relief

I'M HOME!!!!!!!!!! seriously can't tell you how good it feels and what a world's difference it makes just to be in your own house.  I cant do stairs, and am pretty unbalanced on my feet still, so I've just been hanging out on the middle level of our house, sleeping on the couch.  Pip wasn't thrilled to see me.. well he was for 2.5 seconds but then he was really afraid of my o2 mask, so he wouldn't really come near me.  We've made some progress and he'll lay next to me now, but he mainly follows my mom and dad around. Thanks a lot pip :[ lol just kidding - I still love him even though he doesn't love me :[  Sprocket, on the other hand, was so thrilled to see me regardless of the mask, that his tail wagged so hard it shimmied up through the rest of his body.  He was/is sooo snuggy that he contorts his body into any position to be completely pressed into me.  Sometimes, when we're not snugging, he just rests his head on the foot of my chair and wags his tail at me lol so cute. 

This is definitely a struggle -- and that's sugar coating it.  The mornings tend to be particularly hard -- especially the ones right after a really good day.  For example, yesterday I did more than I have!  I sat up at the table for breakfast for the first time, June and Patti visited (thanks guys!) and I even rode the exer-bike a few minutes.  I knew I'd feel it today, but didn't realize how much.  This morning was very hard to breathe, especially when I would cough -- it took me so long to recover from a little cough.  My o2 started dropping and my body and lungs just hurt. I ended up taking a Percocet, which brings me to todays theme lol -- relief.  I'm so thankful for all the ways my CF is relieved throughout the day.  I feel tight?  I do a treatment to relieve the tightness. Legs stiff?  Take a little walk or do the bike to relieve them.  Anxiety? Pain?  Take a Percocet and feel the relief.  In those moments when it's really bad, I feel as if it'll last forever.  Then what? And I know this is weird.. but I just keep thinking there's no relief in hell.  There's literally no thirst that is quenched to any degree.  But with Jesus, relief abounds.  Not only am I SOO thankful for the relief I'm experiencing now; that those times of extra hard breathing, extra pain, and then worry are relieved right now, but they will be forever relieved when I'm called home, or Jesus returns - whichever happens first lol.  There's a song that says "He will lead me to springs of living water" and that's all I can picture today - how relieving the Living Water is.  It's calm, and peaceful, flowing so gently.  It's clear - theres no muck, or confusion -- just crystal clear. It's refreshing and cool.  Just picture the beautiful spring running along... it's just so relieving.  So today, among alllllll the things God is so abundantly blessing me with (I'll have to write a blog about that too and make sure to thank everyone for being those blessings -- someone please remind me to do that!) I am thankful for relief.

This fighter gets relief because God is love.