Craig and Overhaulin' Update

Tenative date for the bro to be a movie star is September 19. Watch and see if he makes the cut and shows up on screen. I think he is debating about going back in the spring for another build. We will see and I will keep you updated.

Being happy, positive, and some thoughts on blogging

I guess my life has been boring the past couple of weeks because I can think of nothing worth blogging about. Well there are a few things but I'll save those for later. I have had a major attitude change in the past few days which has put me in a positive state of mind. It feels good to have positive thoughts again because I could feel myself becoming more and more negative every day. That is a bad feeling! It is amazing how at times God sends a person or even just a comment your way at just the right time. It's amazing how he knows what you need, even when you don't.

This blog helps me stay positive about things, especially when I get a comment from someone who says they are thinking about me, praying for me, or that I may have helped them in some way. There are more people than I realize who read this blog and many of you are friends from either high school or college. Some of you I haven't seen since graduation from one school or another, but have been able to reconnect through this blog. Some of the people who read this blog know more about the early times of my illness than others and know that I am only scratching the surface of the things I went through. To those people who were there for me I want to say, "Thank You!"

This blog is hard to write at times because I want to make it semi-enjoyable to read and for that to occur I have to include some emotion. That emotion may be sadness, happiness, worry, etc. By including that emotion, it forces me to open up and tell the world what I am feeling. I don't spill my guts on here but I do have to open up sometimes to the point of being uncomfortable. No one has ever judged me in a negative way publicly because of what I have written, but just putting myself out there for judgment is hard.

And with that said...I'm done for tonight!

Stuck

I feel like I have so much to say and somewhere down deep I do. I just feel like I need something to happen to give me a start. I feel stuck in so many ways right now. I feel like I have a new lease on life and im not living it! Hopefully in the next day or so I can better explain. Pointless blog but I felt the need to put my fingers on the keyboard and type random words formed into a pattern we call sentences! Sorry for those of you who wasted your time reading this blog!

Free at last, free at last

For the past five weeks, I have been a prisoner. A prisoner to an IV known as a PICC line and a bag of medicine known as ganciclovir. I have had to take this IV medication at home two times a day, every day. Each time I sat down for the infusion it was a two hour ordeal. My life has revolved around medicine since the transplant but with the addition of the IV my life has been planned around those two hour blocks, one in the morning and one at night. I was up each morning for work at 4:30 to start boiling the water for my oatmeal, hook up to the IV, take my 8,000 pills, check my blood sugar, give myself my insulin shots, eat, wait for the meds to finish, then begin getting ready for a shower. Yes, I had to get ready for a shower...quite an ordeal at 6:30 AM! My mornings were crazy! AHHHH!! This morning, it was so peaceful because I got my PICC line removed when I went to the doctor yesterday. Don't get me wrong, if anyone saw my "normal" morning you would probably still think it was nuts. I am honestly on cloud nine right now because I am able to go where i want without having to drag an IV pole around the house or plan my life around the gancyclovir. Instead of the IV, they gave me two more pills to take which do the same job just not quite as effectively. They said that it was okay though now that the virus is almost gone. Now that I am out of the prison I was in, I'm looking forward to getting back out on the weekends and waking up a little later for work. It's funny the things that excite you!

Diabetes Sucks! but I'm here to say it so its okay...

It has been a few days since I have updated my blog. With school starting back I have been crazy! It seems I have very little time to think about what I should blog about let alone sit down and write something. Well an update on me follows!

I found out a little over a week ago that I am diabetic and have been trying to manage that through my diet and through insulin. I am hoping that that goes away once they taper my steroids. I have what is known as steroid-induced diabetes which means it is caused by medicine. It is kind of like gestational diabetes and should go away once I get off steroids, much like a woman may have diabetes during pregnancy. My sugar goes way up then an hour later it has dropped to the floor. I get nervous because I dont understand why it does that. Last Saturday, my sugar was low all day then after dinner I checked it before going to a friends house and it was close to 400, which is way high. I ended up staying at home and checking it every hour to make sure it came down. I am still taking my IV medication which pretty much rules my day. It is an hour and a half a session two times a day. Hopefully tomorrow I will get to stop the IV treatments. That will allow me another hour of sleep each morning and save my weekend nights from being destroyed by an 8:00 date with a bag of meds and an IV pole. Well, that is pretty much my life right now.....meds and school.

I am happy to be back to work though. I was so bored just sitting at home. I get tired really quick, but everyone says that is normal after a major surgery. I tend to forget that it was only 5 months ago that I was cut in half to have an organ removed from my body and replaced with another. I guess that can be considered a major surgery!

AHHHH!

Being diabetic sucks! I know it will get better but i feel like I am constantly playing a game trying to keep the ball balanced in the middle. My sugar will drop and I will get shaky so i have to eat some sugar to bring it up. I always eat too much and then my sugar is way high! This is nuts. Hopefully it will get better soon. Just needed to vent. I plan on having a better blog soon....my life is so revolved around medication right now I dont have much time to reflect on any thing that has happened during the day. I feel like I am constantly running around trying to get everything finished.

Update

Hospitals suck! I was back in the hospital from Wednesday until Saturday about 3. Got home late last night and went to bed. My blood glucose (sugar) was way high on Wednesday. It was recorded one time above 600. That is all they could tell me because the hospital machine didn't record any higher so they admitted me on the spot. I missed the first two days of school and will miss at least one this week.

Well, thats my story. Just an update. I'm out now and hopefully will be out for a while. Life's not very exciting in the hospital so nothing really to blog about.

Energy

School started today for teachers in Dawson County and I started back today. It has been just over four months since the surgery and I was a little nervous about how I was going to handle it. I handled returning fine, but at the end of the day I am absolutely worn out. Got home and crashed hard! Now I am up for a few minutes and I can feel myself crashing again. Gonna take some time to build up my stamina I know. Im way more tired than I expected though. The kids don't return until Thursday and I can only imagine how tired I'm gonna be this weekend.

It is hard to believe the surgery has taken this much out of me. I honestly thought that at this time i would have most of my energy back. Guess I was wrong!! Hopefully once I get to moving again some of my stamina will return!

Overhaulin' Recap

Craig got back from filming an episode of Overhaulin' in Cali on Saturday. He had an awesome time and was able to make some friends and contacts out there that hopefully he can use later on to further his career.

He came back excited from the trip and said he loved flying. He was excited about the return flight. He flew in the new 777 (I think). He said there was a tv in every headrest with about 10 movies to choose from and XM radio to listen to if you wanted. He had an awesome time and was offered the opportunity to go back for pay if he wanted. He is thinking about going back in spring and helping on another build. He got to meet Lanzini from Lanzini Motorsports (they build celebrity cars and crazy customs). Lanzini and Chip Foose both offered him a chance to return. An awesome opportunity that was given to him. I'm glad he took it and hope that he is able to return.

This is the Corvette they built!