Good News & This Time Last Year...

Well we'll start with the good news is, I got my flu jab :)
After not receiving it last year, it was quite a scary time, the doctors told me if I was to catch flu my chances of pulling through wouldn't be too high, so the fact I was unable to get the jab last year was a very frightening thing, so this year, woohoo, I'm all vaccinated and ready to face the evil winter months!

The next piece of good news is, it doesn't seem my 'cold' has developed into anything too serious, yes I have a tickly annoying cough, yes I keep blowing my nose and yes my glands are well and truely swollen, but it isn't too much that I feel worried and thus far it hasn't gone to my chest and hopefully I will be able to manage a bit more than 10 days between my IV courses this time!

The final piece of good news, is that Josh has officially left work now and has taken over the role from Mum and has become my full-time carer. My Mum has been amazing to me and has been so fantastic at not just being my general wonderful Mum, but also for looking after me so well for the last 20 years. I believe without my Mum keeping me so positive, I wouldn't be alive today, when I've felt down she's picked me up, she's kept me on the right path, she's had faith and belief in me that I can do anything that is put in front of me, she has fed me up when my weight was low, she's kept me optimistic but also realistic which is super important, she's been by my side when I'm unwell and she's always dancing beside me at a party, basically - I owe a lot to her and I love her to pieces.

This does mean that I can now live with Josh and Foxxy permanently without being between houses all the time :D yay!
I used to be frightened of being on my own, so particularly when I was very unwell, I'd try and always have someone with me so I didn't have to do too much for myself, or if things got really difficult for me (and as morbid as it sounds!) I didn't have to worry that I would die alone. So now I no longer have that worry, but it does create a few different worries, for example money! We are going to be worse off, but not to the point where we can't live, we'll just have to be a bit more money-wise and not spend it on unecessary things and will probably have a cheap christmas (so don't be expecting anything expensive if you receive gifts from us!)
It will be great though when I'm in hospital because on the days when Josh would visit, he would normally come straight from work and not arrive until 7.45ish which used to mean we didn't get too much time together, so at least now he'll be able to come earlier in the day and stay a bit longer :)
It will all hopefully work out for the best, if I can put up with him for 24 hours a day?! ..... I'm joking :)!

Now onto the main topic of this blog:
This time last year my consultant told me with the way my lungs had been declining (which was at quite a rapid rate) they didn't think I had more than a year or so to live.
Well I can safely say, it's now been a year since that day and I am still here, I'm still fighting, still living and breathing (sort of lol) I'm still just as much the Kerry I was before, just I now come with a few added extras like my 'cheelywhair' and my oxygen, for example have become my new best friends.
My lung function is around 12/13% worse than it was a year ago, which obviously has had a big impact on my quality of life, but it hasn't stopped me working really hard and trying to get on the transplant list, I'm still pigging out and doing everything I can to gain the much-needed weight!
So in summary of how things have gone during this year. My weight has gone up from a very low 32kgs (5 stone!!) to 40kgs (6 stone 4) which is really good! But my lung function has gone from 32% (in February 2011) to 19% (in October 2011) which is pretty bad, lol!
But as is always the case, you've got to take the good with the bad, I'm going to prove that my 'expiry date' is none other than a silly prediction and keep on working my butt off, so that my friends, is exactly what I plan to do :)!

Thank you for reading.
xxx