week" contest.

Contest winners are determined on a weekly basis. Tell your friends to visit your page at the link below and rate it because the CustomInk judges are influenced by pictures that have high scores. We'll notify you by email if your photo wins!

Share this link with your friends and don't forget to add it as a link on  your website or blog:

http://inkspot.customink.com/iotw/photo/the-cystic-gal-chillin.html

Good luck with the contest!

CustomInk.com

New Blog and Site

Yo Old Friends!  It's me, Beth Peters / CysticGal  / the artist actually known as Mary ElizaBeth Peters . I am moving on from this bl...