Brady's eye and getting listed!

After my hospitalization and the adventure we had on the way home, I was happy that I still had my cousin, Sarah, at my house to help out with Brady. I was able to get the sleep that I desperately needed. I was on pins and needles, waiting to hear if/when I would be listed for the double lung and liver transplant. However, life still went on. On August 24, 2006 Dale (my father in law) and Sarah took Brady to his appointment in Rochester for his right eye. We thought that Mike was going to make another conformer, but to our surprise, he started preparing a prosthetic eye for Brady. Before leaving that appointment, Dale made another appointment for Brady to actually receive his prosthetic eye on September 18. This was about 4 months sooner than we had originally anticipated. I couldn't wait to see Brady with an eye instead of a conformer!!

On that same day, August 24, 2006, I got a phone call from someone at Cleveland Clinic. I had finally been placed on the double lung and liver transplant lists!! I was informed that the decision was made that the lungs and liver would all be done at once and the organs would come from the same donor. That meant that the donor had to be perfectly healthy for me to get their lungs and liver. I was told that my LAS (lung allocation score) was 35, which was pretty close to the top of the list, but it wasn't the very top. Since I was to be a multiple organ recipient, it would also move me closer to the top, we just weren't sure when.

My appointments in Cleveland on September 8 didn't bring any good news. I didn't do so well on the PFT's, I was running fevers, my six minute walk distance had decreased, and I was still losing weight. The doctors wanted to admit me to the hospital. I was told that if I didn't get the transplant soon I would be taken off of the list because I wouldn't be healthy enough to remain on the list. If this happened, I would have no hope for recovery, and of course, that scared a lot of us. With this news, I wanted to be home with Nate and Brady as much as I could because either I wasn't going to live much longer, or I was going to be gone for a while when I finally did get the transplant. Dr. Budev put me on Cipro for 2 weeks and I went back home.

When I returned home, Sarah had returned to her home because school had started. I was back to taking care of Brady by myself and that had been my biggest challenge thus far. He was getting bigger and was needing more attention to keep him occupied and happy, and I just couldn't do it on my own. My crappy CF lungs wouldn't allow it. Sometimes just changing his diaper was too hard and it made me so unhappy to think that I couldn't even care for my own son. I wanted to be the mother and wife that I knew I should be, and I was getting so frustrated that I couldn't. I was hoping that I would get the transplant and be home for Christmas and Brady's first birthday, which meant that the transplant had to happen immediately...but it didn't.

On September 18, 2006, Dale, Brady, and I left the house around 8:30AM to go to Rochester to get Brady's new eye. We went in for Brady's appointment and almost right away, Mike had the eye almost finished and put it in Brady's eye socket to test the size. Since it wasn't completely finished, it looked a little weird. Mike took it out and gave it to Michelle to finish painting it. We sat there and watched her paint the eye for a little while and then went to lunch at a small diner while it was being finished. While we were out driving around, we found Brady a new friend. It was a HUGE snapping turtle! No, we didn't bring it home, I just took a picture of it and left it where it was.

When we got back to Strauss's, Mike explained how to put the eye back in if it were to fall out and then we watched him put it in Brady's socket. From that day on, I had a new baby boy! He looked so different and even more handsome!

The next day, Nate, Brady, and I had an appointment at the Picture People to get family portraits done. Most of them turned out really nice, even though Brady was cranky because he was a little tired. We were going through the poses we wanted to order when I started crying. I was just thinking about being away from Brady when I have the transplant. It was something I wasn't looking forward to (leaving Brady) but I knew it was for the best. The best part was, the people who did the pictures asked why I was crying and we told them what was going on, and we think, because of that, the check that Dale and Gina wrote for the over $300 that the pictures cost, was never cashed!! We got all of those pictures for free. If they truly did just disregard the check, and not lose it, I thank them with all my heart for what they did.

With Brady having his new eye, and the family portraits being done, there was only one thing I wanted done before the transplant, have Brady baptized. My Aunt Kate worked on this for me and found a lady from the Clinton Episcopal Church who would perform the baptism for us. She came to the house to do his baptism on September 24. His Godparents were officially name. We chose people who have always been there for us and have one child and had decided not to have anymore because of the complications the wife had while she was pregnant. We were so proud to name Larry and Mandy Pealo as Brady's Godparents. We knew how much they would love him and take care of him if anything happened to us and no one else could take Brady. The people who were at the baptism included Me, Nate, Brady, Dale, Gina, Aunt Kate, Uncle Tommy, Alex, Barb, Makayah, Destiny, Cobey, and the Pastor. The Pastor included Makayah and Destiny by having them help our and bless the water. It was a very nice ceremony and Brady was a good boy thorughout the whole thing. We received Godparents certificates that I gave to Larry and Mandy at a later date, because they couldn't make it that day. With all of this done, I was now ready for the phone to ring, and for one of the doctors to tell me to head and meet the plane, because they had organs for me.

Released from Cleveland Clinic

While I was in Cleveland in the hospital, the doctors scheduled a date to talk about my case and how they were going to present it to the board. They were to all gather together on August 4, 2006 and decide if they could do a double lung and liver transplant. If they couldn't do both, in the very least, I would need a double lung transplant as soon as possible. After the meeting, it would be about 10 days before we would hear from the board.

At this point, the biggest concern, from the doctor's point of view, was infection control. The infectious disease doctor was concerned about all of the antibiotics that I had been on since February 2005. Since that date, I had pretty much been on IV antibiotics for 3 weeks and off for one. Another doctor said that if they could keep the infections at bay, he wasn't too worried about weening me off of them. But, if infections keep setting in, and I have to go on stronger antibiotics, it could be a really bad thing.

On a good note for that day, I talked to Ally (girl I saw on Deal or No Deal) for about 45 minutes. It was good, I needed that. She was sweet and she answered all of my questions.

On August 4, 2006, we were told that there were about 50 doctors, nurses, coordinators, case workers, etc. in the meeting. They decided unanimously that they would go ahead with the double lung and liver transplant. The next step was to go through the Ohio State Board, but the doctors didn't see a problem with getting through to them, because the hospital requirements were higher than the board requirements. So, we took this as an almost definite yes, that I would soon be listed.

I was released from Cleveland Clinic on August 8, 2006 to finish IV antibiotic treatment at home and was to return for follow-up appointments in September. My Mom and I left in Grandma and Grandpa Croop's vehicle and almost immediately, it started making a weird noise but Mom wasn't sure what the noise was. We had just gotten over the Ohio boarder, into Pennsylvania, when we had to pull off the road into a rest area because the noise was worse and the vehicle was pulling to the left with the steering wheel turned completely towards me (the passenger seat). When we got out of the truck, it was smoking and the driver's side front tire was about falling off. We also noticed that the oxygen tank, that was given to me from the clinic, and was supposed to last until we got home, was almost empty. The total drive was about 6 hours and we were only about an hour into the drive. The oxygen wasn't going to last.

We tried calling Grandma and Grandpa, but Grandpa wasn't around and Grandma was in Canada with Aunt Kate and Uncle Tommy. I called Nate to let him know what was going on and Dale and Gina gave us their AAA number to try to get help. AAA would not help us because Dale and Gina were not with us and it wasn't their vehilce. Then, I ran out of oxygen. It was the one thing I desperatley needed, and it was gone.

I dialed 911 and told them that we were broke down, I have Cystic Fibrosis and was being evaluated for lung transplant, and I was out of oxygen. They sent EMT's and an ambulance. The EMT's got me hooked up to some oxygen and took us to Brown Memorial Hospital in Conneaut, Ohio so I could stay on oxygen until we could get a rental car or until someone could come get us. Grandma and Grandpa's vehicle was towed to a repair shop, where someone would pick it up when it was fixed.

When we got to the hospital, my Mom tried getting a rental car, but most places were closed, and the one that was open was 30 miles away, in PA, and they wouldn't travel state-to-state to bring a car to us. The ER doctor (Dr. Namey) did everything he could think of to help us. He tried to help Mom get a rental car, he got me in the hospital and hooked up to oxygen quickly, and he found a way to get me some food even though the cafeteria was closed. He was really a wonderful man, and eventually, we learned why he was so willing to help. He told us that he had a CF patient a few years prior who eventually got really sick and passed. He wanted, more than ever, to see that I was okay and that I made it out of there safely. Mom eventually got Barb (my sister) and her husband to come get us. In the meantime, Mom slept in the waiting room and I was on a stretcher in the ER. Dr. Namey kept checking on me to make sure I was okay and I slept on and off.

My sister and Corey got to the hospital around 2 in the morning and I finally made it home safely at 9 in the morning. What was supposed to take only six hours or so to get home, ended up being an 18 hour trip! I was exhausted, but glad that things worked out. I dreaded another trip to Cleveland, but I knew that it would eventually happen.

We still hadn't gotten in contact with Grandpa by mid-morning, so I okayed the repair shop to fix the vehicle and I gave them my credit card number to pay for it. The vehicle needed new ball joints, the axle broke, and it needed an alignment. It came to just over $1,000 for the repairs. All of my and my Mom's stuff was in the truck and we didn't get it back until that Friday when Mom, Nate, and Alex (Nate's cousin) went to get the vehicle.

It was all quite an adventure, that I didn't care to take again. I was happy to be home and see Nate and Brady. I felt better after my admission to the hospital, but I knew that it would take the transplants for me to really feel better and get back to living my life. I continued on my antibiotics at home for another week and I scheduled my next appointments in Cleveland for September 8. The doctors were positive that I would be listed and have the transplants by that time...but it just wasn't to be.

The months following the birth of Brady.

This entry is taken from my journal, written August 4, 2006....

