Transplant 101: How Transplants Work

One of the best parts of post-transplant life—having nieces!

It’s the end of Donate Life month, and I’ve realized that a lot of people don’t know how transplants actually work. As in, I think a lot of people think that you have the transplant and….that’s it! Poof! Magic!

As much as I wish it were Poof! Magic!, it’s not quite that simple.

The big barrier for transplant wasn’t the actual surgery; surgeons knew how to do that part. The issue was keeping the body from destroying a foreign object, ie, the donated organ (s).

Your immune system is exquisitely calibrated. It knows what’s “you” and what isn’t you, and that’s why it works—it fights things that aren’t you (ie, pathogens) so that you don’t get sick. It likes to kill things that don’t belong, and while that’s great when it’s germs it’s killing, it’s not so great when it’s a vital organ.

So transplants couldn’t happen until immunosuppressive drugs were found. These drugs do what their name says—they suppress the immune system, basically hacking it so that it doesn’t work as well, which means it doesn’t try to kill the thing that “isn’t you”, but is keeping “you” alive. When the body tries to kick out the transplanted part, that’s called rejection. (Rejection is complicated, and there are different types. I’m trying to keep this simple, so I’m just calling it all rejection.)

Your chances for rejection are highest immediately after transplant. At this point in my post-transplant life, rejection isn't really a huge concern. Bu right after, it definitely is the highest concern. So the immunosuppressive meds are at their highest doses immediately post-transplant, and in the years following. As you get father out, the meds decrease.

I’m on three types of medications, broadly:

• Prograf (tacrolimus), aka, “tac.” This is my immunosuppressant. I will take it the rest of my life. When I first had my transplant, I was on a higher dose than I am now, and I was also on another immunosuppressant, which we dropped many years ago now.

• Steroids, which are also immunosuppressive. I am on five milligrams of prednisone, and I will be on that for the rest of my life. Doctors are now starting to experiment with taking people off steroids a few years post-transplant. We tried that with me, but my body did not cooperate. (My body likes steroids, because I have CF related arthritis. Steroids make joints happy!)

• Prophylactic antibiotics, meaning, I’m taking these not because I’m sick, but so I don’t get sick. I take azithromycin (if you’e had a Z-pack, you’ve had this med) every day. I like to compare myself to a chlorinated pool.

• I also take a few other things that aren’t directly related to transplant/immunosuppression.

Now, keep in mind that we have to “hack” my immune system on a daily basis so that it won’t figure out that my lungs aren’t mine. That’s what these drugs do. I will take them forever and ever, amen.

It is a delicate dance—we want to keep my immune system in the dark, so to speak, but we also don’t want it to be so suppressed that I’m getting every single germ that’s out there. That’s not good.

At this point, what my team and I are worried about treating are the side effects of these medications. If you hack your immune system for seventeen plus years, as we’ve done for me, it’s going to….well, not work right! This puts me at a much higher risk of cancer, especially skin cancer, which is why I see my dermatologist for a full body check every six months, and why I check myself over regularly and am very aware of anything strange that pops up on my skin. (I’m going to my doctor on Friday, actually, to get a spot checked out. Better safe than sorry.) I am diabetic because of the meds. The meds cause other side effects, too, which vary from person to person.

But if you stop taking these meds, BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN.

And this isn’t just transplant meds. I lost my hearing because of ototoxic (toxic to the ear) medications pre-transplant. We needed strong IV antibiotics to keep me alive, and that has the effect of me losing my hearing and needing my cochlear implant. But, that’s what I chose. (Now, CF doctors are working to be more cognizant of this, yay! I like!) Chemotherapy is probably the best known treatment that causes a lot of side effects that are not, to put it mildly, great.

But these are the choices we make to stay alive.

I’m on many fewer meds than I was at the beginning. At the beginning of my transplant life, I was on four antibiotics daily—now it’s one. I was on at least 40 milligrams of steroids—now it’s 5.

All of this is a big part of why finding the best possible donor match is so imperative. The closer the match is, the lower your dose of suppression can be, because we don’t have to “hack” it as much. I am very lucky that I have a very good match.

So, that’s how transplants work! If you have any questions, drop them below and I’ll try to answer them as best I can! :)

If there's a reason I'm still alive when so many have died

Miss Madeleine at Easter

It’s Donate Life month, so I thought it would be a propos to talk about something that seems simple, but is often not—gratitude post-transplant.

