Canada Reads!

I think I forgot to mention but my parents are here for NB March break! Yay! Isaiah's family was here for a quick visit on the weekend so there has been no shortage of family around. Today we went to see the final debate of Canada Reads! Everyone seemed okay with me dragging them to the CBC building this morning even though no one else had read any of the books (I'm still finishing up The Orenda) or have been following the debates this week. It was a fantastic way to spend a morning and I totally fangirled over Stephen Lewis.
After the show, we explored more of the CBC building and then went for lunch to have some delicious sushi. Mmmmm.

Stephen Lewis! (Me screaming in the back row!). 

The lighting was not conducive for audience members taking pictures.

Dad tried to get HNIC to hire him to talk about hockey when they can no longer afford Don Cherry.

Mom was more interested in finding the tickle trunk!

And looking for Rusty and Jerome. They were not home.

Neither were Casey and Finnegan.

6-min walk test is complete!

I finally did my walk test today! (Urg!!!) The first time I did the test about a year ago, I thought 'oh this is kind of fun, I get to push myself and see how fast I can really walk'. Now all the fun is gone and I no longer care about seeing how fast I can walk in 6 minutes. They have it set up in a fairly busy hallway too so it's like an obstacle course where you have to weave between all the nurses and doctors strolling down the hall while trying not to run over their toes with the oxygen cart. It is not as fun as it sounds. I feel like I lose significant time turning around at each end of the hallway but I can't imagine that I am alone in having that problem.

The one good thing about finally having the test done is that it means it is over for another three months. The results were fine, my oxygen levels still drop off faster then I would like but my distance was still about the same so at least my legs aren't losing strength. I was about to say that I'm not losing endurance but I don't think that a 6-min walk test is a good reflection of endurance. Basically, everything was about the same but slightly worse than three months ago. The physiotherapist didn't seem overly concerned about it so nothing is going to change in my program.

I was late getting to physio as I forgot my sneakers and had to drive back to get them (thankfully it happened on the one day I drove up to physio). Because I was so late and then they finally decided I would do my walk test, I ran out of time for the treadmill. I was obviously heartbroken about this. To make up for it, we spent the evening walking around the art gallery. I'm sure it is about the same thing.

Doctor appointments.

It seems that the weather is not cooperating with my declaration of it finally being spring as it is still freezing cold out. Maybe next week will be a bit better.

I had a doctor appointment at the CF clinic today. It was not very exciting. They took some blood and I agreed to be part of a study looking at diabetes, CF, and exercise. They claim that I gained 2 kg in the past month but I think they are wrong.  There is no way I gained that much weight in one month. I think it was different because they used a different scale than they have for my past visits. I also think it is wrong because I according to our bathroom scale, I have not gained 2 kg. I told them not to be too disappointed when next month I lose about 2kg but they didn't listen to me!

I also had a resident doctor who knew nothing about CF or the transplant process. I understand that people need to learn but can they do it with the other patients? His top three ridiculous questions of the day were: "Did I know when to expect the transplant?" "Was I working?" and "Is there a CF clinic in the Maritimes?" I understand he is just learning but surely the other patients in the morning would have given him some idea of how the transplant process works? Or maybe he should have read about it before attending a CF clinic? Or maybe he should have looked at my chart for 10 seconds before asking me all the silly questions. Most of my frustration was because it was 2pm and I had been there since 11am and I really just wanted to talk to the doctor and go get some lunch.

It was all good news though! Well, 'good' might be a stretch, it was all the same expected news. It seems that my head cold was just a head cold as I had thought as my lung function remains steady with fev's around 0.79 or 24% (still not very awesome). So I basically have to just keep doing what I'm doing and I see them again next month.

I did learn that a random side effect of the transplant medication is that Vit A and E absorption tends to increase so peoples' levels super increase for an unknown reason. One less pill I will have to take! Ignoring all the anti-rejection meds I'll be on, of course.

Art Mondays!

For Christmas/birthday, I received 'Chinese Brush Paintings' kit. It has paints, stiff hair and soft hair paint brushes, ink stone, paper, and instruction book. A few weeks ago, I decided I was ready to tackle the kit. The book says that the idea of Chinese Brush painting is minimalism with a lot of white space. It also involves nature scenes which I enjoy painting so excellent choice!

The warm up exercises involved painting fish and bamboo and practice with how to use the brushes. I found the ink stone is really hard to use. The idea is to add water to the ink stone and mix the water into it to make ink. It is easy in theory but for the rabbit I painted, it was really hard to get it to be a solid black colour. I think it all just takes practice.

My practice fish!

Ink block!

Ink made!

The instructions are definitely confident in the painter's abilities as they go 'Step 1: draw this picture, Step 2+3: Add minor details, Step 4: Do the rest of it!'. 

I painted a rabbit from the books! But he ended up being too big to add the second carrot that was suppose to be on the ground. So a week later, I painted a new version of the rabbit.

I gave up on the ink well at the end and just used black paint as I couldn't get the ink to become solid black.

Rabbit #2. A bit less intimidating with room for the second carrot!

Happy March!

Happy March!

This means it's spring right? Right!?! It's going to warm up now? I know everyone is complaining about how they are ready for winter to be over and I concur whole-heartedly! (Everyone except my mother who will happily ski until the last snow pile has melted)

Bring on temperatures higher than 0 degrees! A few day ago, I read that this winter has been the coldest in Toronto in 15 years but today I read it was the coldest Toronto winter in 20 years. Does this mean that the bitter cold of the past few days bumped it from 15 to 20 years or that the reporters are just making stuff up at this point? Either way, it has been way colder than I expected a Toronto winter to be and I am ready for some weather that will not make my lungs to seize up and cause long coughing fits.

So yay for spring! I declare that winter is over!