"It's been about a month since I wrote in here and Brady is doing great. He now weighs over 15 pounds and is over 25 inches long. He has been growing so fast. We eventually found out that he does have a right eye, but it's underdeveloped and he will not be able to see out of it. He goes to Strauss Prosthetics in Rochester for work-ups for a prosthetic (glass) eye. We have also been told that even though he has a couple of things wrong with his left eye, his vision should be okay.

Anyway, for his right eye, Michael Strauss put that whey call a conformer in there to help the socket form around the eye so that a prosthetic will fit properly when they make one for him, which should be when he's about a year old. Brady got his first conformer in April and a month later, he started pushing it out of his eye all the time. We went back to Strauss in June and Michael made another conformer that was more than double the size of the first one. In the beginning of July, Brady started turning the conformer the wrong way in his eye and made his eye really red and irritated. We were told to take the conformer out and leave it out until the new one could be properly fit.

He had an appointment on July 14 to go under anesthesia so that Michale could make a mold of his eye so they can properly fit a prosthetic. The whole procedure took about 15 minutes. Dr. Merriam was there to get a better look at Brady's left eye and he determined Brady's vision in that eye is fine for now. We have the Oneida County Early Intervention program working with Brady on his vision and also doing occupational therapy because he wouldn't open up his hands or reach for toys. Jamie is his OT and she is excellent with him. Brady's hands are opening more and more, he's learning to roll over, and he's "tracking" more things with his eye, especially toys with lights. He's so smart and his smile brightens my day. He's beginning to look more and more like his Daddy.

As for me, I feel like I have been on a roller coaster ride since I became pregnant with Brady. I cannot believe that it was one year ago that we found out that I was 9 weeks pregnant. Anyway, since he was born in January, I have had a lot going on. I started going back out to Cleveland for more tests in March. Those tests were for my lungs and I had to go back to Cleveland in April for more tests for my liver. I took copies from the PFT's in March and sent them directly to the disability office so they could see the current results of my lungs function. That must have helped, because I was approved for disability in the beginning of April.

While I was in Cleveland in April, not much happened. My Mom came out there with me that time. We were watching Deal or No Deal on TV and there was a girl named Ally on there who had just had a double lung transplant at the Cleveland Clinic in January. She, like me, also has Cystic Fibrosis. She looked really well for only having the transplant in January. I so want to feel like that again! Ally ended up winning $124,000!!

In June, Brady went to the genetic doctor and everything is fine genetically. They did chromosone testing and that came back normal. I joke with people saying that Brady is the first in the Prince family with papers stating that he is "normal." This is the appointment where it was determined that he could benefit from Vision and Occupational Therapy. I was also back out to Cleveland in the end of June with my Aunt Sally and my lung function was down from March, but I still wasn't placed on the list. They wanted me to come back out during the time that Brady was going to have his eye procedure, and there was no way I was doing that, so I cancelled those appointments and they were re-scheduled for August (this month).

Throughout the summer, Brady has continued to do well and is getting bigger. He has had a few more appointments with his pediatrician and eye doctor, and Jamie continues to work with him for occupational therapy. Sarah, my cousin, has been staying with us to help me around the house and with Brady. I'm getting too sick to do it all by myself during the day. She has been a great help so far.

In the end of July, I was admitted to my CF hospital in Syracuse for coughing up a lot of blood and running fevers. Dr. Sexton didn't feel comfortable doing the embolizations in Syracuse anymore since my lungs were getting worse, so I was flown, by medical flight, to Cleveland Clinic on August 2, 2006. My Aunt Sally had already headed out there and was there when I got there. She kicked butt and got the doctors moving on a lot of things. They had their huge meeting to talk about my case and they sent my case to the Ohio Board for approval to be listed for the transplants. The Interventional Radiology team in Cleveland did the embolization to stop bleeding in my lungs, and after a few days, the blood was gone again."

So, now you can see some of the stuff I started to go through as I was getting sicker. Taking care of Brady was not easy. I had too many infections, I was couging a lot, bringing up a lot of mucus, and overall not doing well. It was only to get worse from here.

Newborn Brady! You may need tissues.

I know that it has been over a year since I have written on this blog. What can I say other than I have been really healthy and busy since I had my bilateral lung and liver transplant in 2007?! I am going to continue where I left off and talk about immediately after Brady was born and the months following.

After the doctors finished "tying" my tubes and closing me up, I was taken to recovery. There, the nurses monitored me to make sure that I started to heal and that I had no fevers, bleeding, heart issues, and whatever else after this major surgery. I had family memebers come in to tell me they had seen Brady and that he was doing great and that he was a tiny, handsome baby who looked like a little man. My sister, Barb, had taken some pictures with her digital camera, so other than seeing Brady before the doctors took him away, my first time seeing him was in a camera screen. I cried, I wanted to hold him so bad. He looked perfect, he was my and Nate's creation, and I wanted to hold him close to me and never let him go. Yet, I had to wait, while everyone else got to see him.

Once I was recovered enough, I was taken to the NICU to see Brady. He was so precious and looked so fragile. He was breathing without the use of oxygen or a ventilator, which is great for being seven weeks premature. I got to hold him for about 10 minutes before I had to put him back in his little bed, with the lights that were keeping him warm and keeping the jaundice at bay. He was so tiny, I had never held a baby that tiny before. I couldn't believe that he was finally here and that things turned out much better than expected. I cried, any mother would. I'm actually beginning to get teary just writing this because I remember the feeling all too well. Some of it was fear of the unknown...I didn't know what was going to happen to me, if I would get listed and get the transplant on time and get to be a Mother, or if Brady would just have Daddy to love and care for him. Either way, he would be loved by many, many people.

After just staring at him for a little while longer, I was taken to my room to get some rest. I know that I layed there, but I don't remember if I slept or not. I remember that it wasn't much longer and the nurses had me up and walking around. They thought that they would just have me walk a few feet, but were surprised when I walked around the whole maternity ward. I wanted to get stronger, I knew that I had to. When I got back to my room, I was starving from not being able to eat. I ate some food and wanted to go back to the NICU to see Brady. I didn't want to be away from him. After a brief visit, I went back to my room for the night, and fell asleep crying. Not because I was worried about Brady, but because I wanted him by my side like all the other mothers had.

The next morning Brady was not in the same nursery. He had been moved from critical care to a "less care" nursery in less than 24 hours! Sometime during my visit with Brady, Dr. Sexton came in because I wasn't in my room when he went to check on me. He looked at Brady and got teary-eyed. I'm sure he was happy that things turned out so well, when just a few months earlier, he had told me not to go through with the pregnancy. I spent as much time as I could with Brady in the next couple of days. People were allowed to come see him but we could only have 2 people at a time in there. The only people allowed to hold him were parents and grandparents, and it wasn't even for more than a few minutes at that. When in the nursery, you would walk in and see Brady in the "incubator" with this little cloth thing over his eyes that looked like sunglasses, to protect his eye from the lights. He was hooked to monitors and had an IV in his arm for nutrients. He wore only a diaper, so clothes didn't get in the way of the monitors and IV. He looked like a little old man, with wrinkly skin, who had room to grow. He was tiny and he was handsome.

Over the next few days, Brady continued to progress, and I continued to hold him when I could, change his diaper when allowed, help with his feedings (which were done by putting a tube down his throat and letting the formula slowly run in, called lavage), and staring at him when I couldn't hold him. He was perfect and I didn't want to leave. That Friday (the 13th no less), just three days after Brady was born, I was taken into Interventional Radiology to replace the port that I had in since August 2001. Both the upper and lower loomens weren't working because it was clogged and we couldn't get the clog cleaned out. The old port was taken out of my right side of my chest and a new one was put in the left side.

I was discharged from the hospital the next day but Brady had to stay there until they felt he was doing well enough to be able to be transported by ambulance to our hospital in the Utica area. I took a little cloth that had been with him in his bed so that I could have something of his to keep close to me as I had to leave him behind. I fell asleep crying that night, with the cloth in my hand. I made the 45 minute trip back to Crouse every day to see Brady, until he could come "home." I think I spent the next few days just crying on and off because I missed Brady so much and wanted him closer to me.

After what seemed like an eternity, he was transferred to Faxton St. Luke's hospital on January 18, 2006. He stayed in FSL mainly for weight gain, jaundice, and he eventually needed to learn how to suck on a bottle. It took a while for his jaundice to go away, and at one point, they tried to get him to suck on a bottle, but he wasn't quite ready for it yet. All the while, we continued to try to see what was wrong with this right eye, because it still wasn't opening. We also found out that he has retinal coloboma (mishaped pupil) in his left eye which would effect his vision but we weren't able to tell how much at that point. It was about a week before Brady was realeased, that we were finally able to see that he did have an eye in his right socket, but it was very small because it didn't form all the way, and he would never have sight in that eye.

The day finally came where he was doing really well with all of his bottle feedings and he was able to come home. After a month of being in the hospital, Brady Michael was welcomed home on February 14, 2006...Valentine's Day! He weighed 5 pounds but he was still tiny. It was so weird not seeing Brady hooked to monitors/wires. My friend Mary came to the hospital with me to pick him up because Nate had to work, and I had to have someone with me. We got him home and it felt so good!! I was so worried that something would happen, that I kept checking on Brady constantly when he was in his crib. That first night of him being home, I didn't get much sleep because he needed to be fed every 3 hours and even when he was sleeping, he made all sorts of noises, which kept me awake. Overall, he did great coming home and he was the most perfect baby anyone could ask for.

Within the next month, we had visitors come and go and Brady continued to do well. I, however, was a different story. I was getting sick frequently and was on IV antibiotics more often than not. With having a new baby, and me having infections constantly, Nate and I decided that it would be best that I do not return to work. I ended up resigning from my position at the House of the Good Shepherd in the beginning of March and I filed for disability. I started going back to Cleveland Clinic for transplant evaluations near the end of March. Pulmonary Function Tests (PFT's) showed that my lung function was down to 20 percent.

