It's December already?

Wowwww, how time flys. We don't get any snow here where I live. If we go up to the mountians we will be able to enjoy the snow. But since PH I have not been up there. So I enjoy the pics :)
I have been SOB lately. I thought maybe it was because of stress, but today I am still having trouble with my breathing. I have been trying to increase my Remodulin for the past 3 weeks almost, with no luck until Sunday. Everytime I did increase I would get more SOB. Yesterday I did try to increase again and it was much better, but today I am still a little SOB, more then usual. I have an appt with my PH specialist in 2 weeks, so I will see what he says.
My buddy Mason is improving a little at a time. He has a long road ahead of him, but I am hopeful and praying for him and his loved ones.

Another phriend will be coming down to Calif, to see her PH specialist. We actually see the same Dr. I will get to meet her on the 9th of December. We will be having lunch or dinner or both, LOL. She wanted me to think of a place, but I dunno where to go so I'm gonna let her choose, as long as its not suchi fuchi, LOL I am ok.
My husband wants to go back to Mexico in about 3 weeks and take me with him. His mom was not doing well when he recently visited her, so he is worried. I am just worried about everything that I have to take with me. Last time I checked with my PH Dr. he said he would support my decision but wasn't in full agreement of me going. In other words it's my call. Darn it, I hate to make these kind of decisions. I really have to think about this. I hate thinking I get headaches, LOL.
My son Carlos put up my outside X-mas lights yesterday. It looks so pretty. I love to look at all the houses with their lights turned on at night. He still needs to bring down the box with the X-mas tree, which is fibre optic, so I don't worry about putting lights on it. I just put all my X-mas decorations on it. Which are all angels. Each year I try to buy at least one for my tree. Did I ever mention that I love angels? Not only do I decorate my tree with them, but I have quite a few in my house. I had to tell my family members not to buy me anymore, because I have no room for them. LOL

Well I guess this is enough yapping, I don't want to put you all to sleep with this endless story.

Have a nice evening and I hope everyone is doing well :)

May all of you have a........

Hope that everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving. Whatever you decide to eat or do. I hope from the bottom of my heart that everyone will enjoy this wonderful day. Please remember to give thanks for all the blessings that we have. And remember prayer and positive thoughts, for our buddy Mason. And all of those that are not doing to well!


I can't wait to start eating TURKEY! Yum, yummy, LOL



Enjoy!!

(((((((((HUGS)))))))

50 yrs old and Happy to be alive!

On Tuesday, November 25th I turned 50yrs old. Now when I was younger, I always thought that 30 was over the hill. I learned that it wasn't, then I dreaded turning 40yrs old. But I lived with it and I was worried about getting old. I always told my kids that I did not want to end up in a old peeps home. That they better not ever put me there.
Well then came PH and I honestly thought that I would not live to be 50yrs old. I thought that I was not going to make it through another year. But here I am 50 and still breathing, sometimes a lil hard to breathe, but I am here, happy and proud to be a 5oyr old.

Now one day in chat a phriend, Marcia was commenting about getting old, she recently had a B'day also. So I told her we are not getting old, just beautiful by the minute! So when ever you feel like you are getting old.... just think of what I told her, ok?
On Saturday, Nov, 22nd I had my B'day party. I had a magnificent time, it was just awesome. I did drink one margarita got a lil typsy and was about to pour me another one. But someone was taking pictures of me doing it, so I decided to just not drink it, LOL. Just in case Imelda wants to blackmail me with that pic, LOL. Imelda is another phriend.

We celebrated from Saturday until Tuesday. Here are the pics!

My daughter Mercedes, my son Carlos in back of me, my son Jose, and Me.


ME!!!, LOL

Me again!!

On bench, my sisters Maria and Martha, in back my sisters Peregrina and Irene, and on wheelie me. Taken at Olvera Street in Los Angeles, CA. A famous alley type place with all kinds of venders selling things made in Mexico and lots of Mexican Resturants. They also play live music in the Plazita, were you can sit and listen to the music or you can dance away!

On bench, my niece Debbie, her mom Graciela, my sisters Maria and Martha. In back my brother Ramon, my brother Francisco, my sister Irene, her husband Carlos, my hubby Juan and then Me :) At Olvera Street

This is a life size Nativity Scene, that is located in the Plazita at Olvera Street.

