What I Am Thankful For

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving that was spent with family, friends and laughter! I decided for my Thanksgiving post I'd talk about what I am thankful for. As I thought about all the amazing things I have in my life, I noticed a reoccurring theme. All of these amazing things in my life are because of my health. It's odd to think that something that is so terrible has still managed to bring so much joy into my life. 

If I hadn't been born with my life threatening lung disease and heart defect, I more than likely would not have been put up for adoption. I wouldn't have the wonderful family that I do now if it weren't for my PH and CHD. 

If I hadn't been adopted by my family, I would never have gone to Paradise Valley United Methodist Church. I wouldn't have my amazing church family. A church family that has been with me ever since I was a baby, supporting me and praying for me. 

If I had been able to play outside during school recess, I never would've helped out in the school preschool where I learned and fell in love with American Sign Language - something that has been part of my life since I was nine years old and has been an amazing coping mechanism as well as introduced me to amazing people that I am still great friends with. 

All of the friends I made at heart camps throughout my life wouldn't be in my life if I had been born healthy. 

If I had been able to run, maybe I wouldn't have taken up writing; another coping mechanism for me. 

It was because of my PH that we had to travel all the way to New York, a city that I absolutely love and adore. I fell in love with Broadway and the music there. It was because of PH that I experienced the magic of musical and later on in high school made sure I was involved in the drama department as much as I could be. 

All of the family and friends that are closest to me, I wouldn't even know if I had been born healthy and not put up for adoption. All of the wonderful memories I share with those closest to me, I wouldn't. Yes there is suffering with my illness but it helps me to cope with it all f I remember that some of the most important people and parts of my life have come from these illnesses. So as strange as this sounds, I am thankful for my Pulmonary Hypertension and Congenital Heart Defects. 

What are you thankful for? 

Becca 

Gearing Up For Winter and Thanksgiving!

Glad to announce that I have finally picked a Christmas/winter theme for my blog! It's a few days early and we still have Thanksgiving to go through, but I'm already in the spirit. However, the weather here doesn't seem to be feeling the same way. I told my mom that I was going to be re-organizing my closet and move all of my summer clothes into storage and get out my winter wear, then she reminded me that Thanksgiving Day is supposed to have a high in the 80's... so I kept a few of my summer clothes out of storage just in case winter decides to stall a bit longer. 

We'll be having 40 or so people over for Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year. Even for us with 14 siblings, that's a record! I've been working for the past week and a half or so on making sure my salt intake has been low leading up to the big feast so I can have more than on serving of mashed potatoes. Thankfully it's been working and my weight has been low, which means if I eat a little more salt on Thanksgiving it shouldn't push me over the edge water retention wise. 

I may not be able to post on Thursday, since we will be pretty busy (as I'm sure most of you will be!), but I plan on posting a Thanksgiving themed post on Friday. I hope all of you have a great holiday! 

Hope and Love,

Becca 

Asthma Update

Glad to announce that my asthma problems seem to be getting better! My cough isn't dry anymore and it is finally feeling looser now. On top of that, my O2 sats have gotten up to a higher number which is good. I stayed home most of the week from school because walking across campus would've been impossible to do and I was not in the mood to wear oxygen to my classes either. 

Winter is typically a bad time of the year for me and my asthma, especially with colds and flu going around. I'm just hoping since I got my asthma troubles done and over with this early into the winter season it's all done and over with and I won't have anymore problems. 

Just a quick heads up to my readers, I will be editing the layout and theme of this blog. It might be a little bit of a mess for a few days but I promise to get it finished soon. I'm already getting into the Christmas spirit, so this new theme will reflect that! Yes I know it's only November but I'm too excited for Christmas to wait too much longer. 

Hope and Love,

Becca 

Music Monday - "Only A Mountain"

Music has always been a big part of my life and so has Sign Language. When a friend of mine did this song for a Sign Language performance, I fell in love with it immediately. It's been about a year since then and I hadn't heard the song since until a few days ago when I logged onto my Spotify account, needing something to help get my mind off of how sick and tired I was feeling about being sick a tired. My asthma has been giving me some problems, as you read in my last blog post and I am glad to finally be able to say it seems like it is getting better.

This song although did nothing for my asthma, it helped my spirits tremendously and helped me get back some of my fighting energy. I hope it does the same for you. 

"Only A Mountain" by Jason Castro 

Hope and Love,

Becca 

Asthma Problems

It's been a few weeks since I've updated and life got a little crazy busy for me. Unfortunately I think me being so busy and not making enough rest time for myself has resulted in my asthma acting up. The past few days I've had a dry cough, severe wheezing (to the point of where I can hear it, which typically doesn't happen) and my oxygen saturations are sitting in the low 80's when I am typically 90-92. We've started me on some Prednisone to see if that will help and I am taking SVN treatments every four hours. There is only a few weeks left of this semester and I really want to get to the end of it, since last Fall I had to withdraw around the same time due to health. Winter is always a tough time for me health wise, especially with asthma so I'm hoping that by getting some Prednisone and continuing my SVN treatments I will kick this in the butt before it gets worse. I don't have school tomorrow, so I'm hoping by staying home I'll be able to really get on top of it and take my treatments on a strict schedule and continue that over the weekend. I'll keep you guys posted on how it goes and if I'm making any progress. 

Hope and Love,

Becca