When I returned to Cleveland, it was confirmed that my lungs were getting worse and I could tell, because I could feel the effects of it. The lung doctor that I saw that time, was Dr. Mehta. He told me that he was happy that I had a baby. I was stunned to hear a doctor say that to me, so of course, I asked him why. He told me that "Having a baby and a c-section shows how much stress your body can handle." The appointments did not bring much good news about my health, but I was still not put on the list because there was more testing to be completed. I would continue to go to Cleveland every 3 months or so, and would have to complete more tests there and at home, and then I would be able to be listed. I was so ready to be listed, get the transplant, and be the Mommy that Brady deserved.

The Pregnancy

August 1, 2009 is the day that I took a digital pregnancy test and found out that I was pregnant. I went into work that day and tried getting an appointment through my GP for them to do a blood test or something to make sure that I really was pregnant and to go from there. They were not much help at all so I called my CF doctor (Dr. Sexton) to see what they wanted me to do. Dr. Sexton was not in yet so I had to wait for the nurse to call him and then for her to get back to me. The nurse sounded a little worried when she called me back a little later and told me that he wanted to see me at 4:30 that evening. I told my boss that I had to leave early and of course she had to ask me why, so I explained to her that I was most likely pregnant and had to see the doctor pretty much right away. So, I left work early and made my way to Syracuse.

Dr. Sexton and I had a long talk and he told me that it would probably be best if I terminate the pregnancy because I was pretty sick and it would delay getting listed for the double lung and liver transplants. He was pretty sure that an OB would feel the same way. He ordered an ultrasound and some blood work to be done and then we would talk some more after that. Since we weren't sure how far along I was in the pregnancy, it was decided that I would have an internal ultrasound. I had no one with me and of course it was a really difficult time, so my social worker, Kim, at the clinic went to the ultrasound with me. I got down there and settled on the table and no sooner did the technician start the ultrasound, we saw a tiny little baby, swimming in my belly. I started bawling because I was so happy to be pregnant but also because I knew what Dr. Sexton wanted me to do. The technician asked if I wanted a picture and I told her of course I do. It was my baby, and depending on the way the pregnancy went, it may be my only picture. It was determined that I was approximately 9 weeks and 1 day pregnant on that day. I took my picture with me up to Dr. Sexton and I think that he was a little surprised that I really was pregnant. Believe me, I absolutely was too!!

I understood the concerns that people had and was well aware of how hard this pregnancy could be, but I didn't see how I could have an abortion when things were fine at that point. I would never know if I didn't try. The baby was a very unexpected part of me and Nate coming together, and if I had terminated the pregnancy, I would have gone through my life wondering if the baby would have been okay. At 9 weeks, the baby had normal growth and had a heart beat of 169 beats per minute. There was no way I could just give up on the baby now.

On August 11 I had my first OB appointment with Dr. Silverman in Syracuse. They also suggested that I do not go through with the pregnancy because of my Cystic Fibrosis and being evaluated for the transplants. Nate and I decided that we still wanted to go ahead with the pregnancy.

On August 25 I had another appointment with the OB and I also saw a genetic counselor to talk about the possibilities of the baby have CF. They wanted to do an amniocentesis to test the baby for CF and I told them that I didn't want it. I knew that there was a possibility that I could have a miscarriage and, on top of everything else that I was dealing with, I didn't want that statistic to deal with too. I knew very well that Nate could be tested for the gene to find out the possibilities of the baby having CF, so that's what we did. Nate was tested for the CF gene (the common mutations) and when we learned that he didn't have any of the common mutations, we were told that there was still a 1/900 chance that the baby would have CF. Either way, the baby would be a carrier of the gene no matter what because he/she would get the gene from me.

On September 2 I was admitted to the hospital because I was having an increased fever, cough, shortness of breath, and I had lost 6 pounds in one week. I didn't want to be admitted but Dr. Sexton thought that it would be best for the baby so I agreed to go in. I learned something that disturbed me during this hospital stay and it made me realize that going through with the pregnancy was the best thing to do. Dr. Sexton had talked to Dr. Budev and Dr. Winans (doctors at the Cleveland Clinic) and they suggested that I get my tubes tied after this pregnancy because having a baby after the transplants would be way too risky. I think what disturbed me the most was if I had terminated this pregnancy, I would likely never have another chance at having a family of my own. I was upset that this was not mentioned to me while I was making my decision to go ahead with the pregnancy or not. I now knew that I was completely justified in my decision to go ahead and have the baby. I started feeling better after a couple of days of being in the hospital and was sent home on the sixth to finish another week of antibiotics through IV at home.

September 12 I had another appointment with the OB and it took the nurse a minute to find the heart beat, but she found it. The heart beat was 169-175 beats per minute and people were telling me that normally a heart beat that fast belonged to a girl. I was hoping to find out on the 26th when I would have another ultrasound. On September 21 I felt the baby move for the first time. It really just felt like butterflies in my stomach but I knew what it was. It's really a feeling like no other. The baby moved from the left of my belly to the right and the feeling was amazing!

On September 26 I had another ultrasound to check on the baby and to make sure that it was growing properly. Everything was looking great and the baby weighed about 7 ounces at that point. The baby cooperated with the ultrasound and the baby showed that it was a BOY! I had a lot of people there with me but the funniest reaction came from my brother, Harlan, who had wanted me to have a girl. He asked the technician if she was sure that it wasn't just the baby's fingers in the way, making it look like a penis. She said that she was sure, and that left my brother disappointed. We had been keeping a list of boy names and girl names that we like and I guess that it was destiny that we were having a boy because we had a name that we agreed on...Brady Michael Prince.

On September 29 it was determined that it would no longer be safe for me to continue working so I left work on a temporary leave, expecting to go back to work after the baby was born.

Nate felt Brady move for the first time on October 21. On October 25 I was admitted back to the hospital for a staff infection in my lungs. I had some cramping in my stomach on the 27th and Dr. Folk checked me to make sure that I was not dilating and going into premature labor. I wasn't and he ordered an ultrasound for the next morning to make sure the baby was okay. The baby was in some weird position when the ultrasound was performed and he was also playing with the umbilical cord and kicking it. I got a picture of the baby sucking his thumb and it was determined that the baby was okay. I was released on Halloween to go home.

Picture of Brady's face in an ultrasound on 11/21/05

On December 5 I had an appointment with Dr. Silverman and he decided to admit me to Crouse Irving Hospital in Syraucse because the baby hadn't been showing much movement, my oxygen was low, and my breathing and cough were getting bad again. I was 27 weeks along and the doctors felt that it would be best to keep me in the hospital from that point until I had the baby. A sonogram showed that the baby was growing fine and he weighed about 2 pounds 3 ounces.

On December 20 there was an ultrasound performed and it showed that the baby was growing fine and that he weighed 2 pounds 9 ounces. The blood flow through the umbilical cord was a little slow and the doctors decided to keep track of that by doing and ultrasound every Tuesday and Friday. The doctors also were talking of doing a c-section in the next two to four weeks. On December 26 I got the news that I will have the c-section to deliver the baby on January 9, 2006. There was much debate back and forth about if I could have a vaginal delivery or if it really had to be c-section. I was a little worried about having a vaginal delivery and I voiced my concerns about it...that I didn't have the lung capacity to push and that it would make me too tired. In the end, it was decided that it would be a c-section and that I would have my tubes tied also.

January 9 came and went without a baby being born...well, not mine anyway. I had my blood drawn early that morning and my platelet counts were really low and they didn't feel that it was safe for me to have the c-section with my counts being that low. I kept telling the nurses and the doctors to call Dr. Sexton because he has dealt with my labs being low and me needing surgery...he would know what to do. They didn't call Dr. Sexton, instead they had a hematologist come see me and in the end, the hematologist said that he wanted to talk to Dr. Sexton because he knew my case more than anyone. I was so happy but also so annoyed that people didn't listen to me sooner. The decided that they would do the c-section the next day.

January 10, 2006 the doctors decided that it was really necessary to get the baby out. Brady had not been showing much movement and with my blood levels being low, it was not a safe environment for the baby. I was taken up to the 8th floor of the hospital shortly after one o'clock to prepare for the c-section. The nurses ran a bag of fresh frozen plasma into me to increase my platelet count and as soon as the platelets were in, I was taken into the operating room to be prepped for surgery. The anesthesiologist gave me a spinal which wasn't as bad as I thought but it was still uncomfortable. I was situated on the table and then Nate came in to be by my side. Dr. Folk performed the c-section while Dr. Nosavich stood by his side in case there were any complications. Dr. Folk started the c-section and when he started making the incision I could feel him cutting into me so he had to stop and put some local anesthetic in to finish numbing the area. Once that settled in, he continued and I couldn't feel it anymore. There was another point after a couple of minutes that I could feel some more pain so they put some medication in my IV and then continued again.

After some tugging and pulling, the baby was out and he came out screaming with some nice and healthy lungs. Brady Michale Prince was born at 2:45 in the afternoon and weighed 3 pounds 5 ounces and was 15 1/4 inches long. I was so happy to hear that I had a screaming baby but also couldn't help that think all of these doctors didn't want me to go through with carrying him. The nurses checked Brady out really quick and then bundled him up. I got to see my tiny little thing for a brief moment before they rushed him off to the NICU. Dr. Folk then continued with the tubaligation and then closed me up. As I was being closed up, Nate went to report to everyone that Brady was finally here. He was 7 weeks early but he was breathing on his own, needed no oxygen, and no other machines other than some heart monitors. He was also a little jaundice so he needed to be under the special lights. As I was in recovery I was informed that there was something wrong with his right eye. The doctors weren't quite sure what was wrong yet, but his right eyelid was sunken in and he was not opening it. But, other than that, he was healthy and I was happy. He had 10 fingers and 10 toes and a head full of blonde hair that looked like it needed to be cut already.

