Cystic Fibrosis Fatboy — Page 13 — The daily quest to gain weight

BMI Challenge Week 2

February 20, 2012

The challenge is on and your sponsor is sucking. Thanks to the insurance week from hell, I’m backsliding with walking and my weight. I think the stress really got to me – to my very core – and weakened my matter/antimatter warp core.

I’d love to see what I’m culturing now and send that bill to them without any copay. /grin

Anyway, last night I weighed in at 119.5, so I’ve lost a tad. This week is going to be a crazy-hectic week, which you’ll read more about tomorrow as I explain my upcoming GERD testing. Right now, I’m off Prilosec and already feeling heartburn and nasty, hot coughing.

How are you doing with your BMI and overall health? I’ll cheer for you from the sideline this week and re-join the starting lineup next week after this test.

Taking My Own Medicine

February 19, 2012

Different In following my own advice about taking time off for your reserves, I slept in until 8:30 both Friday and Saturday mornings. I didn’t walk Friday because it was a cold drizzle after treatments and a full-on downpour around lunchtime, so Beautiful and I did a mile-plus slow walk today.

I e-mailed my fellow lighting dude for the church’s light board Friday and let him know that I’d had a rough week and felt the need to not get up at 5am Sunday, so we’re switching weeks to let me sleep in again today. I’m probably not even going to church because I can still feel the stress in my lungs and being around that many people sniffing and coughing because they won’t stay home when they’re sick is sometimes just asking for upcoming issues.

I intend to rest, take a long walk, catch up on blogs and video posts in my industry, watch a Blu-ray with Beautiful, and write my Monday post. I might be wild and crazy and dabble with some footage I shot today or continue working on my ebook for residual income.

Know thy body and listen to it when it says to slow down.

Trust thy spouse and listen to them when they say to slow down.

It still makes Beautiful nervous about how I feel when I say things like, “I think I’m going to take the morning off,” or when I think it’s best to stay home from something fun or something we’re dedicated to doing regularly. In two years of going to small group that met pretty much every Monday, I think I stayed home once or twice because of stress or being sick (one of them was after a Boniva shot on a Friday).

I’m the last one to slow down, so when I do, she usually has cause for concern. I can’t easily sit idly by and rest. Sure, I can flip a switch to do it, but its far more likely to be an external switch like a bad day pity party or a fever. Very rare is the day where I’m just sitting on the couch literally doing nothing. Doing nothing usually leads to sleeping.

This time, I’m fine and I’m trying to stay fine because I sense that pushing it (even to “normal”) will leave me compromised. Stay healthy.

When Things Are Beyond Words

February 18, 2012

Laptop I’ve given up. Not given up hope, but given up trying to talk to Aetna. The manager we spoke to Wednesday and called back and left a voicemail with Thursday returned my call yesterday afternoon. More than an hour later, I was a wreck of a human being.

I was moments away from speaking to the President – Mark Bertolini – when his screener said “she was supposed to have taken care of this for you,” and transferred me to someone who said the plan I was on showed Pulmozyme as a Tier 2 med on a 3-tier open formulary plan. The system says I’m on a 4-tier plan, so Pulmozyme is a Tier 4 “specialty drug” and I was never able to get that other manager on the phone again because I didn’t get her ID number.

I’ve relinquished my control of the situation. I clearly can’t do anything to help things with my existing plan, so my brain and emotions have turned a corner to new ideas. I have not just sat idly by and let this happen to me; just the opposite – I’ve worked the situation until I was shaking and talking like a crazy person.

Now I have to let the system (the insurance regulators) do its thing pursuing the angle that we were illegally terminated from my old plan and not given options to pick a new one nor given a benefits book for my new plan. What “winning” that case means for me, I have absolutely no clue, so we are planning for the worst (they permanently terminate my plan and any future plans for me) and hoping for the best (I get a free plan for life and automatic approval of any drug for life at a set copay).

I’m almost okay with the worst-case scenario, [Read more…]

Stress and its Effect on Cystic Fibrosis

February 17, 2012

Stressed Last week I discussed having reserves (both in weight and energy) to fight against bugs and other attacks. This week, Beautiful and I have felt the full effects of one of those attacks: stress. Dealing with the health insurance company over the 20% copay for Colistin and Plumozyme ($1500/mo) has taken its toll on both of us, but more so on me.

Stress does not do the body good, especially the body of a CFer. Cystic fibrosis leaves our bodies in a perpetual state of being on the precipice of “the next disaster” to strike us down. Sometimes it’s hard to not thing about that. It’s impossible to not think about it when the very stressor is a very real danger of losing access to the things that keep or make you healthy.

What does stress do?

Stress increases your heart rate, churns up extra stomach acid, increases blood pressure, and often causes insomnia or just sheer exhaustion. All of these are bad for cystic fibrosis and lead to secondary issues in our bodies. With these effects, CFers are prone to an exacerbation such as hemoptysis, decreased peak flow, or a raging lung or sinus infection that takes hold while the body is weakened.

I’ve been put on IVs (or very close to it if I’ve been healthy enough to stave off a desperate measure) for the following stressors:
[Read more…]

BMI Challenge Week 2

February 20, 2012

The challenge is on and your sponsor is sucking. Thanks to the insurance week from hell, I'm backsliding with walking and my weight. I think the stress really got to me - to my very core - and weakened my matter/antimatter warp core. I'd love to … [Read more]

Taking My Own Medicine

February 19, 2012

In following my own advice about taking time off for your reserves, I slept in until 8:30 both Friday and Saturday mornings. I didn't walk Friday because it was a cold drizzle after treatments and a full-on downpour around lunchtime, so Beautiful and … [Read more]

When Things Are Beyond Words

February 18, 2012

I've given up. Not given up hope, but given up trying to talk to Aetna. The manager we spoke to Wednesday and called back and left a voicemail with Thursday returned my call yesterday afternoon. More than an hour later, I was a wreck of a human … [Read more]

Stress and its Effect on Cystic Fibrosis

February 17, 2012

Last week I discussed having reserves (both in weight and energy) to fight against bugs and other attacks. This week, Beautiful and I have felt the full effects of one of those attacks: stress. Dealing with the health insurance company over the 20% … [Read more]

What does stress do?

Time Elapsed Since IVs