I will celebrate my eighteenth transplant anniversary in July. To me, that is mind blowing. I am eternally grateful that my donor, Suzanne, decided to donate her organs. Otherwise, I would be dead. I would’ve died at age 23, eighteen years ago.

I would’ve missed so many things, not the least of which is seeing my siblings get married, seeing my godson grow up, getting a new goddaughter in Patty, and meeting my two precious nieces.

Miss Hailey

Now, that being said, that doesn’t mean I don’t have bad days. If you’ve read my book, you know this. There are days when I am sick of doctors, sick of meds, sick of spending time in hospital waiting rooms. That’s normal. Med side effects can be really terrible.

But the thing is, I’m alive. I never come out of an appointment going, I wish I hadn’t had my transplant.

Post transplant life isn’t a life with no health problems. It’s different health problems, but I’ll take it because I am alive. The meds cause problems—we’ve been over this here. Diabetes, early menopause, weight gain, messed up joints—it’s happened to me. I deal with it, some days more gracefully than others. But I never wish away my life.

My friend Sage never got the chance I got. I think about her so often, and when I see people saying that they aren’t grateful for their transplant, I get really angry because I miss her so much.

To me, that dishonors your donor. That dishonors the gift.

Seventeen people die daily waiting for an organ that will never come. Every nine minutes, someone else is added to the national list.

I don’t understand how I got so lucky. I don’t know why I’m alive when so many have died. (If you don’t get that reference, here you go:

To not realize how lucky you are, to not be grateful that you are still alive every single day post transplant, is….unconscionable. (And most of the recipients I know are so grateful. We are.)

I could’ve been one of the 6,000 people who die every year waiting. I wasn’t. I don’t know why. But as long as this ride lasts, I will be eternally grateful for it, even on the days when I want to SCREAM at the incompetence of medical professionals and the insanity that is parking at the New Resort.

Because I’m here, when I could very well not be.

Easter birthday!

Happy Easter! He is Risen!

This year my birthday fell on Easter (for the first time!) and that was pretty exciting. I was born on Good Friday but my birthday has been all sorts of days—Holy Thursdays, Palm Sundays, days in the Octave, and once even the Annunciation! (Transferred because it fell during Holy Week.) And sometimes it’s just in “plain old” Easter or Lent.

This year mom and dad and I went to dinner at the Barn, where I had the ost delicious halibut with handmade lemon ricotta ravioli…

Followed by dessert at my brother and SIL’s house, where I got to snuggle Hailey (an excellent birthday gift!)

AND I got to talk to Melanie and Maddie!

Giggles everywhere.

So it was a very good birthday.

Holy Week: Binding Up Jesus' Wounds

“The greatest acts of fidelity are the silent ones. We must never allow ourselves to underestimate the value of those supposed small acts of fidelity…In our day Christ is suffering much, both from members of His Church and from those outside it. By humble, silent fidelity, we are in our measure trying to heal these wounds that Christ receives. He must not be wounded by us. Let us take this deeply into our hearts. Where are we going in Holy Week? To heal the wounds of Christ in His Mystical Body, the wounds we too have inflicted on Him. …

“May this week be, by our manner of living and our silent fidelity, a week of great renewal for the Church.”

—Mother Mary Francis, PCC

A REALLY big sale!

My book is currently on MASSIVE sale at Ave Maria Press—it’s $2.

That’s right, folks. TWO BUCKS. That’s it!

That makes it a great time to get not only a copy for you, if you haven’t done it yet, but also copies for other people. Early Christmas gifts! Easter baskets! Presents just-because!

This is only happening at the AMP website, so go shop. Do it!

Jinx

Man I hate it when I jinx myself…

So I write a post about how to live Lent when life is Lent-y, and I think, oh this hasn’t happened for awhile…

AND THEN IT HAPPENS.

Sigh. I bring these things upon myself!

Well, not really. It has been a very long time since I’ve had any sort of pulmonary infection issues so I was probably due, to be honest. But I’m doing a course of oral antibiotics and it’s working beautifully, so I feel much better. I’m still dealing with some lingering chest pain, but I know that will get better as the rest of my body heals. I have a week to go on the antibiotics and I’m being very intentional right now in giving my body what it wants (liquids, rest, stretches!) and adding back my Peloton workouts when it feels right to do it. I’m hoping to jump back in with yoga this week (short classes!) to help get some mobility back to my lower right chest, because that’s where the pain was, and I need to start opening that area back up with some good (gentle!) stretches.