Mid 2005

On June 3, 2005 I turned 24. I couldn't help but thinking how far things had come in the CF community and the new medications that were out that helped people with CF live longer. When I was diagnosed, my Mom was told not to expect me to live past the age of 12. Here I was, 12 years past that, and although I was getting sicker, I was still alive. I had actually thinking about things that I wanted to do before I die and started to make a list of things that I wanted to do before I did or things that I had accomplished that meant a lot to me. Below are some of those things....

1. I had lived past the age that my Mom was told I would.
2. I had graduated High School with Honors.
3. I had graduated college with an Associate's Degree in Business Administration.
4. I got married and started a new life with Nate.
5. I wanted to be a Mommy although I knew that it was next to impossible with the upcoming transplants.
6. Go on a hot air balloon ride.
7. Go to France...I didn't take 7 years of French in school for nothing.
8. Go swimming with the dolphins.
9. Teach people who don't know about CF at least one thing about it.
10. Live to tell people about my experience with transplant and to urge others to get one too if they needed it.

I felt fortunate at that point that I had lived 24 years with CF but there was no way that I was going to give up that easily. That was not my style.

June 7-9, 2005
We left for my first trip to the Cleveland Clinic on June 7 for my appointments on the 8th and 9th. Nate, my Mom, and Mary (a friend of my and Nate's) went to Cleveland with me. We got into Cleveland and checked into our hotel around 5PM. We got to bed at a decent time that night because we had to be up early the next morning and I had a lot of appointments that day.
June 8
I first had to have x-rays and a CT scan of my lungs. I then met with the social worker who thought that I had a great attitude toward transplants but thought that I should also get some things resolved with Walt (my Dad) who had not been there for me since I was 4 years old. I then had to have PFT's, and do a 6 minute walk test. Overall, the doctors at the Cleveland Clinic said that my lungs were still functioning well enough for now but they had said that my x-rays and CT scans showed that my lungs looked really bad. They had a lot of mucus and scarring. I also saw the liver doctor that day but he didn't have much to say about the liver aspect of the transplant. Those talked were deferred until I had to go back out to Cleveland for the liver tests in July.
June 9
I had some time free of evaluations that morning so we went and met with one of Nate's college buddies and then it was back the the Clinic for more tests. I had an appointment with Dr. Marie Budev that day. She was the transplant doctor for my case. She informed us that there were 4 different surgeons doing lung transplants at the Cleveland Clinic and they had done 35 lung transplants so far in 2005. For my case, they had to decide if they wanted to do the lungs and liver at the same time. Dr. Budev liked the results of my tests and informed me that I still had time before I actually needed the transplants. She didn't want to do the transplants too early because of the risks that we would be taking when I was still fairly healthy. Dr. Budev put it really straight forward and said that if we took the 5 people who were in the room and give them all lung transplants, one person would be dead within the first year because of complications, infections, and/or the body rejecting the organs. So with these statistics, she would rather take the time to do a complete work-up before placing me on the transplant list. It was a very informative visit.

Over the next 8-10 months after those appointments, I had to have my liver evaluations (July 12-13) and had to have other tests to make sure that my body was okay to go through with the transplants. I had to have a mammogram, PAP smear, electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, bone density test, and regular dental work-ups. I also had to go back to Cleveland occasionally to have regular evaluations to assess if my lungs and liver were getting worse. At the end of all of this testing, there would be a decision on if I should be listed. If they didn't list me, I had to go back every three months for more testing. If I was listed at that time, Dr. Budev felt that the tranpslant would happen fairly quickly because I was young and I have Cystic Fibrosis. She had told me that CF patients are normally listed toward the top and that's why it would happen fairly quickly. I would only have 2.5 hours to get there because the lungs have a preservation time of 6 hours. In most cases the patient is in the hospitla for 12-14 days and then have to stay within an hour of the clinic for roughly 30 days for frequent check-ups and labs.

Jornal Entry from around that time....It's nice to know that I still have some time before the transplants really need to happen. After the appointments, everything is definitely more of a reality and it also makes it more scarey. Everyone keeps telling me that things will be fine, but who's to say that it will. I can only hope that the transplants are a success and that it prolongs my life a lot longer than the average age (mid 30's) for a CF patient. There are so many things that I feel that I still have to accomplish and I hope that I get to do so.

More from June/July 2005
On June 20th I had a normal appointment with Dr. Sexton. I told him that I had an increased cough and was getting short of breath more often. Other than that, I had been feeling fine. While I was at his office, I had a coughing fit and it led to me coughing up blood. He felt that there was an infection starting so he put me on Zosyn (IV antibiotic) and sent me home. At that point it was taking longer to get better than the previous times I had been on the IV.

I went to the oral surgeon in the end of June and found out that I had a wisdom tooth that was badly decayed and that it had to be pulled. The oral surgeon, Dr. Flihan, would not do anything with it until he talked to Dr. Sexton. He needed to know if it was okay to pull it in the office with just novicane or if I needed to be put under and have the wisdom tooth pulled in the hospital. It ended up being that it was okay to have it done in the office and it was pulled without a problem.

My co-workers at HGS started putting fundraisers together for me to raise money for the transplants. They did a dress down day where people had to pay to be able to dress down and that money went into my benefit account. My surperviser Lori was also putting together lunches to sell to people and she took the money out that it cost her to buy the supplies and then the profit went into my benefit account. They had atually raised a lot of money for my benefit account and it really helped.

July 12-13, 2005
I went back to the Cleveland Clinic for my liver transplant evaluations during this time and things went well. I flew out there by myself because Nate couldn't really take anymore time off of work and since there was no one to drive me out there, I had decided to fly. I met with the liver doctors on the 12th and it was mentioned that if I did not need the double lung transplant, I would not be getting the liver anytime soon. But, it had been decided that everything would happen all together because it was felt that with my liver being sick and failing, that it would not handle the new medications that I would be on for the lung transplant. Cleveland Clinic doctors had never done double lung and liver all together so none of us were sure as to how the transplant would work and how long my stay in the hospital would be. I knew that I was taking a risk with them and they were taking a risk with me, but apparently it was a risk that we were all willing to take.

End of July
A couple of weeks after I got back from my liver evaluations at the Clinic, I ended up back in the hospital from 7/25-7/29. That meant that I was in the hospital for my and Nate's 3rd Wedding Anniversary. I was in for breathing difficulties and after a few days, I got better and was sent home on IV antibiotics. I had since realized that I had not had my period since the end of May. My cycle was very irregular so I hadn't really thought much about it. Just to be on the safe side and to get the pregnancy test out of the way before I went to my doctor's office, I decided to buy a pregnancy test and take it at home. I thought that it would just get it out of the way so that I could tell the doctor that I had already done that test and that was not what was wrong with my cycle. Well......surprise! There were two lines (although one was faint) and that meant that I was pregnant! I was still not sure about this so I called my sister and asked her about false positives and she told me that it's normally only false negatives. She also told me to get one of the pregnancy tests that are digital read out and will say either "pregnant" or "not pregnant." I went out with Nate that night and bought one of those and I took the test the next morning before I went to work. Again, surprise!!! This test said pregnant. Now what was I to do???

Beginning of 2005

The beginning of 2005 was a little rough. I went to see Dr. Sexton a week after the cruise because I had not been feeling well. I had started running a fever and coughing up blood again. So, on February 7th I was admitted to the hospital. My fever kept spiking to 104 degrees and my oxygen level had fallen into the eighties. While admitted this time I had more CT scans, x-rays, blood work, and plasma transfusions (Fresh Frozen Plasma-FFP). Sputum tests revealed that I had pneumonia and staff infection. I was on a few antibiotics, breathing treatments, and had another embolization to stop the bleeding in my right lung. The CT scan and the blood work showed that my lungs and liver were worse than they were in November 2004. With the medications and embolization, I started feeling better except for the extreme bruising that I had from the embolization. I was released on Valentine's Day. I had to stay out of work for another week and stay on IV antibiotics through my port during that time.

During this time, we moved on with plans for the double lung and liver transplants. I was set up to have appointments done at Massachusetts General (although they were not sure about doing double lung and liver) only to find that the insurance (MVP) that I had through work was not contracted with MGH and they wouldn't pay for the transplants if I went there. We changed the clinic that I was going to go to to the Cleveland Clinic and waited to have the initial appointments set up there. In the process of this my insurance at worked changed to Blue Cross Blue Shield and I learned that BCBs would have paid for MGH but I decided to stay with the Cleveland Clinic. I received a phone call from Alan Stewart at the Cleveland Clinic and I received my appointment list in the mail for my initial appointments with them. I was to go to the Cleveland Clinic for the first time on June 8-9, 2005, just days after my 24th birthday.

April-May
I was busy for a little while in these months organizing a team for the Great Strides walk for Cystic Fibrosis. There was a total of 36 members on my team and our name was "Team Patti." I alone raised $968 and my whole team raised $1,643. Everyone who walked that day raised a total of over $35,000 which probably helped immensly with CF research. I met a few people that day but the people that I will remember forever are the people from "Team Tammy." I learned that Tammy had a double lung transplant at the age of 24 and died at the age of 35. She was a leader in a lot of things that she did and she had even carried the Olympic Torch. The last name of the family sounded familiar and I tried to figure out where I knew the name from and then finally it hit me that I had a French teacher at Groton High School by that last name. I mentioned that and they all looked at me and one of them said that she was part of their family. Mrs. Twitchell wasn't there but her husband was and I talked to him for a little while . He remembered that she had mentioned a long time ago that she had a girl in her French class who had CF and that must have been me. Sure enough it was!!

On the down side of all of this, I started getting sick again and went back to Dr. Sexton. I started back up on TOBI, kept taking Zythromax, and also had to take Cipro and Bactrim on top of that. Below is a journal entry from that time.