This is for JenC, she asked me to get the name of a whole in the wall corner place. Famous for it's rolled Taquitos served with guacamole sauce. I knew I would forget the name of it. So I just too a pic! It's called Cielito Lindo! Also located in Olvera St.

This is a bracelet that I made for myself on my brithday so that I could wear that day. It is red and gold crystals with gold rondelles.

A friend of ours John, and my hubby Juan.

A vase with beautiful carnations from my phriend Jen. She had them delivered. Thank-you sooooo much Jen :)

Me agian holding the ballons that my sons drew for me :)

Ok, I think these are enough pictures, LOL. I have had I think the best birthday ever! Thanks to all my family, friends, phamily and phriends! I do not regret one bit being 5oyrs old and beautiful!

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving :) Don't eat to much! Yeah right!!

((((((HUGS))))))

My sons, the taggers!

My son Jose and my son Carlos, tagged one of the inside walls of my garage. They are so busted!
They told me they did it for me. This was done last night. Please be patient many too see.

The beginnng ...............




























To the end.

Don't you think my two handsome taggers did a GOOD job? I love them both! And so proud of them :)

Hope you have a wonderful weekend. Take care.

((((((HUGS))))))

Just tyring to deal

We've been trying to get ready for my 50th B'day party. And my heart has been fluttering like heck. I think, no I know it is probably stress. I get very overwhelmed at this time of year, not just my birthday, but Thanksgiving and X-mas. They are so close together. I am crying for no reason at all. I am worried about this and that I am tired and sick. You name it I am it! I am very moody and bitchy. (Are we allowed to write that?) Oh, well..... I just did.

My husband has been so patient with me. ( I'm not). He is good to me. I appreciate him alot. Even though sometimes he justs ticks me off, men! Can't live with them, can't live without them. Anyway he has been outside since yesterday putting in wire for landscape lights. I mean I told him about 2 weeks ago that I wanted lights by the walkway because it is very dark and I didn't want to risk anyone (drunk) falling or the kids that tend to run around. Boy do they have energy. Do I mean the drunks or the kids have energy? I dunnoooo. Well he finally put some of the lights and he turned them on. They look nice right now, lets see when it gets dark. I am pretty sure they will look nice, after all his specialty is electrical work, even though he can build a house from bottom to top. He likes electrical work better and he is good at it. I am not bragging it is just the truth.

Crap, I am not surprised I am not flooded right now here in my PC room. I am typing away trying not to mispell. I tend to do that alot and I hate that darn backspace button. it takes up so much time. Anyway back to the flood I am just crying away for NO REASON AT ALL!

Ok....the party will come and go soon, and I will be ok? NOT! Thanksgiving is just next week and thennnnnnn X-mas next month! But like I said I get like this every year. But... this year seems to be worse. Maybe turning 50 is bothering me? I don't feel like it is. And I have never worried about getting older. But I do worry about getting older and being ill. I guess I should be thankful that I have lived one more year.

I have to go now and supervise outside. more see what's going on, LOL Hey I managed to get an LOL out. I guess that is a good sign right?

OK enough!

Thanks for reading and allowing me to vent :)

(((((((HUGS))))))))

PH and PHriends

Today is the official day. November 18th, 2008 ~ Pulmonary Hypertension Awareness Day.
I hadn't really thought about what I was going to write about. I was not worried though, because I knew I would think of something. Well I've known for a few days what it is that I wanting so badly to write about. And today the official day would be just perfect.
I want to talk about PHriends. I think I have ALOT more phriends now then what I have ever had before. You see my phriends are very special to me. I have gotten really close to alot of them. Especially the ones from chat. I feel that we have gotten really close and I hope it stays that way. My phriends relate to me as I can relate to them, you see we have something in common and that is PH. I can cry and complain to them about my ups and downs dealing with PH and there is always an answer for me from one or all of them. We pray for each other, we give each other, LOVE, SUPPORT, and HOPE! We also have lots of laughs and good times in chat. We talk about food, liquor and ????.... Lemons!! LOL. Chat isn't just talking about PH, yes we do discuss it. And we all try to answer questions as good as possible ( im not a real good answerer) But I do try. We always welcome newbies and we bomb-bard them with all kinds of questions. We try to make them feel right at home.

