Tuesday, December 7, 2010

A Little Learning and a Little Shopping

Another 7:15am shuttle this morning . . . which means I got up at 6:15am . . . which means that in Washington time I got up in the 5's . . . I don't do the 5's . . . I digress . . .

I started today with a consultation with a speech specialist (I asked for bonus points for having a best friend in the business . . . sorry Melissa . . . no good) . . . We worked on some different breathing techniques that can help re-train my vocal cords. After such a long time of uncontrolled asthma, they begin to close . . . these exercises help them to open up again enabling the medication to get down better, my voice get stronger during flare-ups and overall, better breathing . . . kind of the point in this journey!

I then moved downstairs to the basement . . . didn't know they had a basement at the Alamo?! . . . I met with a nutritionist who reconfirmed the huge weight gain I've experienced over the last year has been thanks to steroids . . . wish it was from eating cheeseburgers everyday so I could stop the crazy gluttonous intake and lose all the weight . . . unfortunately, steroids don't work that way . . . even if and when I am able to get off the steroids, my body will take another 6 months to a year to regulate itself and return to some form of my normal weight . . . no bikinis in my near future . . . ok - never had a bikini in  my future at all - two kids . . .you get the gist . . . just ready to fit in my old clothes again . . . this to shall pass . . .

Following the consult, I was scheduled for a relaxation and stress management class . . . stress? what stress? . . . the instructor walked through a guided imagery exercise about a beach . . . blah blah sand . . . blah blah water . . . I almost fell asleep . . .

I headed back upstairs to wait and wait and wait and do some more puzzles and wait for another sputum sample test . . . I love this place . . . the gifts keep on coming . . .

At 1:30, we caught the shuttle back home to drop off all our hospital stuff, call the airporter shuttle to line up our transportation to the airport on Friday, and prep for an outing.  Our super kind hotel shuttle took us to the 16th Street Mall - literally at least 20 blocks of outside mall . . . with a free shuttle that picked you up at each block to transport you to the next block . . . my mom and I poked in a few shops, picked up a few things then headed to a yummy restaurant for dinner . . .



It was called Willie G's and we both had a delicious steak with potatoes and broccoli . . . I have a day full of progressive blood tests tomorrow to check for steroid absorption so we decided to eat a big iron laden meal to prep for the fun day . . . some photos of the downtown sights and the beautiful train station . . .




After finishing our delicious dinner, we caught a taxi like a local and headed back to our hotel for a night playing card games in our pjs . . . I'm tired . . . this is a lot . . . but I am so excited to be here and everyday learn something new . . . even the little ideas will help manage this crazy illness in a better way . . .

Being at a Jewish hospital, there are menorah's everywhere in honor of Hanukkah . . . each day, we notice another light bulb is lit . . . we realized today, there are only two  more days of Hanukkah . . . and two more days at National Jewish hospital for me. . . ironic? I don't think so . . . good night from Denver . . . peace out . . . or shalom . . . or whatever floats your boat . . . (no disrespect to the wonderful Jewish people . . .)

3 comments:

  1. You? You crack me up.

    Shalom, right back at ya. :) Sending oodles of love and prayers.

    xoxo

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  2. Ok it took almost your whole trip for me to notice that I can make a comment at the bottom of your posts-:) I have been praying and reading your posts and just asking God for great wisdom of the docs!!! I can't wait to see you!!! Love ya my "funny love" friend!!!! Shalom!!! -Kim Holp

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  3. darn, I will take my bikini back, I thought we could be twins at the beach this summer. Glad to hear you are getting some useful help. Hope there is much more where that comes from

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