Santa arrived early this year and surprised me with the flu. 4 days prior to Christmas. Joy. What a lovely gift.
Luckily, my doctor gave me a better gift and allowed me to do home IVs and skip the hospital, which was the best surprise of all. I hate the hospital, and having to go in during Christmas would have been horrible – a trip to hell for the holidays.
Mercy granted and accepted.
That doesn’t mean there wasn’t plenty of pain and suffering to fill the holidays and my vacation. These virus-caused exacerbations shred me now. It’s getting harder to fight them as I get older and I’ve asked the CF team for pain management in the future, as my days of “manning up” to fight the discomfort are over.
I miss the days of my youth when I fought viruses without hospitals and meds. Those years don’t seem real any more, but rather a past mirage I dream about. That was a different person, not me.
So we moved our family Christmas a week to avoid me passing the plague to others, though my wife and daughter did get it, but not as bad as I did. It was more of a 3-day cold in my daughter and a mild cold in my wife. Meanwhile, I won three weeks of IVs. My inflammation shot from around 5 to the 100s and my O2 tanked. That seems to be the pattern now.
While doing my treatments and opening presents with my daughter and wife on Christmas morning, I started coughing hard. I felt something snap or crack but couldn’t stop coughing before it broke more. A rib, probably. I was sitting in a chair I don’t normally sit in and the position must have put more pressure on my lower left side. Snap, crackle, pop.
Luckily I had some expired Vicodin because the pain when I coughed or blew out was blinding. And I didn’t feel like going to the ER on Christmas. How fun that would of been.
Today, three weeks later I end the IVs. Still not 100%, but feeling lucky to be alive after the beating I took. I know it can always be worse with CF and I should never complain. One day at a time filled with gratefulness is my plan moving forward.
The Unknown Cystic 
Happy for home IV’s! I hear you about not fighting things as well. I’m feeling like my body is not fighting as hard these days either. It’s tough. I’m so glad you’re feeling better, though.
Im so sorry your Christmas was so crappy, but you have such fortitude! Im sure you would rather not have fortitude of CF, but sadly we do not get to choose the cards we are dealt, you know that better than anyone. You are here, you ploughed through it and came out the other end and your family have you for another year. Keep on keeping on my friend. OM x