Baking And Bananas

I have neglected the blog a bit, but I have been busy with pulmonary rehab and other things. I had some spare time this week, so I decided to put my not-so-great baking skills to use.

I had an urge last Monday to bake. I cook all of the time and I feel comfortable in that role. I cook dinners most nights and I enjoy trying new recipes and seeing where I can take my culinary skills. Baking, on the other hand is not my forte, nor have I ever been that interested. It might have something to do with the fact I don't like sweets as much as I love salty snacks!

Monday is when that changed. I had an urge to bake chocolate chip cookies. I decided to start with something easy and go with the Nestlé Toll House recipe, straight off the back of the chocolate chips bag. I was really nervous because I know baking requires exact measurements, and in cooking I usually take liberties with my measurements. Well, the cookies turned out great and I'm pretty sure Tom has been having them with breakfast, lunch and dinner. I forgot to mention, my husband is a desert-a-holic. It is another reason I don't keep sweet things in the house. He devours ice cream, cakes, and pies like it is his job.

Love And Marriage ... And CF

Two months before my wedding, I was in a car returning from a CF event with my pediatric doctor. As our car pulled up in front of her house, she looked at me and said, "I'm not going to wish you luck for your wedding day, I'm going to wish you luck for your marriage." I must have looked perplexed because she went on to say, "The wedding is just one day, your marriage is for the rest of your life. You deserve luck for your entire life, not just one day." Her nuggets of wisdom and advice were what I cherished most about her.

She was right, the wedding was just one day, and a happy, most exciting day at that. We need luck and good thoughts for the rest of our lives.

Update On A Busy Week

This is the first chance I have had all week to sit down and write on my blog. This week has been busier than I imagined, but it was all good busy.

Let's skip Monday. To be honest, I don't even remember Monday. Tuesday is when it all started. I have been waiting for Tuesday, September 10th for over a month. On Tuesday, I started pulmonary rehab. This is an eight week program dedicated to helping people with lung disease. It is a program to help people start exercising and learn how to manage their disease. I'm in this program for the exercise. I asked my doctors months ago to get me into a rehab program where I was forced to exercise weekly. Any medical professional in my life knows how much I hate to exercise and how lazy I can be, so for me to actually ask to be put into this program was a huge step forward. This program will be good for me, and keep me strong while waiting for new lungs.

The Supporting Role: A Husband's Perspective

As Maggie's husband, primary carer and chief "blogmaster" of Maggie's Miracle, I am delighted to have been invited to make my first blog post. My wife insists that people want to hear my story and so she set me this assignment. Her brief was simply that I should talk from the heart, which is not easy for us Brits. But I will do my best to give you an honest and personal account of our journey together so far.

I have always loved TV hospital dramas. Growing up in the UK, I was an avid fan of the BBC shows Casualty and Holby City. For American readers, I suppose an equivalent show would be ER, which I actually have no interest in watching. Maybe it's because British TV is infinitely superior to the endless drivel of commercials that passes for American TV, or maybe it's because I now find myself playing a supporting role in my very own hospital drama!

The Cast Of BBC's Casualty

Good News And Thankful Thursday

It is more like great news in the Williamson household. I have been approved by our insurance company to have my transplant at Stanford! Yippee!

Let me backtrack by saying many people were involved in phone calls, including my husband, to the insurance company. We actually had an idea that the denial from the insurance company was going to be reversed last Friday, but I did not believe them until I got solid confirmation. The confirmation came on Tuesday from Stanford and from the insurance company. We didn't ask many questions, but someone worked some magic and all things are sorted. I thought this process would be a lot longer and I planned on giving ourselves four weeks to sort out appeals and such, and then I was already planning on what transplant center I wanted to go to for new lungs. I am grateful we don't have to move and I don't have to go through another evaluation. I am now waiting on results from one final test, and then I can be listed for lung transplant.

So, What Do You Do?

Before I get into my post, I would like to say, no news yet on the insurance situation. When I know more I will write an update.

So, what do you do? It's an age old question we ask others and get asked ourselves. This question is usually the ice breaker into any small talk conversation with a stranger. It always seems to be the safest question to ask someone when first meeting them. Asking someone their profession, or what do they do in their life seems to be society's way of defining each other.

Since graduating college, I have been able to answer this question without having to tell much of a back story. "Oh, I work in non-profit." Or, most recently, "I'm a part-time nanny." These answers seem to always suffice. The stranger is usually satisfied with my answer, and we move on from there.