May 24, 2005
I'm so irritated with being sick constantly. I can only hope that the transplants happen soon and that things are better afterwards. I'm just looking forward to simple things such as being able to have a good laugh without coughing, playing my flute without getting out of breath, and just overall being able to breathe easier. It's the simple things that I really look forward to.

Caribbean Cruise 2005

As I mentioned in my last blog, I was to go on a cruise in early 2005. I went with Nate, his parents (Dale and Gina), Nate's brother (Shane), and his brother's girlfriend. We left from Syracuse, NY on January 21 to fly down to Ft. Lauderdale, FL and we took off on our cruise from there the next day. This was the first time that I had ever been on a plane that I could remember. It really was not that bad other than the coughing fit that I had when we were taking off. I am going to take what I wrote in my journal and put it in here because if I didn't, I wouldn't remember the details of the cruise.

Sunday, January 23, 2005
We started off on our cruise yesterday! It's so unbelievable that we are out in the middle of the ocean. Getting here wasn't as easy as we had hoped though. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 11:11AM on Friday and we didn't end up flying out until 1:55PM. When the plane that were supposed to fly on landed in Syracuse from Atlanta, they had a hard time opening the door. They later found out that the door was bent and the flight was indefinitely delayed. The airline employees suggested that we get booked on another flight and that's what we did. We were booked on the next flight out to Atlanta at 1:55 and then from there to Ft. Lauderdale. We were also bumped up to first class from Atlanta to Ft. Lauderdale. We coudln't complain! We ended up in Ft. Lauderdale at 9PM instead of 4PM like we were supposed to be.

Saturday morning I woke up at about 6AM and got dressed. After we were all ready and most of the way packed, we went to breakfast and then for a walk around the area of the hotel. It was a nice sunny morning and the walk was fun. We saw a lot of buildings that were just built with stores that will be opening soon. I was also taking notice of all of the palm trees because that was my first time ever seeing one other than on TV.

After the walk, we gathered our things and waited for the hotel transportation to take us to the pier to board the Carnival Legend. We saw a bunch of different ships, seven of them to be taking off that day, including Celebrity Cruises, Princess Cruises, and the Queen Mary 2. That ship is HUGE! Boarding the ship wasn't as much of a hassle as we thought it would be. The line was long but it moved fairly quickly. They took our luggage first, then we went by a place and had our "welcome aboard" picture taken, showed our tickets and got our cards, went through security, had our pictures taken to be put on our cards, and finally boarded the ship.

Once inside the ship, I was amazed! It was so fancy. There are so many different restaurants, bars, and a bunch of other things, inclusing a pizzeria that is open 24 hours a day. I love it!

Monday, January 24, 2005
There's still even more that amazes me about the ship. Last night was our first formal night on the cruise. I went to the salon and got my hair highlighted, cut, and styled. Nate and I had formal pictures taken and most of them turned out really nice. We bought a few of them and had one pose copied into wallets. These are the first portraits that we have had done in the 6.5 years that we have been together.

The Captain's dinner was fun last night. The waiters and waitresses all formed a line and went running through the dining hall flinging their towels all around. They all sang a song to us too. For this dinner, I had Victorian Perch with some sort of fancy shredded potatoes and sauce. It was good.


Thursday, February 24, 2005
So, here we are, a month from when I last wrote. There has been so much going on and some of it is kind of frustrating. I don't know whether to cry, laugh, or just shrug things off. Anyway, the rest of the cruise was excellent. We stopped in St. Marrten on January 25, which was Dale and Gina's 30th Wedding Anniversary. On that island we went to a butterfly farm. There were these blue butterflies that were amazingly beautiful! It was awesome just to have butterflies flying all around me. The tour of the rest of the island was okay. To me, it kind of looked like a 3rd World country with all of the houses looking like run-down shacks and goats and sheep on the loose everywhere. It was interesting to see it but I don't think that I would want to go back there. That night, we all went to the Dinner Club on the ship for dinner and the food was excellent!

The next day (1/26), Nate and I went on a tour of Harrison's Cave and on a Tiami Sunset Cruise in Barbados. Barbados is such a beautiful place and I wouldn't mind living there. The cave was interesting to me but Nate says that Howe Caverns in the US is better. The catamaran that we were on for the sunset cruise in Barbados was nice and the views were awesome. We went by the hotel that Tiger Woods bought out for a whole week for his wedding/honey moon. The tour guide told us that one night in a room there costs $3,000. That's a little bit too rich for my blood! Overall, our day in Barbados went well and I want to go back there for vacation sometime.

Our stop in Martinique on January 27 was interesting. I was amazed with the sites on this island. The water was breathtakingly blue and the scenery was the greenest and most beautiful that I had ever seen. I saw a valcano for the first time other than seeing it on TV. This valcano last erupted in 1902, killing everyone on the island except for one man who was in prison at the time. So, on this island, we went on a Calypso party boat tour. Within 10 minutes of starting out on the tour, a guy had spilled his rum punch all over me and I had to put up with the smell for the rest of the trip. We went out to a beach and spent two hours there. I found some interesting shells, saw a sea cucumber for the first time ever, and also found some live starfish. Gina packed up some of the starfish and brought them home. On the way back to the ship, we stopped near a bat cave. There were a lot of bats in there and there were also some very pretty tropical fish in the water near the party boat. I would love to go back to Martinique sometime and see more of the island and not just the beach that we were on.

The last two days of the cruise were spent at sea, making our way back to Florida. Our last day in the dining room was very memorable. We had a very good dinner and a special dessert. It is called Baked Alaska and it was delicious. All of the waiters, waitresses, and hostesses sang a goodbye song to us and I almost cried. Our last day on the ship was very rocky as the waves in the ocean were 10-14 feet high. They closed the outside decks to keep us all safe. Many people were sick, including me. I stayed in bed practically all day because I was too sick to be up and moving about.

The cruise came to an end when we got off the Carnival Legend and were back on dry land in Florida. We spent the day in Ft. Lauderdale doing some touring on a water taxi. The estates that we were seeing cost millions of dollars and so do the yachts. I could only imagine what I would do with that kind of money!! We went to the Cheesecake factory for dinner that night and I didn't like anything that I got for dinner. There seemed to be no true flavor in any of the food.

January 31, 2005 was our day to travel back home. When we were boarding the plane for our flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Atlanta, my seat was changed due to my inability to feel comfortable opening an exit door and directing people to it if anything were to go wrong. I ended up sitting next to a girl named Laura Czarny. When we took off, I started coughing really bad and she asked what was wrong. I told her about my medical history and she tole me about her sister Cheryl. They had also had a rough time throughout their lives. Before we got off of the plane in Atlanta, we exchanged e-mail addresses and promised to keep in touch. She also said that she wanted to give me something because I needed it more than she did. I was thinking, what on earth could anyone give me that I needed mor then them when they just met me?? And then she handed me a Rosary. It is very beautiful and she told me that it used to be her mother's. I told her that I couldn't take it and she told me that I must, so I did. I truly believe that someone was watching over me and she was my Guardian Angel that was sent to prove that everything will be okay.

Coming back to NY that day was the realization that our vacation was over and that it may be my last one for quite a while. The weather was completely different from where we were. We had been in 70-90 degree weather and we came back to freezing temperatures. That made me wish that we lived in temperatures like that year round. Maybe I wouldn't get sick so often.

Now back to present day 2008.....the cruise was an experience of a lifetime! I believe that we are going to be going again in the next couple of years. I would recommend that everyone go on a cruise if the opportunity arises. Healthwise, that week was the best that I had felt in a really long time. I still have the Rosary that Laura gave me and the last time that I talked to her was earlier this year. Her sister has since published a children's book about being in the hospital and that book sits on my bookcase in my room.

2003-2004

I don't remember much of 2003 other than moving into our new home and starting some of the work that needed to be done to it. I think that we had the windows replaced in October that year and we also replaced almost all of the light fixtures. I know that as the year went on, I was getting sicker than I had been in a while.

I worked a couple of different jobs that year. When we first moved up to the Utica area I was working at a photo lab in Target. That was an interesting job. I had never done anything with developing photos or mixing chemicals before and that was what I had to do in this job. I loved it but when a better opportunity came along, I took it and left.

I went on to work for Sports Physical Therapy of NY in Rome, NY as a secretary. I also loved that job but the 30 minute travel to work and then home was one of the things that I could have done without. After not too long of being at that job, I got another offer at another physical therapy place. This job was also as a secretary but it was a lot closer to home and it was for more pay. I liked the job and it definitely kept me busy but I continued to get sicker while working there. Not that the job was making me sick, but my health because of the Cystic Fibrosis was deteriorating. I would even go into work when I was on IV medications because that was the way of life for me and the only way to keep a somewhat normal one and not be in the hospital for weeks on end. That's what most people do when they have CF.

Everything was getting worse and got much worse for me. I had been working at this place for about 5 months and had not had my 3 month review yet. I was so pissed the day that I came into work, on a Friday in March of 2004, and was told to come into a back room and was handed my last check and they told me that they were letting me go. I looked at them and was like 'what.' I had been sick a day or two prior with a lot of coughing and running fevers and came back to getting fired. Tell me that that doesn't look suspicious! I was told that they did my 3 month review and they thought that I was not up to where they wanted me to be. Okay, there were a few things that I found wrong here....#1) I was supposed to be there for my review and #2) Why did they do it on a day that I was out sick? They proceeded to tell me that I was not doing what I was hired for, that the billing office wasn't getting codes for billing on time, and that they needed to be able to pull me in 10 different directions at once and they felt that they couldn't do that with me. Here are my problems with that.....I was doing way more than what I was hired for. The longer that I worked for this immoral lady, the more work that she gave me every day to do. She even wanted me to go in a put ice packs or hot packs on her patients which you are not supposed to do without a license in physical or occupational therapy, which I did not have. The reason that things were not getting to billing on time was also the owner's fault. I would look over her codes that she was billing and if there was something wrong, I would have to send the paper back to her and tell her to bill under a different code. Well, this would take forever for her to do. I would have to tell her that I needed it and she would keep ignoring it. When I brought this up in my abrupt exit interview, I was told that I should have just kept hounding her until it was done. Was it my job to run the office and make sure that she did her job? No! I was not the office manager and I was not the owner. The lady pulling all of this crap was the owner and that day, I lost absolutely all respect for her. I think that she is a cold hearted woman and would never work for her again. And last, who in the world, sick or not, could be pulled in 10 different directions at once??? This lady was not right and if I was faced with the opportunity to tell her how I feel about her, I would.

