It's The Moving Week

Hey guys! I decided to do a "Swell Count" so people can know just how often I swell. I want to do it for the people who also have similar symptoms so they can compare and contrast with me! So, anyone who has this, please comment on the page with your story and any questions or ideas for me. :)

Here it goes!

                                                   SWELL COUNT

• Monday 8/31: Tongue for about 15 minutes
• Tuesday 9/1: Tongue for 1 hour and Throat for 2 hours
• Wednesday 9/2: Throat and Stomach (Not sure how long they both lasted because I fell asleep with them)
• Thursday 9/3:Tongue for about 15 minutes. (Also, I do not know if it was the angioedema because my neighbors were grilling mushrooms in the backyard and I am extremely allergic to them.
• Friday 9/4: Thank goodness, I did not swell at all because my husband and I moved into our apartment!
• Saturday 9/5: Tongue, throat, and lips
• Sunday 9/6: Woke up at 3am with tongue swelling and then again at 7am. So needless to say, I did not go to church because it was a bad swelling morning.
• Monday 9/7 (Today): Absolutely no swelling today! Yay!

With my crazy schedule this week with moving and being able to work a few hours for my mom, I surprisingly have done well. I have not been swelling more than usual and no epi has been used in about a month, I believe. I have a feeling I may be getting a really good week soon, so we shall see! The other day I received a letter in the mail from the Mayo Clinic asking me to come back for a check up so now we are trying to decide if we can make it this year.

Other than the details of the lovely angioedema, I have been becoming a Pinterest queen in our apartment. I am revamping our furniture that was incredibly outdated, decorating, and doing various sewing projects. Thankfully my husband puts up with my crazy ideas and helps me with the "manly jobs" that I need done.

Here are a few pictures of the stuff I have done in the past few days. I will write more with other posts, but I am exhausted from this week so you get short and sweet. Thanks everyone!

Some of the furniture. ( Ignore the mess, I have to paint in the living room) 

A throw pillow I made out of a vintage pillowcase that a lovely lady gave me

You have to have the Ikea hanging rods to do anything in a small kitchen! :) 

It's the Description

Hi! Before I start this blog off, I want everyone to know who I am and how my life with angioedema started. I want everyone who reads this to feel like they have someone to relate to and someone who is actually real. No sugar-coating (unless it's a recipe ;)), lies, or nonsense here! This will also probably be my longest post because I have a long story so hang in there with me! Here we go.

My name is Abby. I am 20 years old, married, and a stay at home wife. I own a German Shepherd named Miya who unfortunately has a very small head. But she is my baby and she is ADORABLE! I am like most 20 year old women except that I have had a medical condition call Autoimmune Angioedema since I was 17.

• Angioedema is mainly swelling of different body parts which can or cannot be life threatening. It is treated with antihistamines and epinephrine, or in major cases, intubation or tracheotomy. The autoimmune side, your body mainly just attacks itself because it does not know how to work properly. 

(Sounds gross huh?)

When my symptoms started popping up, the swelling was mainly just my tongue. I was swelling every two to four hours every day and was hospitalized immediately. Every time my tongue swelled, the nurses at the hospital would inject epinephrine into either my thighs or my arms. After one night of this,the doctors that were taking care of me decided that they could no longer be helpful to me so they intubated me and care flighted me to the University of Colorado hospital in Denver. From there, I was in the hospital for a few days and then sent home because my swelling had seemed to stop. Unfortunately, this was just the beginning. Only a few days after getting home, I continued my swelling cycle and it has not stopped since! 

Over the past few years the swelling has spread to my entire body. Tongue, throat, face, neck, shoulders, intestines, you name it, I have swelled there! With all of this, I had to be home schooled for the rest of high school. Which home schooling probably was an amazing choice for me. ( I am not promoting home schooling here, education from certified teachers is very important!) But it was a great choice for me because I got to become best friends with my parents. They are absolutely amazing people! I had a few friends my age through high school too and were also the reason I met my amazing husband! But I will get to that in a bit. 

I ended up deciding to go to the University of New Mexico after high school. I met three of my absolute best friends in the entire world there! After a year of trying to push through college on campus, I made it through, and went home for the summer. I ended up meeting my husband and started dating immediately. He was crazy enough to get on board with my swelly lifestyle! I ended up not being healthy enough to continue to go to college so I lived with my parents until I got married and we are now caught up!

So that is my story with how everything started and a baseline on what is going on in the crazy life of Abby! I will continue over time to share how my journey is going and also share random things that I think are awesome. Hopefully you will continue to follow my story and share it with whomever you think needs to hear it. 

                                                 My handsome husband and I

                                                                 Miya

Also, if you would like to see what my angioedema attacks looked like when they first started, here is a link to a video we made. (PS- I would not recommend showing it to children but it is your choice I guess lol)

Angioedema Attack