What Are you Grateful For?

With so much going on in my life - and in all of our lives - it has been hard to take a moment to appreciate this wonderful world we live in. I follow several other blogs and found a post the other day about being grateful (on a blog appropriately called: Operation Nice) and how it improves your health. I wanted to look into this some more and see if being grateful actually had an affect on wellness. It turns out there are several different studies that have proved that being grateful leads to a healthier and happier life. In fact, people who are grateful tend to live longer! "Research shows that simply focusing each day on three to five things for which you can be grateful will increase your health and happiness. Everyone has something to be grateful for."

Being grateful also allows people to defeat what psychologists call the "negativity bias"—the natural tendency to dwell on problems, annoyances and injustices rather than positive events. An article done in 2010 (Thank you. No, Thank You) discusses this in further detail and says that focusing on blessings from a young age can help ward off depression later on in life. The article also provides some cute graphics and even a "how grateful are you quiz" - I think that my new goal is to keep a "gratitude journal" and write a few things down each day that I am thankful for. It may provide a little bit of good energy when I'm feeling blue. 

I hope you take a look at this article, or at least take a minute today to be grateful for something or someone! If you want, feel free to share them with me - I would love to hear them!

Sub-Q #3

I did my third Sub-Q infusion this past Friday and this time without a nurse! I did it on my own and I must say it went pretty well! I spiked a fever during treatment, which has been normal but other than that I was successful. I pushed myself a little bit yesterday at a family get together though and I am paying the price today. Too much sunshine and activity for the day after an infusion is bad news. Hopefully tomorrow I will be up to par again. Until then I will continue to sleep the day away.

(Here is a picture of my little cousin and my grandpa catching

fish out of the pond yesterday - She is certainly Grandpa's girl)

(and laugh)

Feeling a little heavy today- almost like I can feel my antibody levels declining. I'm trying to keep my mind moving since my body needs to lay low and I found this while I was searching on CNN. Boy, did it really make my day! Hope it makes you laugh! Enjoy!

Sub-Q #2

Yesterday was my second Sub-Q injection! The day before the injection I started feeling really crummy - I had a fever of 101 with a horrible headache and fatigue. I tried to sleep it off but the morning of the injection my body was still a mess.  We did the injection around 1pm and during it my fever got worse and I had to lay around with ice on all day! The nurse thinks this could be my body fighting off infections and I could feel like this the day of an injection for a few weeks.  I almost did the whole thing by myself though which was exciting - the nurse supervised but then said I was good to go from now on - on my own!! My mom, Susan and John were all there and they video taped a little bit for me. I did my best to make a short little video to show you about preparing for the injection and getting everything ready! I don't know too much about making videos so bear with me but I hope it helps you understand what my Friday's are going to be like from now on! Also, if you don't like needles then you might want to close your eyes at the end!!

P.S. the video looks a little grainy - I don't think the blog website was able to upload in HD. I'll work on that though! Sorry!

Phoenix Dust Storm!

I just looked up the dust storm that hit phoenix earlier this week! Holy Toledo! We are so lucky the conference wasn't a week later! If you haven't seen video of it yet - check it out! It literally looks like it's the end of the world!

HBOT Success Story

I received an email from Sara's Garden yesterday (the place where I did my Hyperbaric Oxygen Tretment aka HBOT) about an amazing recovery! Apparently a woman in the Toledo area, with four kids, suffered from hypoxia after a mix up of medications at the hospital. Her oxygen level dropped to an extremely low level and left her unable to speak in whole sentences and she had little memory of who her family was. Her husband was desperate to find answers, after doctors told him there was nothing they could do, so he turned to Sara's Garden for help. After only 8 treatments she is talking and can remember everything! Truly amazing. 

 Link to the full article: Hollywood Comedy Becomes a Reality

Please keep HBOT in mind for people recovering from strokes, hypoxia or other brain injuries. Oxygen is an amazing thing. You can find more information and links on the HBOT tab up above.

Update about Sub-Q #1

It's been four days since we did my first ever sub-Q infusion and I am doing pretty well! I have had a fever since the infusion and a mild headache that comes and goes but it is all bearable! I have also been sleeping non-stop which has felt great! I would certainly call this a success! So happy and excited to do my next one on Friday! I'll take some videos for you so you can see what the infusion is all about!

(Another picture from infusion this past Friday!)

Happy 4th of July!!!

Wish I had a pair of these patriotic shoes!! :) haha

Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend!!!

Sub-Q Treatment #1

Yesterday was my first sub-Q infusion (aka SCIG) and I wanted to let you all know how it went.

A nurse came to the house at lunch time and we went over all of the steps to the infusion and then we got started! I was incredibly nervous (especially after the reaction I had last time) so I had a few emotional moments but everyone was texting and calling me with support which was so helpful!! Anyway, we loaded up the syringe with Ig and attached all the tubing and then it was time to insert the needles.  We had to insert 4 needles into my abdomen and the nurse did the first one but I insisted on doing the rest. We taped the needles in place, put the syringe into a pump, turned it on and that was that! The infusion took about an hour and a half and felt a little funny but nothing I didn't expect. My friend Taylor (Victor) came over and sat and watched movies with me while I infused.  When the infusion ended we took the needles out and I had little bumps on my stomach where the Ig hadn't been absorbed yet (that's the nice thing about Sub-Q, it only absorbs as fast as your body allows).

Once the nurse left I started to feel a little sleepy and flu- like. My temperature started to rise so I loaded up on calcium and magnesium and drank a ton of fluids. Taylor and I napped on the couch and I ended up sleeping for the rest of the day. Today I woke up, still feeling flu like and feverish but nothing as horrible as last time! I am thrilled! My stomach has a tiny bruise (only one) but there was no site reactions. Hopefully after another day of rest my fever will go away and I'll feel okay again. I'll continue to do infusions every Friday and it should get easier everytime. I won't have "normal" levels of antibodies for another 6 months but this is still a step in the right direction (and six months doesn't sound so long)!

Also, next infusion I'll take a video for you guys but yesterday I was too stressed out to do it!

Here are some pictures:

(Here I am learning to fill my syringe)

(Here are the 4 infusion sites in my abdomen and my pump!)

(Taylor and I enjoying almond flour pancakes while infusing!)

(It's hard to see but after the infusion I had bumps on my stomach)

(and laugh)

Yesterday I was feeling so nervous about the infusion that I started going through things on YouTube that always make me laugh. I found this video of a sloth sanctuary (that I've watched 100 times) and thought you guys might get a kick out of it too.

SLOTH SANCTUARY (click me)

Than after clicking around I found the blog that goes with this video - it gives all of those cute sloth faces a name! They're adorable and now I want a sloth for a pet! :)

Sloth Blog

(Buttercup is my favorite!)