Well, that same day that I was fired, I went down to a hiring agency (that I had used before) and I had a job somewhere else that same day. I started training at my new job that Monday and then a couple of days later I ended up in the hospital with Pneumonia. Well, I lost that job opportunity too. I think that I was in the hospital for about a week and then was released on IV antibiotics. Not too long after, I had another temporary job that went great. It lasted for about a month or two and then the job was finished. I then went on to babysit for a family with 4 kids and did that for a while. When I wasn't really needed there anymore, I babysat for another family who had a set of twin boys who were not a year old yet. It was nice babysitting them but my hands were full. One of the boys had cerebal paulsy and needed more help than the other. They were both so adorable and I absolutely loved them! It wasn't too long before I had to move on from babysitting them and get a job where I was making more money. I got another temporary job offer from the job agency and I started working at Centrex.

Centrex is a lab that does blood work, urine tests, drug tests, and sets up home draws for people who can't make it to the lab. I worked in the part setting up home visits. It really didn't take me long to get used to that job and get good at it too. It was only a temporary job though so I was still looking for a permanent job. I had applied for jobs at a bank and for a place called The House of the Good Shepherd. Not too long after I had applied at both, I had interviews for both. Both of the interviews went well and I had 2nd interviews for both. The day that I had the 2nd interview at the House of the Good Shepherd, I was offered the job. I thought about it and I accepted the job!! That same day that I accepted the job, I had had a rough time with a customer on the phone at Centrex. I was called back to Human Resources at Centrex and I thought that I was in trouble because of the phone call that I had taken where the guy was irate. I thought that I had handled the phone call well and stayed calm. Well, I had been called back to the office for a completely different reason. The person who was supposed to be moving into the position that I was filling in for decided not to take the position and I was offered the job. They wanted to hire me straight on instead of being temp. I told them that I couldn't take the job because I just took a job somewhere else and that if they had told me like the day before or earlier that day that they wanted me to stay, I probably would have.

If those two job offers were not enough, I got home and there was a message on my phone that the bank that I interviewed at also wanted to hire me. I went through most of the summer trying to find a job and got turned down left and right, and then all in one day I had three job offers!! It was crazy! But I had accepted the job at the House of the Good Shepherd and I started that job in August 2004. I was hired there as the Administrative Secretary and has many jobs to do under that title. I was a little nervous at first because I shared an office with my supervisor but she was cool and I got really used to it. I had not told anyone in the interviews that I had, that I had Cystic Fibrosis. I didn't want to be turned down for a job because I had CF because I knew that I was a hard worker no matter what. But, not too long after I was hired, I started to get really sick and needed to go on IV antibiotics and had to tell them that I had CF. They all took it really well! I did have to explain to some people what CF was but I don't mind doing that.

In November of that year, I ended up in the hospital for a really bad infection that would not go away. I think that it was Thanksgiving day that I was admitted for coughing up blood (hemoptysis) and the infection. I was taken out of the ER and put into isolation because the doctors thought that I had TB. At that time, I did not know that CF symptoms could immitate having TB. My CF doctor (Dr. Sexton) was so livid that I was put in isolation. When a CT scan was done of my lungs, Dr. Sexton told me that I had holes in my lungs and the upper right lobe as non-functional. My liver disease was also progressing. Dr. Sexton brought up the conversation of lung and liver transplants not being too far off and that we needed to find a transplant (Tx) clinic and get the evaluations started. That was the hardest news to hear but I knew what I had to do to keep myself here.

We were going to go with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) but when we were getting things set up to go there we found out that the insurance that I had through my work would not cover that hospital so we had to find a different one. And that's when the search started and we found Cleveland Clinic. The evaluations didn't start until much later though.

In the end of 2004, I had a follow-up appointment with Dr. Sexton and I talked to him about a cruise that I was going on in January 2005 and he told me that it was probably not the best idea to go since I was getting so sick. I think that it was an intern that told him that if I was going to be going through all this Tx stuff and continue to get sick, why not let me have one last vacation. Dr. Sexton made me promise that if anything were to go wrong on the cruise, I would be life flighted off of the cruise and taken to the nearest hospital (which would be in Florida) and once I was stabilized there, I would go to my clinic in Syracuse. I promised and then it was decided that I would go on probably my last vacation before things deteriorated even more. That was great news and that was the end of a rough year.

The Big Move

After the wedding and all the excitement of the honey moon, it was time to sell our trailer so that we could buy a house in the Utica area. Nate was already staying up there with his parents and I wanted to get up there so bad to be with him. We were a married couple living 90 minutes apart. It wasn't fun. I was staying at the trailer packing and keeping an eye out for anyone who might want to buy it. We finally got someone interested in buying it but they didn't have enough money to put down a down payment and without a down payment, they couldn't buy it. We wanted to get rid of it so bad that we helped them with the down payment and the trailer was theirs! I was finally able to be with Nate again.

Initially, we lived with Nate's parents. I moved to the Utica area in September 2002 and all of our household belongings went into a storage shed because it would not all fit in Dale and Gina's house. We began looking for a house in November (or so) and had a couple in mind. The one that we really wanted to look at was sale pending so we couldn't look at it. We saw a few others from the outside and called on a few but the prices were outrageous. Then we found a little ranch style house that we decided to call on and look at even though the outside of that was not very appealing. We set up a meeting to look at the inside. We finally went to look at it and this is what we saw.....

When you walk in the front door, you walk into the dining room with a bar area that is attached to the kitchen. Straight ahead is the kitchen. The floor, fridge, stove, light fixtures, and counters all needed replacing. If you walk to the left when you come in the front door, there is a huge living room with a beautiful fire place. The carpet in the living room is really worn out and is really ugly. There are two huge windows in the living room that face out to the street and they are just one huge pane of glass, they do not open at all. There is a door over to the right when you walk in to the living room and that leads to the bathroom, kitchen, and basement door. The bathroom is very small. You have to squeeze past the linen closet and sink to get to the bathtub and toilet. You can literally shave, shower, and sh*t at the same time. I loved the linen closet though because it is huge and the tub is huge. The shower head is also pretty high up which is good because I'm 5'9". If you're back in the living room, and look opposite of the dining room, there is a small bedroom off to the right and then another one that is bigger just one door down. There is another bedroom across from that one. The basement is really big with the ceiling being a lot higher than most homes. The laundry is down there and there is a bar room. It is not a finished basement though and is pretty damp. The outside of the house has a tree blocking the dining room window and then bushes all along the front of the house. The house is painted pink with maroon trim (not the greatest selling point). There is a one car garage that is attached to the house. The front and back yards are HUGE compared to what some people have on our street.

The house was built by the original owner in 1949 and believe me, it looks like it hadn't been remodeled since then either. The owner passed some time ago and left it to his niece. It really looks like she destroyed the house. She wanted to sell it for $80,000. We are not very keen on this price with how much work the house needs and the real estate agent tells us that she probably will go lower. We go a lot lower and offer $65,000 and she accepts! The house is ours with all the work that needs to be done to it! We had the closing and we moved into the house on Valentine's Day 2003. We got all of your things out of storage and started making this house our new home.

The Honey Moon

After the wedding, Nate and I left for Cape Cod, Massachusetts. We got on the road at about 6PM and had to stop somewhere along the way to stay the night. Most of the places that we were stopping at we fully booked. We finally found a place that had vacancy. It was not the greatest place in the world but it was somewhere to close our eyes and get some rest. We started back out in the morning and arrived in Cape Cod later that afternoon. We stayed at a bed and breakfast (which we had reserved ahead of time) instead of a hotel because we knew that it would be a lot cleaner. We basically had a whole apartment to ourselves. There was a kitchen, a bathroom, a huge closet, and a bedroom/living room. We also had a second story deck all to ourselves. It was really nice. The lady who owns the place made breakfast (fresh friut, muffins, yogurt, juice) the night before and would bring it up while we were out to dinner or something. It was all very good. They also had movies that we could borrow from them if we wanted to watch movies (which we didn't).

We were about 10 minutes away from many different beaches. That was the first time that I had ever been to the ocean!! The first beach that we went to was nice. It was a cloudy day and a little windy so we didn't stay long but we did walk on the beach, I at least put my feet in the ocean, and we got something to eat. When we sat down to eat, Nate had to get up and get ketchup for his fries and when he did, a bunch of seagles dive bombed his fries right in front of me!! It was hilarious. Most of his fries were gone! Throughout the week, we visited many different places. There were a lot of different beach houses along the roads with tons of stuff for sale. We stopped at a few of them. We went to Provincetown a few times. One of the times, we went on a whale watch (which I had also never done before) and we did see a few whales. Not many of them came very far out of the water though. It was still a great experience! On another day there, we went downtown and did a lot of sight seeing and visiting the little shops and restaurants. We also went to the Pilgrim Tower and museum where we had to walk hundreds of steps to get to the top. That was really a work out for me and my lungs! The view from the top was awesome though!! We also went on a little venture to find a light house and to take a tour of it. Nate is a big fan of light houses. We found one and that is the first time that either of us had been to a light house. We even got to go to the top where the light is. That was very cool. The view from up there was really a sight to see. You could see the ocean for miles and miles!! I reall hope to get to do this again some day.

