My Moments to Breathe

Friday, August 29, 2014

Last bit of Summer



Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile and left the good ol' blog in such a sad state. The last part of summer has been a little hectic...in many good ways.


First, let me update you all on my mom. Praise the Lord! She is cancer free! It was stage 1 (meaning it was only in her uterus) and she is now home and doing the healing and healthy thing. She is doing great and the family is now back to what we wanted. HEALTHY. Pretty sure we all need to order some sort of Tshirts that read something sort of like this. 

Angies's: I survived Pulmonary Stenosis. 
Mine: I survived a double lung transplant. 
Mom's: I survived uterine  cancer.
Dad's: I survived these three. 

^^True Story!

Meanwhile this household caught strep. Thankfully, I am pretty sure that it is now gone and hoping that it won't come back again. I had a doctors appointment this week and everything is still glitzy! My weight is stable at a whopping 105. My blood pressure is ok for all the meds I am on. My chest xray was clear. Oxygen was at 100% and heart rate perfect during my 6 minute walk. My PFTS were at 112%. And that is all with chronic sinus infection and migraine! BOOM! (I am hopefully getting into the ENT soon and most likely schedule a clean out/surgery for those sinuses....which I am totally OK with as long as it works.)

Enough with all this medical/health mumbo-jumbo and unto the fun hectic stuff.


We took a vacation to South Haven, MI. Sun, sand, a fun town, and a beautiful lake. I love this little tradition that we have started. Plus many little trips around WI!


I was also fortunate enough to get the OK to fly and go to the other side of the states. I got to go to California. And got to go with Angie and take pictures (and be a bridesmaid) in our friend Katie (and Marks) wedding. Holy Buckets. It was so cool, SO COOL! I could be anyone I wanted to there. Its so different from the Midwest. Heck, I even wore lipstick (I know, right?! Crazy coming from a girl who pretty much loathes the stuff.) On a Cysters note...I could walk the whole time without running our of breath, there is no way I could have done that pre transplant. But with my glittery bling I was normal and didn't look at the hills like they were a spawn of Satan. I had no problem with the any of the 20 we walk. This new life!


Laila started school this past Monday. Kindergarten. Like full day, 8-3, five days a week kind of school. Another holy buckets moment. She was and still is super excited, granted she isn't so fond of waking up early every morning. But that takes five minutes of Mom snuggles and the grump face is gone. She has been such a trooper with her new schedule. I am hoping this continues and even get a tad better. She is growing up too fast, moms always warned me it goes by quickly...I never wanted to believe them! Looking forward to the long weekend with her, hopefully do something fun!

So that was the short story of the last month of summer. If I said everything I think this blog could have been super long. But all these things definitely kept me busy, some stressful, some fun, so nostalgic...but none the less everything to thank God for. Every minute of this past month I have been able to take a step back, breathe and thank the Lord that I was not only here to do it all. But pretty much everything turned out the best way it could have.

Bye summer, hello fall!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

More prayers



The summer of celebrating and living life to the fullest found its road block in the Zell house. Maybe after this we can all just stop life for awhile, sit down, take a deep breath and think or do nothing.

As I was celebrating 8 months post transplant and we were all happy that everyone in the family was finally doing well, our little world came to a stop with one phone call. (Side note how one phone call can stop peoples life...good or bad.) Mom was diagnosed with Uterine Cancer. 

Cancer.

Here we go again.

The family has to be on point again. We got this. Moms got this. Thankfully, God has this.

Mom had surgery today to remove the cancer stricken organ. My prayer I have said over and over again came out all day, "Dear God, please wrap your arms around Mom. Wrap them tight." She put on her brave face once again, the one she has had for over 30 years, and did what she needed to do when she needed to do it. 

The surgery went well, Mom is doing pretty well. We pick her up and hopefully pick her up tomorrow to come back home. They will run a few tests and find out more about what is going on later this week/early next week. Many more prayers, please! 

Cancer sucks. But our family can get there again: healing and healthy.