I’ve also learned that I can have a lung infection and my blood glucose will be fine. That’s weird, but oh well, t least I know now. The more I learn about blood glucose the more I realize it really is a crazy thing!

So the reason it’s been quiet around here is because of all of the above. I’m very glad to be on the upswing!

Currently on the needles: a long shawl with an interesting construction, which is being knit up in silk! I’ve never knit with silk before and I’m really enjoying it.

Living Lent when your life is pretty Lent-y!

There have been a lot of times in my life when Lent rolls around, people ask me what I’m doing for Lent, and I’m thinking, “MY LIFE IS CURRENTLY LENT.” (Not the case this year.)

February and March used to be pretty “sick” times in my life—it was near the end of the school year so my body was getting tired of the early wakes and the heavy schedule. I’d be doing IV antibiotics, or I’d have TB (That was a fun Lent!), or I was in the hospital for some sort of other thing or another.

Life was pretty Lenty.

Pre-transplant, I was not allowed to fast. And I’m not allowed to fast now because I’m diabetic. There was a, oh, five year period where I could fast, and I tried it, and wow, I was so not good at it. Really, really bad.

But all this to say that some years, your Lent chooses you, and you really might not have to do much else.

If you’re in that position, don’t be hard on yourself. Remember what happened to St. Teresa of Avila: One Lent, she had all these great plans for the Lord. She was going to suffer ALL THE THINGS! She was going to do ALL THE PENANCES!

And then she got sick and was in bed for all of Lent. And she decided to complain to the Lord about this.

“Lord,” she said, “I had all these GREAT IDEAS FOR LENT and then you RUINED THEM. (I’m paraphrasing.)”

“That was your plan for Lent,” He said. “This is my plan for your Lent.”

Oh. Well then.

St. Teresa did not do all the things.

It’s OK if you can’t make it to stations every Friday or daily Mass or do whatever other penance you’ve come up with. Bodies can be super dumb. Or, sometimes, what the Lord wants from you is something else.

Either way, don’t beat yourself up if your life is super Lent-y at the moment and you cannot do ALL THE THINGS! Do what you can do, offer up what you can’t, and remember St. Teresa.

"Joy Depends on the Cross"

Botticelli, “Holy Trinity” , tempura on panel

The title for this post is the epigraph for my book. It took me. long time to find it—I wanted something perfect to encapsulate what I thought the book was about, and it had to have the right mix of seriousness and joy. Upon re-reading The Sign of Jonas while I was writing Living Memento Mori, this quote jumped out at me.

But a funny thing about different types of Christianity is how often we forget the truth of this statement.

I was recently reading Jinger Vuolo’s (nee Duggar) new memoir, and the “prosperity gospel” idea (aka, “God as Vending Machine”) is detailed throughout. The church she was raised in was huge on this (For context: Gothard was the founder/leader of her church):

“Gothard taught me that if I was suffering, there was a good chance it was because of some hidden or secret sin in my life. I was disobeying God in some way, and that was why I was experiencing pain and hardship. He even said that “most illnesses today are the result of bitterness, or guilt, or just lack of love.”…

“Just as problematic as Gothard’s opinions, however, was his guarantee of success for everyone who follows his rules. Gothard taught that the future I wanted—husband, kids, financial freedom, and health—would be mine if I followed everything he was teaching. He claimed his seminars were the key to success, and I was sure to get all those blessings if I obeyed. In other words, I was being taught a version of the health and wealth gospel.

“The health and wealth gospel is simply this: God wants to give His children money and physical health, but they must have faith that He will bless them. The size of someone’s financial success is proportional to the amount of that person’s faith and obedience. Here’s what Gothard said about money: “God uses riches to bless those who obey his commandments, and he removes money from those who violate his commandments.”…

“When I was a teenager, I would have said that I rejected the health and wealth gospel. Gothard himself would have criticized what prosperity preachers were teaching. But I did believe that obedience was the key to success in life. I was convinced that if I obeyed, God would reward me with the blessings. In other words, I believed the health and wealth gospel. ”

As I read, I kept thinking, but this isn’t the gospel at all.