In the time that we were there, we visited a lot of different restaurants and I don't think we really found any in particular that really impressed us. Nate was not impressed with the way that any of them cook steaks. He said that they were tough and had very little or no flavor. The little shops all around were very amazing. I don't think I have ever seen so many things for sale!! We went to a mall somewhere near there. It was pretty big and we found a few things for family and whoever, to bring home as gifts for them.

The one place that we wanted to go and never did was Martha's Vineyard. We did not find a schedule for the ferry to go there until like almost the last day that we were there. If we ever go again, I think I will book it online so that we can go. All in all, it was a great week! I definitely would go back and it would be a great place to take Brady some day.

July 27, 2002

July 27, 2002, that is the day that I got married. The morning started out like any other morning but I knew that it was going to be a day like no other. The plans had all been made, the day had come, and I was going to walk down that aisle at about 11:30AM. I took a shower and got dressed in the morning. I had to meet up with the girls to go get our hair done. We went a little bit down the road from my house and we got our hair done, two girls at a time. I was one of the last ones so that we could make sure that my hair was going to stay up. My hair was pulled back and then was curled and bobby pins were placed to keep the curls in place. My veil was put on my head just to make sure that it looked okay with this hair-do would work with the veil that I chose. It was perfect!!! When we were all done, we went to the church to put on our dresses and get ready. My bridesmaids had to put on their makeup but I don't wear it because I never have. The glow that I had on that day was all natural!

As I was getting into my gown, my Mom looked at me and told me that she wasn't ready for this. I told her that it was too bad because I was walking down that aisle in about 30 minutes. I got my dress on and then someone put my veil on for me and made sure it was in place and I was about ready. I had people stopping into the dressing room to see how things were going and some of them started crying and made me cry. That was okay though because I didn't have any makeup to ruin. The time was approaching and we were ready to get lined up to start the wedding procession. It was almost time for me to become a wife.

First, our parents (and my brother) went down the aisle. My Mom and Gina lit the unity candles and then went back to the guys and took their seats. My brother went back to the back of the church because he was walking me down the aisle. The music of "So Much in Love" by All-4-One started playing and Barb and Larry were the first ones down the aisle. Then it was Beth and Greg, followed by Kate and Joe, followed by Bekah and Shane. Then the little ones, Cole and Christine went down the aisle. We let the music get to a certain part and then my brother and I met at the pews. Once the line "as we walk down the aisle" came on, my brother and I started down the aisle. Everyone stood up and watched me take that walk that every girl hopes and waits for.

Once I got up to the altar, Nate took my hand and the music stopped. Pastor Dave did the intorduction to the ceremony. He asked if anyone objected to the marriage and obviously no one did. That's when the readings for the ceremony started. He read a few scriptures from the bible and then we said our vows. After the vows, he asked for the rings from Shane. We heard some wrinkling noises and wondered what he had. Instead of handing Pastor Dave our wedding rings, he handed him some rings pops. The pastor held them up for everyone to see and everyone in the church busted out laughing. It was so funny! He gave the ring pops back to Shane and Shane gave him the real rings. We exchanged the rings, a few other things were said, we lit the unity candle, and then we were pronounced husband and wife at 12PM sharp. I remember this because the noon fire wistle went off. We were right down the road from the fire hall. We had our wedding kiss, the music "Prayer" by Charlotte Church started playing, and we walked down the aisle and out of the church. The ceremony was over and we were now husband and wife.

We greeted people outside the church. I had to leave for a minute and change my head piece because when people were hugging me, they kept pulling on my veil. I took the veil off and put on a tiara. I went back outside and finished greeting people. Uncle Duane then did pictures of the wedding party outside because it was a nice day and there was a water fountain that I wanted our pictures done in front of. The pictures turned out beautiful. People started leaving and going to the VFW for the reception and we went to our car which someone decorated while we were getting married. We went around a huge block just so we could and then we went to the VFW where everyone was waiting. The wedding party lined up outside the doors that we were goin to walk through and the DJ announced us as we came in. When Cole and Christine walked in, Cole went straight for the food. That was a moment to remember. Nate and I were announced as husband and wife for the first time in public and it was a great feeling for me.

Now was the time to do our dances. Our song that we danced to was "Forever" originally by the Beach Boys but this version was sung by John Stamos (Uncle Jesse on Full House). I absolutely loved that song and thought it was perfect for us to dance to. It took us forever to find but the DJ founf it for us! After our dance, I danced with my brother to "Through The Years" by Kenny Rogers and Nate danced with his Mom to "Song for Mama" by Boys II Men. There were a few other dances and then we ate. The food was excellent because it was all home made (for the most part anyway). We had cold meat sandwiches (bought from a store), pasta (made by my Aunt Sally), and then some salads and other things made by friends and family. A lot of people said that it was the best food that they ever had at a wedding. We had no alcohol allowed at the reception because we didn't want people getting drunk and I couldn't stand the smell of alcohol anyway. There was also no smoking allowed inside because of my lung condition. It all went really well. After we all ate we did some dancing. We did the tossing of the bouquet and guarder, both of which were special bought so that we could keep our original ones. One of my cousins caught the bouquet and Nate's brother caught the guarder. We then cut the cake. There was a lot of it too. We gave each other a piece of cake and it was all "nice, nice." We didn't want the cake ending up all over ouselves and I didn't want the possibility of it staining my dress. It all went really well.

When the reception was over, the guys took off in their tuxes and went go cart racing. I didn't go but I saw pictures....they were crazy! We went back to the trailer and Larry and Mandy met us there. We opened gifts and then we left for our honey moon! We were on our way to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The day couldn't have been more perfect!

I just want to add on a little side note to let everyone know that it is absolutely possibe to have a wedding like this if you don't have a lot of money. We did it all for $3,000! There are a lot of things that were in the wedding that I left out too. It's just too much to fit in all of the details!

Things leading up to the Big Day!

There was so much to do for the wedding. We actually bought our rings a lot earlier so that was out of the way and then I started looking for my wedding dress in December 2001. I took a friend, Mandy, with me to look for the perfect dress. I had a little portfolio of dresses that I had in mind along with the bridesmaid dresses too. We went to a little bridal shop in Groton, NY and started looking. I tried on about four dresses which were all too small so you couldn't get the full picture and a lot of them were white, and since I was pale, the white dresses washed me out even more. We pulled a cream colored one off the rack and I tried it on. This one was also too small but once I had it on, Mandy started crying and saying that this was the one for me. I looked in the mirror and started crying too. This was the dress that I was going to wear on my wedding day. It was perfect!! It was off white/cream, had some embroidery detail on the corset style bodice (vines and flowers), some bead work, the dress was sleeveless (with two straps that came over the shoulders), a little bit of a bell for the dress, and the train was lace with the same design as the bodice and was about three feet long. There was also a shawl to go around the shoulders which also had the same flower design. It was the dress of my dreams. We started looking at head pieces to match it and the first one we took off the rack was a perfect match. It was a circle headpiece made of flowers and beads (like the dress) and had the veil hanging off of the back of it. It was perfect!! Now that we found the dress, there was more to do.

I was showing the lady at the dress shop some of the pictures of the dresses that I liked for the bridesmaids. There was one that I really liked and showed that to her. She surprised me by saying that she had that exact dress in the store. I looked at the dress and it was perfect. It was nice and simple like my wedding dress. The top of the dress was silk and had over the shoulder straps like mine and the bottom was a non-wrinkle material so the girls didn't have to worry about their dress being wrinkled. There was no design or anything on the dresses except for a little clip in the back that had 4 roses on it with a little train falling from it. My maid of honor wore a butter yellow dress and the other bridesmaids were in a pastel blue. They were beautiful!! The only dresses I had left to find were my Mom's dress and a dress for the flower girl. Yes, I said that I had to find my Mom's dress. I was afraid of what she would pick for herself (yes she knows it and sorry Mom). I found one for almost $100 and it was perfect for her. Now the only one left was the flower girl. My younger sisters fiance had a daughter and with his permission and the permission of her mother, I asked for her to be my flower girl. They both said yes but the only problem was they couldn't afford a dress. I couldn't really afford another dress either so I looked at department stores and other places. I kept finding either ones that I didn't like or ones that were too expensive. I went to Old Navy for something one day and what do you know? I found the perfect little thing for her to wear. It matched my dress too. It was cream and there was a little top that had spaghetti straps and buttoned in the back. There was a little skirt that matched it. Both the top and the skirt had some embroidery on it for decoration and it was perfect! This little flower girl dress cost me a whole $10!!!! It was also something that she could wear again and again.

The guys tuxes were really not hard to find. We just needed to find vests that would match the color of the girls dresses and we did. We got the Ring Bearer tux free with the rental of all the other tuxes. Isn't it funny how the bride is allowed to see the tuxes but the groom is not allowed to see the dress? It's so fun to keep the guy in suspense!!

Things were moving absolutely smoothly. Here are the people who were in our wedding: Bride and Groom; Patricia (me) and Nathanial, Maid of Honor and Best Man; Rebekah (best friend) and Shane (Nate's brother), Bridesmaids; Barbara (my older sister), Katherine (my younger sister), and Elizabeth (best friend), Groomsmen; Larry (cousin), Greg (Nate's friend from school), and Joe (Nate's friend from school); and Flower Girl and Ring Bearer; Christine (my sister's fiancee's daughter) and Cole (Larry's son). My Mom and Nate's Mom; Joan and Gina lit the Unity candles and my brother and Nate's father; Harlan and Dale, walked them down the isle. My brother played another role in walking me down the isle since our Dad was not around. That was the line-up and it was a perfect one! I don't think that I would have chose anyone different.