This is one of my special, special phriends. He is my buddy Mason! He is 20 yrs young. I met Mason a little over 2 years ago in the PH chat room. At that time Mason was living out here in Calif. a few miles from me. I remember he asked me in chat one evening if I was planning on going to the next PH Support Group Meeting in our area and I told him that I had been wanting to go, but had not made it. He told me that I should go, so...... in Oct. of 2006, I went to my first meeting and that's where I met Mason in person. I remember he was so shy. He had the cutest smile on his face. As soon as I saw him I knew it was him... He had not yet posted his pic on the message boards. So I had no idea what he looked like. But I knew. I remember I went up to him and I introduced myself to Mason, and also introduced my son Carlos. That was the beginning of a good phriendship. Mason had a Tx a little over 2 years ago. And right now my buddy is not doing well. He is in ICU at a local hospital here in Calif. He is intubated and sedated. We get updates on our buddy Mason, through another phriend Colleen. She is wonderful she is our hunter when someone is MIA. She will go out of her way and does even the imposible to try to find out how the rest of us are doing. TY Colleen for all that you do for us.

Everyone is worried about Mason right now, but everyone is showering him with positive good thoughts and prayers. This has been very hard on me and my other phriends.

I am asking in Mason's name to please, please take some time out and pray for him and if you don't pray that's ok, send him positive thoughts. I know that he will feel all our love and support, he will pull through. He is a FIGHTER!!
I pray that GOD will help Mason pull through. GOD has his reasons for doing what he does. But I have been begging GOD to please place his healing hands over Mason and help him!

Again, when you have a moment of time... it only takes a few seconds to ask our LORD to make Mason well.

Thank-you

PH and My Story

Back in 2003 I was having rapid heart beats and alot of SOB. I went to my PCP which then referred me to a Cardio, the whole works was done on me. I went back for results and she told me that the results of the echo showed that I might have Pulmonary Hypertension. She didn't explain to me what PH was so I said ok. She then referred me to a Pulmo Dr that supposively knew about PH. I went to my first appt and indeed he said the same thing. He was to order more tests. But at that time my PCP changed networks so I was no longer allowed to go see that pulmo. I still didn't know what PH was. I was still getting very SOB so I fought with my PCP's office to get a referral to someone that would take care of me. In the meantime I was RX inhalers for asthma, (which I never had). That stuff in the purple disc. (I forget the name)

I was rx something for my rapid heart beats and also lasix. My SOB continued I knew it was getting worse. I was sent to see another pulmo Dr and he told me that there was nothing wrong with me, that I just needed to go home and loose some weight. My PCP then refered me for Gastric Bypass Surgery. I went through all the classes and tests that they require. I had to be cleared by a Cardio Dr and a Pulmo Dr. The cardio Dr said that my echo showed something about my heart but still cleared me. The Pulmo Dr said I did have what looked like PH but he cleared me also. OK I was cleared and good to go..... The Gastric Bypass Surgery Dr called and said he wanted to see me. I went in and he told me that he could not risked doing the surgery on me. He said that the numbers on the echo were supposed to be at 25 and that mine where way over that. He told me... You really need to go see a Dr that can treat you for PH. I was uspet and was crying.

I went home and went online and looked up Pulmonary Hypertension. Oh my GOD. 3-5 years of LIFE LEFT! NO, this can not be true! Why, why I said? Sobbing like always I continued to look further into PH. Then I see.. Ïf you took Phen-Fen, you could have PH! I said what? What the heck is going on? Yeah, I was one of those that took Phen-fen and that's why I now have PH. Funny isn't it, Phen starts with Ph... I am still Phat and I now have PH!

I found PHA boards and checked out the Dr's and I found the wonderful Dr. Channick. He did my RHC and confirmed PH and started me on Tracleer. I started having problems with my Ins they refused to pay continued visits to see Dr. C. They sent me to another Dr that supposively new all about PH but she was not a PH Specialist. She never did anything for me. I was getting worse. I ended up changing Ins at work as soon as open enrollment came up and I went back to Dr. C.. It had been about a year already, he did another RHC, my numbers were down a little not much so he added Revatio. A another year and I was getting worse. He did another RHC and yeap my numbers were higher then the first RHC. He then put me on IV Remodulin. I am still here and I am feeling a whole lot better. I still am SOB, not as much as before, but Dr C tells me we still have room to increase. So at this point, side effects and all, LOL I am increasing.

I can't emphasize again how important it is that you get to a REAL PH Specialist and get treatment!

Sorryyyyyyyyyy so long and thanks for reading

(((((HUGS)))))