The radical truth of the Incarnation is that it led to the cross. It led to extreme suffering. And it happened to the most perfect Man who ever lived.

To paraphrase St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, If Christ went to the cross, how do you think you’re going to get out of suffering?!

You’re not. There’s no way you’re going to avoid it. It doesn’t matter how good of a Christian you are, how perfect of a person you are—suffering is going to happen to you.

“Life is pain, highness,” says Westley in The Princess Bride, and it’s true. There’s no wonky interpretation of the gospel that’s going to change that. Almost all of the apostles died horrible deaths. St. Paul was beheaded. If you read the lies of the saints, you’ll see that a lot of them had severe trials to go through. That’s part of Christianity-—the part we don’t talk about very much, because we don’t want to be downbeat or negative.

But joy fully depends on the cross. We only get eternal joy, eternal happiness, because of the cross. There is no eternal bliss without death on a Friday afternoon.

Today (February 11) the Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette Soubirous, a very poor, often ill girl whose family lived in a former jail. In one of the most poignant parts of the apparition, Mary told Bernadette, “I do not promise you happiness in this life, but in the next.”

Yes, we want to be happy here. We don’t want life to be an unending “valley of tears”. But at the same time, we need to remember, as St. Therese said, that “this world’s our ship and not our home.”

There are lots of “benefits”, if you want to put it that way, to following Christ. But He didn’t say it was going to be easy.

Lent-y goings on!

So, Lent is upon us, and that means it’s time for me to ramp up talking about MY BOOK.

You can get it everywhere ( here is the Amazon link, you can find more links to buy here) ! You can even get a signed book from me! Just contact me—signed books are $20 and that includes a prayer card and a bookmark, and shipping!

If you are in the Columbus area, I will be doing a book signing at the Columbus Catholic Women’s Conference next weekend (Feb. 18) at the Ohio Expo Center—details and tickets here.

Happy First Birthday, Miss Madeleine!

I can’t believe we’ve gone from this…

To this…

Her smash cake is a Hedwig cake!

What an incredible year it’s been!

Dad and I went out to Denver to celebrate Maddie’s first birthday (Mom has a broken leg, so she didn't make the trip—thank goodness for FaceTime!). She had a Harry Potter themed party—my sister went all out and did a fabulous job creating a magical day for Madeleine!

The party table with the house scarves I made for Maddie’s sorting!

Maddie was sorted into Slytherin—though some people were calling for a re-do, saying that she was a Ravenclaw because she sat on that scarf—and greatly enjoyed eating her chocolate Hedwig cake.

And she very much enjoyed her presents (Aunt Sarah got her the Harry Potter PJs!)

Tunnel also from Aunt Sarah, Uncle Bryan, and Hailey!

Yes, there was Baby Lit.

Happy birthday, Miss Madeleine! We’re so glad you were born!

Blogmas '22 Day 12: Spiritual Testaments

I cut out this photo from a newspaper and kept it at my desk at work—there’s something about it that I just loved.

In reading about Benedict XVI’s death last week, I found this story about the Pope Emeritus’ “spiritual testament”—so I thought for the last day of blogmas, I’d share if with you. You can read it here.

And in honor of him, we’ll wrap up Blogmas ‘22 with a German carol, “Josef Lieber, Josef Mein”

Blogmas '22 Day 11: Welcome, Miss Hailey

Hailey Rose DeArdo

December 15, 2022 at 3:24 A M

6 lbs, 2 oz, 20” long

Hailey was the best Christmas gift this year! She obviously could not wait to get out and spend Christmas with us, so instead of being a New Year’s baby, she’s a Christmas baby.

She is so sweet, and really, is there anything sweeter than a newborn at Christmas? I don’t think so, especially when I get to spend Christmas Eve with a snuggled up baby on my chest.

Because she was a little early and there’s so much respiratory crap going around this year, the pediatrician asked us to wear masks if we’re holding her, hence my face gear. :) But it’s me!

Music: This is one of my FAVORITES—”The Seven Rejoices of Mary”, sung by Loreena McKennit.

Blogmas '22 Day 10: Word of the Year

When I was brainstorming my 2023 goals, one of the things that kept coming up was I do all the things I want to do—but I’m not consistent in doing them.