I was planning the whole wedding (with Nate's input here and there). We chose the church that I frequented with my Aunt since I was little. Even though I was not an active member of the church, the pastor agreed to let us have the wedding there. It was also the church in which my Grandma got married to my step-Grandpa in the early 90's. Pastor Dave had us go through some pre-marital counseling. It was part ofthe cost of having the wedding there and something that he always had people do before he married them. We were supposed to have 6 sessions with him and after the 3rd one he said that he trusted in our marriage and we did not have to go back for the other three. Boy was that a good feeling!!

The church was set, now we had to find some place to have the reception. We didn't want anything too fancy or too expensive. We went to the Dryden VFW which was right up the road to see if they had July 27 open and they did. That was set, the reception would be at the VFW! We found the DJ by a recommendation from someone we asked. The person we asked was busy that day so they told us about a DJ in Ithaca and that he wasn't that expensive. We met with him and that was set. We just had to tell him what songs we wanted, the names of the bridal party, and were and when it was going to be. There was a lady we knew who owned a bakery and we got them to do the cake for us (for a discounted price). Now we had to find a photographer. I though about it and knew that Nate's Uncle Duane takes some good pictures. We asked him to do the pictures and he agreed. It was his wedding gift to us so the pictures were free!!!! We met with a florist to do the flowers and for the little amount of flowers that we wanted, the price was ridiculous. I was not much of a crafter but I decided that I would go to a craft store and do the flowers myself. I got all the stuff to do my bouquet (two of them so I could toss one and keep my original one), the flowers for the girls, and some arrangements for the pews in the church, the ones to decorate the cake, and some for the tables at the reception. Instead of paying a florist over $700 for all of this, I paid about $150 for everything that I did myself.

Our table decorations were nothing big. We covered the tables with table cloths. Some tables were pale blue and some were light yellow. There were just candle holders with ribbons attached and a long white candle in the holder. We had a string of white flowers going across the head table with two oil lamps (instead of candles). We decorated everything the night before after the rehearsal. That is also where we had our rehearsal dinner which was pizza and wings!! It was a fun night.

At the rehearsal, there were a people there who were not in the wedding but we told people that they could come if they wanted to. There were also other family members there who had to learn what songs to put on when because we were not having the traditional organ music because I can't stand the sound of an organ. We were all laughing and fooling around, while getting other stuff done, and it was a great time. When Nate and I got up to the altar, the pastor jokingly told me that I still had time to back out of the wedding if I wanted to. We all laughed and I told him that I was sure I wanted to go ahead with it the next day. After the rehearsal was done, we headed to the VFW to decorate and eat our pizza and wings. It's so fun doing stuff yourself and not having to pay someone to do it. Plus it's an experience that you don't forget!

When we were all done with the decorations, Nate and the guys went out and I went back home. Nate stayed somewhere else that night and I think a couple of the girls stayed with me at the trailer. The day before the wedding was done and the next day I would be married with a different last name!

Our Years in the Trailer

As I mentioned in another post, my and Nate's first home was a mobile home. We bought the trailer in 1999 and lived there until 2002. Our trailer wasn't very big but it was big enough for the two of us. We had a friend of mine live with us for a while when she had no place to stay. My sister Kate, her fiance at the time, and her kids lived with us for a little while at one time too. When they were with us it was a little crowded but it wasn't too bad. I also met some people in the trailer park who I became friends with and there were also a few relatives who lived in the trailer park too. I lived only about 5 minutes from TC3 which is where I was going to college. It was an easy travel for me!! That trailer is where I started getting worse with my Cystic Fibrosis (it had nothing to do with the trailer though). That is where I started having IV's at home more often, more hospital visits, had my first episode of coughing up blood, and where I started sleeping with oxygen. That is also where we lived when I had my first medport implanted so I didn't have to have PICC lines or peripheral IV's anymore. That was really nice!

One of my closest friends in that trailer park was Tammy. After about a year of living there, she realized that she knew me when I was a lot younger. Her friend is the girl who lived in the house behind the apartment that we lived in when I was little. Her friend is the one who gave me those presents after I got out of the hospital and it was my birthday. Well, Tammy had also been around a lot when I lived there. She knew me when I was little. It really is a small world!

This is also the home where we got our doggy, Sasha. She is a Rotty and she was an absolute joy for us. We taught her so many things and she was like our baby. Sadly, we had to get rid of her in 2006 because I couldn't stand all of the pet dander and the smell that she gave off. It made it harder for me to breathe and it was already hard enough on me. We have not had another pet since and don't know when and if we'll get another one.

Nate moved out of the trailer in February of 2002 and I stayed there to finish school. He went to his hometown to stay with his parents because his job took him there and he thought that would be a better life for us. As soon as I finished school, I finished planning the wedding, the wedding took place in July, and then we started trying to sell the trailer so we could buy another home in the area that his parents live. We were married on July 27, 2002 (which I'll post about later), we sold the trailer in August, and we started looking for a house in what would be our new hometown (our at least my new one and Nate's old one). This would be the beginning of our new life together.

The College Years

Right after high school I moved out of Craig and Rhonda's and into an apartment of my own. That July, Nate moved out of his parent's house and in with me. Also that month, I started my very first job at Valu Home Center as a cashier/sales associate. I very quickly worked my way up to counting inventory and checking in new shipments. I got a raise a little while after I started. In August 1999 I started college classes at Tompkins Cortland Community College (TC3) and was determined to finish with an Associates Degree in Business Administration. Since I wasn't sure how things were going to go, I started out part time with my classes and still worked part time also. Things were going great! Nate and I then started looking to buy our first home together (a mobile home). He proposed to me in November 1999 while we were at home and I accepted. We waited until Thanksgiving to tell almost everyone. My sister Kate already knew because she was there when he proposed. We were a very busy couple! We got approved to buy a mobile home and we moved in December 1999 from Homer to Dryden. This is also about the same time that I had to change doctors again. I was no longer pediatric, I had to start seeing the adult CF doctor, Dr. Sexton. We were now living in the same town where I was going to school. I quit my job at the hardware store and started working at the local pizzeria so that I didn't have to travel so far to go to work. Eventually things didn't work out at the pizzeria, the owner and I didn't see eye to eye, so I quit. That same day, I filled out an application at Mobil gas station and almost immediately had an interview. I went to the interview and I was hired. The job wasn't too bad and the manager was more than willing to work with my school schedule.

I was working at Mobil full time and then also started my classes back up after the winter break and they were full time too. So, I basically worked and went to school. It wasn't too bad at first. I wasn't really in the hospital all that much. Living in the mobile home is the first place where I coughed up blood. That was scary when it first happened!! Dr. Sexton told me that it was really nothing to worry about unless is was more than 1/4 cup. After the blood happened, that's when my lungs started getting worse. I had to start wearing oxygen at night while I was sleeping too because my O2 levels would drop while I was sleeping. Instead of staying in the hospital for long periods of time, I started doing IV antibiotics more frequently at home. It was easier this way so I could continue working and going to school. Toward the end of 2000, I was still continuing on with my classes and working at Mobil but I was now also working at the Video Shop on the weekends. That job was awesome and the owners, Mike and Gina, were very nice. I have not seen Mike in quite some time and I miss him.

I started going to the doctors office more frequently as time went on. I had more espisodes of coughing up blood and had IV treatments more frequently, so in August 2001, I had a mediport implanted in my chest. This made it so that I didn't have to get peripheral IV's anymore. It was much more convient to do IV antibiotics this way. Around December of 2001, Nate and I started planning the wedding on top of everything else that was going on. We had even bought our wedding rings a little while before that. We didn't want to get married until I was done with school because I was getting financial aid and if we would have gotten married, they would have gone by his income and my financial aid would be gone! I was planning to graduate college in May 2002. In my last semester of college, it started to seem hopeless that I would graduate on time. They had my degree wrong. It was still some sort of Business degree but it wasn't Business Administration like I wanted. I had to switch some of my last semester classes right before we began the semester, and that worked out fine. I was then told that I needed to take some sort of Physical Education class which I knew that I couldn't do. I got a doctor note saying that I couldn't be in PE when I was in high school and they weren't going to let me do it now either. I got away with taking Drug Studies. There was one time that we took a test in that class and I noticed on one of the multiple choice questions that the right answer wasn't there. I pointed it out to the professor while we were taking the test and he had to look it up in the book. I was right!! People thought I was crazy to question the professor, but I got 4 extra points on my exam for pointing out his mistake! Woohooooo!!

About three weeks before college graduation, graduating really seemed impossible. I started coughing up blood again and this time is was a large quantity. I had to have surgery on my lung to stop the bleeding. Of course that would cause me to be behind on my college work. I had someone picking it up and bringing it to me though so I could try to keep up. I had a final report to do with a group in one class, a final exam for American History, a final exam for College Algebra and Triganometry, and a few other things that I needed to finish before the end of classes so that I could graduate. The day after I was released from the hospital was about a week before the end of classes so I went right back to class without taking a break at home. The Professors thought that I was crazy but I told them that I couldn't put classes off and graduate in August because I had a wedding to finish planning. My wedding, which was taking place on July 27, 2002. I caught up on all of my work and took all of my finals on time. I think that I got high B's or A's on most of them, which again amazed the Professors. On my Algebra and Trig final, the Professor told me to come in the next day and she would have my final graded in case I needed to take it again for a better grade. I went into her office the day after the final and she told me that I was fine. She handed me my exam and I got a 105/100. I got almost everything right and the bonuses right!! I still have that exam as a souvenir!! So, I beat the odds again and graduated college (.5 below honors) with an Associate's Degree in Business Administration in May 2002. Now it was on to finishing the plans for the wedding!!