Thanksgiving

As of last Friday, it's been a WHOLE YEAR since I have been actively waiting on the lung transplant list! I cannot believe that it has been a year already. It went by rather slow for me. While I am so thankful and grateful that these old lungs are still breathing for me, it has been a challenge to keep my lungs happy. I do A LOT of physiotherapy. I feel my day is marked by nothing so interesting. I do my treatments 3-4 times daily, vest and PD&P, plus all my nebulizers. Then I eat, shower every other day, read or watch TV. Woohoo! Just kidding... I used to be more energetic than this. At least we bought an elliptical machine that was on sale, and I do use it 2-3 minutes a day. And I still like to cook when able. And I can still meet with friends on occasion. Having just had a a wonderful Thanksgiving meal yesterday, I am very thankful for ALL my family and friends and my wonderful husband who has been with me for these 16.5 years! All your love and support has meant the world to me!

Gemma

The Amazing Gemma

I am so thankful that I finally got a decent nights sleep last night of seven hours. After having struggled both Monday and Tuesday nights with coughing and breathing, it was a relief to be able to sleep through last night. Of course I had kept Philip awake those two nights as well, and I felt so bad for him. He is so supportive and loving helping me during the night that I am glad he was able to sleep a little better last night too. As we are both diabetic, we check our sugars regularly during the day and at night before bed. We usually have a midnight snack as well taken with Lantus and/or Humolag. I am very meticulous about my sugars as I keep a daily log book on them. Well during those two restless nights of sleep both our sugars dipped quite low. The reason we found this out is that one of our cats, Gemma was persistently jumping on and off the bed and meowing in my ear waking me up. I was a little annoyed at this behavior since Gemma is usually more subtle in the morning. She simply sits at the end of the bed and waits until we get up. But I had to keep shooing her away. Our other cat, León usually does this kind of thing for an early breakfast as he loves to eat. (Philip usually just ignores either of them).

Finally Philip got up to feed her and low and behold she wasn't hungry. I asked for my test kit and my sugars were 87. While not too low, I was surprised. I had a bit of juice, so I could sleep another hour or so. Phil on the other hand was at 55! (Normal for us is 90-120). He immediately took a large glass of juice and eventually felt better. Perhaps this is why he didn't hear Gemma at first? We were amazed that Gemma perhaps woke us both up on purpose, because she sensed our sugars were low. Coincidentally the very next morning Gemma woke us up again. Both our sugars were low again, which is totally unusual for us both! Really! Again Gemma didn't eat her breakfast right away. We are now thinking she definitely is looking out for us and are so proud of our amazing cat! Fortunately we didn't test her knowledge for a thrid time as both our sugars were perfectly normal this morning. But I have to say whatever fluke occurred earlier this week, I am somewhat reassured that Gemma knows us rather well. Here is to balanced sugars and healthier rest of the week!