ZenPep

I Like Bacon and Peanuts, But Not Together!

November 1, 2010

Knowing some are allergic to peanuts, everyone likes bacon, right? In my effort to become Fatboy 2.0, I’ve upped the ante on my calorie density, both in the amount of food and the ratio of calories per dollar. Given the amount of money we spent the first time around, I have no interest in that kind of “investment” to reach my new weight goal. Obviously, it’s easier to gain while not fighting an infection, or multiple infections as the case likely was. I’m gaining just about 1 pound per day now, so it’s time to tell you how I’m doing it this time and leave it up to you whether that tickles your taste buds or not. I know Beautiful has no interest to eat what I’m eating now – I remind myself of a pregnant woman with cravings now.

Cravings include: nachos and queso with jalapeño slices, Cajun boiled peanuts by the bowl, fatty bacon, and various frozen entrees.

I can tell you with certainty a couple of things that absolutely pack on weight more efficiently than other things. It’s a very basic cheat sheet for me, so it’s worth trying it yourself if you need to pack on weight and don’t have fat and cholesterol concerns, as we CFers don’t absorb cholesterol the same way as the rest of the population (teeny tiny blessings, eh?).
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Pharmaceutical Specialties Pharmacy Rocks My Socks

July 8, 2010

You can’t get any better than Pharmaceutical Specialties, Inc. (PSI). Period. We have had nothing but good to absolutely outstanding service and support from them since I started using them in mid-2009 in order to get a replacement eFlow unit. They have a special program for CFers and are top-notch in every way. My only bone to pick is that they don’t compound (pre-mix) my colistin, which the other, crappy pharmacy did a one month supply at a time. I’ll be discussing that with them to see if that will be a possibility since their competition does it /nudge /nudge.

The previous specialty pharmacy I had been using for 3 years refused to get me a new base even though I was convinced that it was the base ruining my heads, not my cleaning. After a year of struggling with a new head every month that was sputtering for 30 minutes per dose by the end of the month, I threw in the towel and asked for a referral to another pharmacy that leases out eFlows. That’s how I got the Trio, because I’d had the eFlow since 2006 when it even went by a different name!

From the very beginning, the process has been as smooth as butter. My awesome coordinator called in the script for colistin and I had my new Trio later that week. They also send me my ADEK for free. Things just get better, though, because they are also my supplier for Zenpep and Cayston! These are all of my favorite drugs, with the possible exception of Xanax and Vicodin because of the immediate physical relief they bring.

When I started on Zenpep, there was a rebate program that we got wind of, but they require an original receipt. The receipt we got for the Zenpep simply stated something like: “Pharmacy – Rx: 24532563.” That wasn’t going to work, so I called and asked if they could put a line-item call-out on the receipt to indicate what the med was so I could get reimbursed. Two days later, we got a new receipt in the mail done up just right. They have automatically done this for 4 straight months without so much of a peep out of me.

Amazing customer service #2 just happened this week. Now that Aetna isn’t supplying my testosterone, I have to send in a reimbursement form that needs to be partially filled out by the pharmacist with the date and pharmacy license and signed by them. When my testosterone showed up this week, what was in the box? A pre-filled reimbursement form for that month’s shipment for me to sign and send to Aetna!

I really can’t recommend them enough.

Bloating and a General Feeling of Discomfort

July 2, 2010

Fat Ash Ketchum by ~Ranguru

I’ll do my best to not be graphic or disgusting for this article, but I’m afraid that’s not really going to be possible. If you don’t like fart jokes, or are generally turned off by anything related to bodily functions, stop now. This is cystic fibrosis. This is real life. /end warning

I’m getting much better at not being gross since meeting/dating/marrying Beautiful, but cystic fibrosis is a disgusting disease, is it not? I have a feeling that one of the reasons I didn’t have as many friends as I should have in elementary school was my problem with my intestinal gas. This came as a huge shock to Beautiful when I told her, but I remember being in the 6th grade when I first discovered that you could hold back a fart. That must not have been conducive to making or keeping friends when we all had to sit together in little table groups of 4-6 students. I can just imagine the thought bubbles of 20 years ago: “I don’t want to get in Jesse’s table group for the next 12 weeks. He smells bad!”

I really had no idea before then, and even if I did, I honestly don’t know what I would have been allowed to do about it.

For those without CF, all I can say is that the pressure is almost unimaginable, second only to a complete intestinal blockage. The increased pressure is a direct result of poor absorption of the food we eat. I am doubtful that the teachers would have been allowed to have me wandering off down the hall to the bathroom every time my pressure meter started to rise because that would be a special privilege and I would have missed countless hours of classroom instruction had I done that.

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Bumps in the Road

June 26, 2010

Back in March when I started this site, I really wasn’t my normal optimistic self that it was going to last because I didn’t think the weight that I had just gained would take. It never has before, so I didn’t have any reasonable expectation that it would this time, other than having hopes that I was going to use sheer grit and determination that I possibly hadn’t given it before. Besides, creating a site and getting some readers (or a lot of readers is even better) creates accountability. If you want to be sure you do something, tell the whole world about it and see who calls you out on it when you slip, I say.

I decided to look back at my stats archive that I was keeping when I first began the site, and I’m glad I’d been doing that. I don’t miss doing all of that work now, because it was a lot of work, but I’m very pleased to be able to remind myself of where I came from on this journey.

A little weight history

Since high school, I’ve always bounced between 108-115lbs. Nothing ever seemed to make a difference one way or another on weight gain or weight loss that I was aware of, other than a few nice days on Prednisone that would take me up as high as 118 for a day or two. I’d “write home about it” and then the weight would be gone again, back down to 113 or something.