Thursday, November 5, 2009

Yesterday's Meeting & Clinic Visit

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! :D My day did get better yesterday. I worked a half day and slept all afternoon. Greg came home with flowers and cooked me dinner.

So here’s an update on two things:

Yesterday’s Meeting

My meeting was, well, interesting. The reason for the meeting was because my client has a water line in the state highway. The state told them they had to move it. I did the design and am now managing the construction. Now that we are in construction, the state is making all these changes to the design, and it would have been much less expensive if they had made these changes during the design phase. So, my client is not happy. It has cost them over $100,000 so far.

I made my points, which were all very good ones, and the contractor said, "You have a good argument. Let's hear what the state has to say." Well, the guy from the state didn't have much to say, other than, "You have to do what I say because I said so." (That's me paraphrasing, but I am not exaggerating.) When I said, "You permitted and signed-off on these plans. You can't just go and make changes now," he responded, "We don't have time to review your plans. We just sign off on them without looking at them." I told him, "That is not our fault." And he flipped out on me and said, "Look! You guys have been doing work with us for 20 years! It's not our job to wipe your asses for you!"

Very professional. I got pissed and started arguing, but my boss's boss said, "Kristen, Kristen, it's okay," so I shut my trap. Then the contractor winked at me. So, I knew everyone in the room thought guys was a jerk and that I was right. And, I did get him to back down on the some of the stuff he was telling us to do.

When I told the client how the meeting went, he said, "Good job! You got them riled up and now they are on notice!" So, overall, after my initial shock at being yelled at, I felt pretty good because I "won" and the client is happy.

Hemoptysis (Coughing up Blood)

My CF doctor had me come in this morning – he said that, normally, he would just prescribe an antibiotic, but, with me being pregnant, he wanted to be extra careful. I am glad I went in. My PFTs actually went up! Only 3%, but I was still shocked because I expected them to go down during pregnancy, and because I felt crappy. Everything looked and sounded good, so he told me to just lay off the hypertonic saline for a few days and keep an eye on things. He said I could have a mild exacerbation or a virus, but it was so mild that it didn’t warrant antibiotics at this time.

I did cough up some more junk today that was streaked with a bit of blood, but I think it may be just leftover from the other day. However, I still took the day off so I can rest. My nutritionist wants my vitamin levels checked, (more than what they checked at my OB’s office), and I have to do another OGTT (yay :P). And they’ve upped the frequency of my clinic visits from every three months to every two months.

A few stats at 12 weeks:

FEV1: 115% (up 3% from pre-pregnancy)
Weight Gain: 4 lbs

9 comments:

Shannon said...

Great belly pic!

Good for you at work! I work with alot (mostly) men, too, and it always feels good to "win one" :)

MFA Mama said...

I'm so glad you were able to get some reassurance on the coughing up blood thing; I was worried but didn't (and still don't) know enough about CF to have anything useful to say and didn't comment.

You might want to ask them to check your Vitamin D levels in particular (probably that's on the list); I recently had mine come back low and there was a whole section in the literature they gave me pertaining to CF patients. From personal experience I can say that correcting the deficiency made ME feel a lot less "blah" in general so maybe they'll find that you're low and some supplements could perk you up a little too!

Great picture--you're actually showing! Wow :)

Katey said...

Love the pic! Glad everything is ok in the CF-world and that your PFT's are actually up...YAY!! I think all of us CFers will take any percentage if it is increasing, whether it is 1% or 10%! I'll be praying your cough calms down the and coughing up blood discontinues!

And good for you with the work situation!

Erin said...

Wow, you look great! I can't imagine all the extra things you have to worry about Kristen. You are amazing!

niki36 said...

WAY TO GO!! (at work && on your PFT's!)

Also, love the baby bump!!

~nicole

Jess said...

Yay on the PFT increase, and love the belly :)

The Browns said...

Yay thats awesome news about your numbers!!

Alicea said...

So glad to hear the cough wasn't serious! Great pregnancy pic - so cute!

RAVEN said...

wow i just read your story from the first post to now my husband is just on the first post of 2009 and i have laughed and cried reading it i have looked at my ins and talked with my husband were ready for our own little journey i will be heading to austin in search of a cf doctor in januray mine is not very good as i have relized this over reading your post and how they understand and listen to you mine do not. plus they tell me to not have children do to that im a dying women and to abort if i ever concieved and it had cf so i need new doctors on my side i have an appt with my high risk OB/GYN for a consultation weve been trying and trying for a year now i belive its time for help and so does he im 122lbs and 72% lung function and getting better since i started really working on my meds instead of just going through the motions i wish the best for you and greg and of course the little one and i will be hear watching intently for your next post through out your pregnacy good luck congrats and well done
ammie

 
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