I just realized that I haven't posted here since Feb! Slap my fingers and call me a bad girl!
A lot, and I do mean a LOT, has happened since my last post. As I mentioned, my house finally sold so I had some decision making to do. I contacted my realtor in Edmonton to see what was available within my beer budget and if the mobile home I so loved way back when I first started looking was by chance available. Sadly, she said they had taken it off the market and it was presently leased until the end of the year.
OK, I go back to the drawing board and start to plan to rent a place in MJ close to my sisters. Nicely get my mind made up about this when the realtor calls me that the tenant of the mobile home has given her notice and would be out on April 1. I would be able to move in almost to the day of vacating my house. Talk about great timing! A quick trip to Edmonton to see if I still love the place (I did) then starting the negotiations for purchase. To make a long story shorter, we were able to agree on a price and in the beginning of April, I made my move.
Thank heavens I have such an awesome sister who helped me pack and she and her daughter did the cleaning after everything was out. I don't know what I would have done without their assistance.
7 months later and I'm happy I chose to come back here. I get to see my son fairly frequently and most of my friends are here. I've come home!
Living in a mobile home has its own set of problems that I'm sure I'll sort out over time. Just little things like I'll have to figure out how to beat the cold floor through the winter months, dealing with the home shifting due to changes in the ground it is set on and getting used to having to pay lot rent. I'm loving that I don't have any steps (other than a few to get in and out of the door), same floor laundry, and the open concept of the living room and eat-in kitchen. I have a love/hate relationship with my skylight - love the lighting from it in the day, hate the noise when it rains (I hate storms).
As you can imagine, this past 7 months have been busy - the move, re-establishing myself here and re-acquainting myself with the city and all it has to offer.
Now on to the elephant in the room. I have been to see my new lung doctor a couple of times already and am now scheduled for another CT scan so he can see what, if anything, has changed with my lungs since last year. He doesn't think I need to be carrying around the oxygen as he said my shortness of breath is because my lung walls are like cement so it is just harder to breath and adding O2 won't make much of a difference. I was quite pleased to stop carrying around the tank everywhere and have found that as long as I pace myself, I can still enjoy going out shopping, etc. I walk very slowly and have to remind myself the walking and talking at the same time isn't a good idea as they both use up my breath.
I'm hoping for some answers at my next visit with him after the CT scan.
I'm still amazed that I see him so often! My pulmonologist in Saskatoon only saw me every 6 or 7 months and my Doc here want to see me every 3 months. I've heard lots of complaints about Alberta health care, but so far I don't have anything but praises for it.
I was running scared and confused for quite a while after the diagnosis but the other day I had the thought that "hey! you love road trips where you don't plan on anything other than a destination. You get to see some awesome sights (and some that aren't so awesome) around each bend in the road. Why not treat this illness as one of those road trips? There will be some good (and probably some not so good) surprises along the way, just look forward to that next awesome sight!" Since I decided to follow my own advice, it was like a huge weight was lifted from my shoulders and a sense of peace settled in. After all, we are all on a road trip with the same final destination so why not enjoy the trip.
Wow! I got pretty wordy this time. Better leave some stuff for our next chat.
Life is good!