So my word of the year was pretttyyyyy evident. It’s consistency!

Let’s take goal three, for example—Creating a deeper relationship with God through regular prayer and confession.

I already have a regular prayer life. I already go to confession semi-regularly. But I want to do these things consistently. I want to say morning and evening prayer and my rosary every day—and that doesn’t happen. I want to make sure I’m going to confession once a month, etc. (The goal is every two weeks, eventually. Not right now!)

Consistency in fitness, in decluttering, in saving money, and in prayer is what I’m going for this year. Once I achieve consistency—and it’s easy to achieve, it’s almost automatic—then I can think about expanding what I’m doing to continue to reach higher goals. For example, the ultimate goal with working out is to be hitting the treadmill 5 days a week for thirty minutes. THat’s the ultimate, final goal, the “I’m running a marathon” goal. By consistency, I can work up to that goal and achieve it.

Here’s to being consistent in 2023!

Music: “The Echo Carol” (How Great Our Joy), Sung by the Benedictine Nuns of Ephesus in Gower, MO.

Blogmas '22 Day 9: New Year's Goals

If it’s a new year, then it’s time for resolutions and new goals.

My goals this year really aren’t new, so to speak—they’re continuations of what I’ve been working on for the past few years, but with an adjusted focus. Does that make sense?

For example, I’ve always wanted to have a comfortable, cozy, organized home—but I wasn’t sure what that really looked like, in terms of appearance, decor, etc. Over the last year I learned what I like and what I don’t, what works and what doesn’t, and now I can apply that to focusing on this year’s house goal, which is to have a home full of things I love, and organized in a way that works for me and how I live.

An example of this is this lamp I got last year from Target.

I’d needed a new lamp in this space for years, but I couldn’t find one I liked—until I found this one. And finding that lamp solidified the “look” I’m going for in my house, which is English Cottage (think The Holiday or Country Living UK) meets a beach house.

With all that digression out of the way, here are my goals for 2023!

Goal #1: Grow emergency fund

Goal #2: Continue peloton work to become stronger and more fit—continue to have good lab results.

Goal #3: Deepen my relationship with God with regular prayer and confession. (I do do regular prayer but it’s not consistent. More on this tomorrow!)

Goal #4: To create home by decluttering and keeping what I love.

I’m not giving a ton of detail here—I’ll do that in future posts. But these are the four main goals for 2023 and I feel good about them!

Do you make new year’s resolutions or set new goals? I’d love to hear about them!

Today’s music: Ave Maria isn’t specifically a Christmas song, but it appears on a lot of holiday albums, so here’s a good version!

Blogmas '22 Day 8: Happy New Year!

Dear brothers and sisters, it is only by pondering in the heart, in other words, by piecing together and finding unity in all we experience, that, following Mary, we can penetrate the mystery of a God who was made man out of love and who calls us to follow him on the path of love; a love to be expressed daily by generous service to the brethren. May the new year which we are confidently beginning today be a time in which to advance in that knowledge of the heart, which is the wisdom of saints. Let us pray, as we heard in the First Reading, that the Lord may “make his face to shine” upon us, “and be gracious” to us (cf. Nm 6: 24-7) and bless us. We may be certain of it: if we never tire of seeking his Face, if we never give in to the temptation of discouragement and doubt, if also among the many difficulties we encounter we always remain anchored to him, we will experience the power of his love and his mercy. May the fragile Child who today the Virgin shows to the world make us peacemakers, witnesses of him, the Prince of Peace. Amen!

—Pope Benedict XVI (1927-2022)

In today’s carol we have some trivia! Did you know this hymn was written by a Dominican blessed? It was—Bl. Henry Suso!

Blogmas '22 Day 7: Christmas Knits

There were three things knit for gifts this year and now I can talk about them since they don’t have to be surprises anymore!

One of them I think I’d already shared—Hailey’s baby blanket.

Wrapped up in it :)

This is an adaptation of the Sully blanket pattern I’ve used for all the baby blankets I make, but every time I keep adapting is! This time I added a border of garter stitch all the way around—I start with four rows of garter stitch and then end with four rows of garter stitch, in addition to the four garter stitches at the end of each row. I don’t like to block blankets so I think that this makes the blanket “lie” a little bit better.

