Great Strides both in the park and at Clinic

This past weekend was finally the Great Strides walk that I've been fundraising for for the past month and thanks so much to everybody who pledged me.  The generosity from people I haven't seen or heard from in years was really quite touching.  We woke up on Sunday morning dressed the girls all up in their red outfits so they'd match the team theme and hit the road for New West.   For those wondering, the feather boa was our team symbol, I'm not just trying to be a trend setter for male fashion.

It was really great seeing how many people showed up.  We got there a bit early so we let the girls play in the park for a little bit.

The walk went great, the weather was perfect, the girls were so well behaved as they let us push them around for 5km and even though we didn't go at a breakneck pace, it was really nice to not be winded after five minutes of walking.

Today the news got better.  I had my regularly scheduled clinic follow-up just to see how I'm doing post surgery with my recovery and how my lungs are getting along.  I thought going in I'd do ok.  I was really pleased with the results.  My weight has stayed pretty stable at just over 150lbs despite having had surgery a month ago and a pretty serious stomach flu just a couple of weeks ago.  What I was really happy with was my PFT results.  In December when I had my wake-up call that I needed to start doing things differently and what ultimately led to me starting this blog, my PFTs were sitting below 50%. In February, when I had decided on muy course of action and started putting my plan in place my PFTs were at 58%.  After my IV's were done in March and was tested in my follow-up I had elevated my numbers 67%.  After that appointment I had expressed a feeling that almost bordered on disappointment. I had worked so hard and "only" seen a 9% improvement.  Many would be thrilled at that number, but growing up I was spoiled by regular numbers of +90% and I think a small part of me, deluded as it may have been, thought it would be as simple as putting in a little work and I'd be right back up there.  This appointment my increase was less than last time, but I'm really thrilled with it nonetheless.  I set a goal of 70% in my blog in march.  Well I did that and then some and have gotten my numbers up to 73%.  What this appointment has done, is inspire me to stay the course.  I want to see just how much lung function I can claw back from this thing.  I really don't know what is realistic or even possible, so I'm just going to keep setting goals in five percent increments.  My last goal was 70% ... mission accomplished.  New Mission ... 75%.  After that, the next goal will be 80% and so on.  The other positive that I saw in my numbers was that it wasn't just my FEV1 number that was up, but all my numbers across the board when it came to lung function.  

This may sound kind of saccharine and cliched but on days like this, I really believe that if I keep up this level of dedication, I continue having the awesome support I have from family and friends, if all the amazing fundraising people are doing for CF continues and the progress in research and treatment keeps going, that this story will not only have it's happy ending, but that ending won't come for a very long time.