**Of course my healthy pregnancy/delivery are my biggest accomplishments, but considering my whole blog is about pregnancy/motherhood I thought I would write about a different CF accomplishment.**
When my husband and I moved in together (before we were married) I knew we would want children in the near future. I was 25 and knew that I wanted to start my family around 30 or before. I also knew I needed my health to be in the best place possible. My lung function was sitting around 48% and my doctor wanted my lung function to be at least 50% before getting pregnant. I bought a huge table calendar and put it on my desk in my room. I charted everything. I charted the color and viscosity of my sputum, how I felt, if I was having an asthmatic day, allergies, hunger level, and when I thought I was ovulating. I also recorded everything I was doing for CF: Vest, Albuterol, Pulmozyme, Cayston, Flutter, swimming, yoga, walking, etc. I wanted to be held accountable for my health and I also wanted to know exactly when my allergies hit (rather than "in the spring") and I wanted to see patterns in my health so I could plan my pregnancy accordingly. I also wanted to know when I ovulated so I could start keeping track of my cycles.
I put every ounce of energy I had into getting as healthy as possible. I wanted to be mentally, emotionally, and physically ready for a child. I felt like my life consisted of working, treatments, and exercise. By the time I was ready to conceive my lung function was at an all time high of 58%!! This was higher than I had ever anticipated my lung function to be. I still remember blowing my 58% and was floored. I never thought I would ever see those numbers again. I would say gaining back 10% lung function was my biggest CF accomplishment to date. Just about 11 months after giving birth I am working on getting back to 58%, but living for treatments and exercise is no longer possible. I am still trying to get exercise 5 days a week and never miss a treatment, but caring for CF is drastically different after becoming a mommy. I am hoping in this next year I can see those numbers again.
That is amazing that you were able to get your lung function up by 10%. The first year is definitely the hardest and trying to fit in your treatments, exercise, eating, and taking care of the baby sometimes feels impossible! I am into year two now and near to my baby's second birthday. I started to feel much better once I started to sleep again and found this improved my lung function greatly too. Keep striving for 58% or more!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your story!
I think Cayston had a lot to do with it. I am allergic to all inhaled meds before Cayston so it was really hard to keep my infections and inflammation at bay. I also worked my butt of ;) but I am sure I wouldn't have done nearly as well without finally finding an inhaled antibiotic to help me out.
DeleteBTW I would LOVE to hear what it is like to parent a 2 year old when you have CF. I feel like Kaylee is getting much easier to care for the older she gets, but I have a feeling it will get crazy around year 2.
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