I used Rowan’s cashsoft merino in three colors: snowflake, vintage pink, and rosy.

Project Number 2: A winter scarf!

This was actually planned as a Christmas gift—I made my dad a scarf in easy mistake rib, using a nice navy blue yarn—and he got it before Christmas due to the insanely cold temperatures we had here! I’m glad I’d thought to make it!

(I don’t have any pictures, sorry, bad blogger me!)

Project Number 3: A Cowl for my Sister-in-law

This was sort of a random project. I had some of Quince and Co’s limited edition yarn based on a Taylor Swift song—Lavender Haze. I bought a few skeins thinking it would make some good cowls.

Once Hailey was born, I felt like I needed to make another Christmas gift for Sarah (my SIL) since one of her gifts was Hailey’s baby blanket—but since Hailey was here, it was hers now! Knowing that she loves sparkle, I thought I’d pair Lavender Haze with a sparkly Knit Collage yarn to make a really quick cowl that will keep her warm on walks with Hailey this winter!

The colors here aren’t really representative—it’s much more pink in person, not orange!

The pattern is Knit Collage’s Yarnicorn Cowl knit with Quince and Co Puffin and Knit Collage’s Star Spun in Lunar Landing. You need one skein of each and it seriously takes about two hours to knit up! Knit Collage’s yarns create really fun, unique knits. I’m going to make another one of these for my sister, except using the Knit Collage Kona Sky color way with the Lavender Haze.

Did you knit/crochet/craft any Christmas gifts? Tell me about them!

Blogmas '22 Day 6: Maddie's First Christmas

It actually ended up being a first Christmas for both my nieces—Hailey, as I wrote in an earlier post, wasn’t supposed to celebrate hers until next year! But she decided she couldn’t wait and had to have it now.

She spent her first Christmas Eve snoozing on my chest, which I have to say is a great way to spend Christmas on my end.

But for Miss Maddie, who is almost a year old, her first Christmas was very exciting!

She loved her Advent calendar—the little figures with their velcro backs were very intriguing to her (and sometimes they got stuck on her clothes!). She loved playing with them and placing them on the nativity scene.

She also had a couple of trees—one in her room:

And one that she could play with:

It had a train and ornaments too!

Her Advent/Christmas corner!

Madeleine did go to see Santa! She wasn’t scared of him, I don’t think, more…intrigued.

And YES, Santa commented on her missing boot! :) Maddie is still fighting against shoes and socks.

And they went to see the lights at the zoo!

For her first Christmas she got….a tricycle! That’s foot powered! I have never seen one of these and I think it’s adorable.

My sister made some great meals, which of course Madeleine enjoyed.

She wants food, lots of food!

And her birthday is at the beginning of January, so it’s going to be party-palooza for Maddie over the next week or so. In my opinion she had a highly excellent first Christmas!

Blogmas '22 Day 5: How to Pack Your Meds When You Fly!

From my trip to Houston this summer

I’ve been reading the coverage of the Southwest Fiasco, and what’s really scared me more than anything else is the comments from many people about PUTTING MEDICATION IN CHECKED BAGGAGE.

via GIPHY

PEOPLE.

Never, ever, ever put your medications and medical devices in your checked baggage! EVER!

I always put my meds in my carry-on, which is an LL Bean backpack. Always. They are in a large zip-up pouch. I also take extra medicine, just for purposes like this fiasco, where you’re stuck somewhere—the last thing I want to worry about is my medication and my health. So I also pack the entire bottle of medication, in the pharmacy bottle, so if I have to take it somewhere to get refilled, I can do that and it will have all the information a new pharmacy would need to fill it.

(Some people say, “well, just have your doctor call it in to the new pharmacy!” Over the holidays, it might be hard to get your doctor’s office on the phone!)

My insulin, insulin supplies, blood glucose kit, and my cochlear implant batteries and charger also go in my carry-on, always.

Does this take up space in my bag? Yes. Does it mean I can’t fly with just carry-ons? Also yes. I must check a bag.

But it’s much easier to check a bag than it is to lose medications, get them replaced, and, oh, worry about my body going into meltdown while I’m stuck somewhere!

I didn’t fly a lot pre-transplant, mostly because it was hard to do with my CF related machinery (aerosol machine, nebulizer, etc.) , but I have a travel size aerosol machine that I used when I did fly or travel, and it could fit in a backpack and wasn’t terribly heavy. I could also fit the supplies in my bag. So if I had to carry those around now, I could do it (They have much smaller ones now than they did in the year 1999!)

