Deja Vu

Bad luck likes to follow me around like a shadow when it comes to my health. I had a strong feeling the cold that I caught was going to land me back in the clinker, which it did on Tuesday. I'm most bummed about not being able to galavant around with my three college buddies, Jamie, Emily,and Alisha that came to Colorado to visit me. Something that many CFers have to deal with is missing out on fun activities with friends due to poor health. I'm definitely having some major FOMO right now while they're adventuring around Boulder with a fourth college gal pal, Kate that lives over there. We originally were going to get an Airbnb for a night in Lyons which is near Estes Park. We were going to explore Rocky Mountain National Park for two days since two of the girls have never been to Colorado before. But of course those plans were foiled. I had a cute Airbnb picked out. The place was mountain themed inside and was right next to a river and had a fire pit.

Boulder Flat Irons real quick 

My cold started last Tuesday and felt like it started to get a little better on Saturday after starting some Prednisone and some TLC from Jamie and Dennis. They had gone to the store Friday to get lots of stuff to make my cold better. Pedialyte is definitely not the best tasting thing out there...(like strawberry syrup, yuck)! We decided we wanted to hang by Dennis's friend Andy's pool for a few hours before going to pick Emily up from the airport. Within a few hours of leaving from the pool something had switched and I was way more short of breath with everything I did. By the time we were out in downtown Denver to celebrate Emily's birthday I could barely walk several steps before needing to stop to catch my breath (super frustrating). I'm lucky my friends and boyfriend have the patients of a saint when it comes to me needing to stop all the time to catch my breath. 

Pablo creepin with jealousy from the side of the pool because I left him alone for a minute

Andy Panda Pants

Monday my friend Alisha was supposed to fly in around 11am but that poor soul had her flight get screwed up and ended up having to hang around airports all day and not be able to get to Colorado until 8pm!!! So on Monday Emily, Jamie and I hung around Boulder for a bit and then met up with Kate by Pearl street for happy hour at a vegan/vegetarian place called Shine before going to the airport. They had some cool drinks there called potions (Hogwarts here I come)! Non alcoholic, they're supposed to be like a healthy thing so I was all over it since my fever was wiping me out and was in need of a boost. I was hoping the potion could help sprout new lungs! That day I had decided I absolutely needed to go into the hospital asap. I was feeling that terrible that even with friends in town I could not last much longer. 

At Shine in Boulder with Kate, Emily and Jamie

Tuesday the hospital was expecting me. I had emailed one of my nurse practitioners late Monday night that I desperately needed to come in and so she arranged it Tuesday morning. I told her it was going to be several hours before I would be able to make it for several reasons. 1. I'm slow like a sloth. 2. I'm even a slower sloth with how my lungs felt. 3. Since I'm a slower sloth, getting ready and packing would take a very long time. As well as watering all of my babies (plants) before I left. Having the three girls helping definitely helped and would have been a much longer process if I was doing it alone like last time. It still took me forever to get my butt out the door. Yet again, I must say I got lucky with having  understanding and patient people in my life! 

All the nurses at Saint Joe's have been like "what are you doing back so soon!?" one of them said "you're still here??" thinking I was still here from a few weeks ago...yes people I'm back in way too soon! Many have said, it's nice to see you again but not under these circumstances (psst...obviously they love me here). Of course they love seeing my shining face and sassy mouth! So it begins all of the usual admission shenanigans. Registration, many repetitive questions, going over med list, accessing the port, blood work, urine and sputum sample and chest X-ray.

Left is from Tuesday night, Right is from about a  month ago

My white blood cell count is still high, no surprise there. It's 18,000, anything above 10,000 is considered high. I did PFTs on Thursday, m FEV1 last Wednesday was 19%. I was able to do four rounds, never count the first one. They were 16, 17, 17 , and 18 (stellar numbers I know). Oh well, hopefully this cold didn't ruin me too much and I can bounce back somehow! My weight is also down again, 122lbs, I was about 127lbs before leaving last time I was in. Time to work on that asap and get this sloth fat! The antibiotics they chose to put me on are Meropenim, this is the one that makes me nauseous, Colistin, and Aztreonam. They're also giving me Rifampin for synergy with one of the antibiotics and then IV Prednisone (Solumedrol) 40mg twice a day (fingers crossed I can sleep at night)!