Hi!

Hi, this is Bean.

Shannon is mi mejor amiga, my best friend.

My real name is Jen, but when I'm with Shannon, I'm called "Bean". It's the best nickname I've ever had, and Shannon is the BEST friend I've ever had. Shannon and I became friends in third grade and it's been almost six years! When I met her, I didn't really care that she had Pulmonary Hypertension, because she was just like everyone else. When I was eight, I don't think I really understood what PH was. Now that I do, Shannon's still just like my other friends. When I think of PH and Shannon, I don't picture a hospital and a pump. I picture my best friend, practically my sister. I think of us doing karate, laughing, or staying up way too late in the middle of the night at a sleepover.

Shannon is a huge part of my life. She's so close to me -- people ask all the time if we're related. To me, it doesn't matter that she has PH. She makes it that way -- she's always so optimistic about it. And she's always smiling! Shannon and I are always having a good time, and most of the time, I forget that she's wearing a pump. We joke about things, too. Yesterday, I told her that I had a crush on her med bag (the cooler bag that carries Shannon's extra medicine) and we were laughing so hard! (Actually, she told me that it had proclaimed its love for her, and my dreams were crushed -- then we started laughing!)

Being friends with Shannon isn't any different than being friends with anyone else. Shannon's funny, and a good pal to hang out with. Actually, as I'm writing this, Shannon and I are laughing, because I'm telling her that I made tons of typos. I said I spelled "and" wrong, and I don't know exactly why, but we think it's hysterical. At least we have spell check! Shannon's able to make anything funny.

We have a lot of things in common, (Harry Potter, taking Spanish at school, speaking the little Spanish that we know  together and our love for the movie "Twilight!") and we eat lunch together at school. Shannon is such a good friend to me that it doesn't bother me that we can't go running on the track, or go swimming. I don't mind walking instead of running, because Shannon's fun to hang out with and I'd trade a day at the beach to hang out with Shannon any day!

My friendship with Shannon honestly isn't affected by PH. If anything; PH has made us better friends. This year, I was able to come into the hospital and hang out with her, and when she had to go back in a few days later, I was there to make her smile, even though she was upset. Shannon really is my best friend, and I know that we'll be amigas, friends forever.

I guess if you ask me what scares me most, I would say spiders. Otherwise, I'm not really scared of anything.  

Well, I'll admit the other day I was I'm kinda scared about going on getting this new medication called Remodulin. During school vacation, I had to go into the hospital (just overnight) to get tested for this new medication. I was really scared it wouldn't go well -- I'd been on Flolan so long I was kinda worried this new medicine might me sicker. 

I didn't want to change my medication in the first place, but I didn't have a choice - it's what the doctor wanted. I do not know why -- maybe because Remodulin and Flolan are similar.  They're both intravenous, meaning you take them into your veins.  I still have to carry my pump, but now I don't need to put the medicine on ice.  My parents say Remodulin has a longer life span, lasts longer in my body and it's safer.

Anyways, it went really well! I didn't get sick from the new medication -- I didn't even notice the difference when they changed it. What's nice is my parents won't have to change my medicine so much. Oh! And I'm going to learn how to change it myself! 

What was really cool is Bean, my BFF, came by to see me! Then, one of my camp counselors from Hole-in-the-Wall, who also works in the hospital stopped by to say hi. He even taught me and Bean how to make duct-taped wallets.

So what are you most afraid of? Horror movies? Spiders? Doctor's visits? How do you get over your fears? Did you ever have an experience where you were REALLY scared and it turned out not to be so scary or bad? C'mon and tell me what scares YOU the most!