Folks. I beg you. Never, ever, EVER put your medications and medical supplies in your checked bags. Never in life. Do not do it. Pay to check the bag. NEVER EVER put your medicines in a place where you can’t get them.

Blogmas '22 Day 4: Books of Christmas!

There must always be a Christmas book post! :) There are a few more coming from Amazon that I bought with gift cards I received. So this is really like Christmas books part one.

Go-To Dinners, Ina Garten*: I love Ina’s cookbooks—I have all of them—and when she has a new one, it’s a guaranteed item on my Christmas list. I’ve already gone through and marked up the recipes I want to try, and there are a lot of them.

Welcome to Our Table: This cookbook is by the Penguins’ (my favorite hockey team) wives and girlfriends, and the sales support the Penguins’ Charitable Foundation. It is pretty cool to see recipes from Anna Malkin in here. If you’re a hockey fan, this is a great book—with lots of good recipes even if you’re not!

Queens of the Age of Chivalry,* Alison Weir: Why yes, I am a British History Nut. This book is the third in Weir’s series of books on the queens of England up to the Tudors, starting with William the Conqueror’s wife, Matilda of Flanders. There will be four books in the series (here are the other two: Queens of the Conquest and Queens of the Crusades). Weir has written full biographies of some of these ladies, so if you want even more detail, you can get it!

Antoinette’s Sister*, Diana Giovinazzo: I’m a sucker for anything about Marie Antoinette—she was really the first historical figure I “got into”, as it were, so this novel is pretty perfect for me. It’s told from her sister Charlotte’s viewpoint, which should make it even more interesting. I will report back.

The Lays of Beleriand*, JRR Tolkien: This is the third volume in the “History of Middle Earth” series. I’ve been working my way through this, very out of order—I’ve read the four that deal explicitly with Lord of the Rings, but then I went back and started at the beginning, with The Book of Lost Tales Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. If you’re really into Tolkien, these are good reads. If you’re not, then you’ll be bored stiff!

(asterisk—Amazon affilate link)

Blogmas '22 Day 3: Family Christmas!

Our family Christmas celebrations have varied wildly over the years. When we were little (we meaning my brother and I—this was before my sister was born), we spent Christmas in Pittsburgh with my parents’ families. Christmas Eve we usually spent with my dad’s family, and Christmas Day with my mom’s family. (Back then my mom still had siblings living at home—she’s the third of eight kids. Dad is the youngest of three.)

The big special thing, though, was that Santa came early to our house. We did Christmas at home before we left for Pittsburgh. And yes, I really did love telling my classmates that. :)

Once my sister was born, the celebrations became different. One year my Grandma D came down ,but most years we were at home. Mom sang in the choir and played the flute for Midnight Mass, so we went to an earlier Mass, then came home, then mom left for midnight Mass. Once I was old enough to help dad (er, “Santa”) set out toys, that was my job, and Bryan had to keep Melanie from trying to get downstairs! After college, I sang in the church choir at Midnight Mass.

When I was in junior high, we started a family reunion on my mom’s side a few days after Christmas, which took place in various hotels. For the past 10 years or so it’s been here in town, but we haven’t rescheduled it since the pandemic—but there have also been weddings and graduations, so we’ve been able to see each other outside of the holidays, which is nice. There are so many of us that we don’t fit in anyone’s house anymore!

So Christmas at home now looks like this: we go to 4:00 Mass, have dinner after, and then exchange gifts with my brother and sister-in-law at their house. This year, the best gift was baby Hailey—their daughter! She was due to arrive in early January ut she decided she just had to spend Christmas with us, so I spent most of Christmas Eve this year with a newborn sleeping on my chest.

That’s a pretty good way to spend Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day is very relaxed—I spend the day with my parents. We open gifts and have food and generally hang out all day, usually with some football or A Christmas Story thrown in. This year was Madeleine’s first Christmas, so we FaceTimed with them a few times. It was so cute to see Maddie celebrate her first Christmas!

How does your family celebrate Christmas? Tell me about it!

My parents love Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, and “Winter Was Warm” is one of my mom’s favorite songs from it, so….here you go!