Wednesday, October 24, 2012

I'm Outta Here!!....kind of

Good news people!

Yesterday, as many of you know, was my full work up day at Mayo. Blood work, xray, PFT and bronch. Blood work and Xray were great as usual. My Prograf (immunosuppressant med) levels were a little high, so we lowered that a bit but otherwise everything was good. Xray looked the same as it did from a month ago, which is super. All that is great, but sorta the more boring of the results. Bronch results came back and, again, no infection and no rejection!! Whoo hoo! Thanks for all the continued prayers for that - they are def workin!

Now for the coolest results -- my PFTs. As you know, they have been steadily climbing each week. Last time I did a PFT, my FEV1 (the score that gives you the best idea of your lung function) was up to 88%, and my Dr said they wouldn't be surprised if I hit 100% before I left. Well, my FEV1 was NOT 100% -- it was 103%!!!!

Yep, you read that right -- 103%. I am officially breathing better than I ever had in my ENTIRE LIFE. Heck, Im prolly breathin better than some of you! LOL!! Sorry, don't mean to be ugly, but this is so stinkin incredible I sorta wanna gloat for a minute, haha! So... who wants to race?? :)

Went back over today to go over all my results with Dr Mallea as usual. And the best part of the last two days was during this meeting. I was given the OFFICIAL OK to head home!!! I won't be able to leave just yet though, not for another almost two weeks. I have a few more appointments next week (luckily nothing that should keep me from leaving) that I have to go to, but as soon as those are over we can start packin up! Unfortunately we only brought the bare minimum here to Jax so we really can't start packin up till we're right about to leave. But since we only brought a few things, hopefully it won't take long (and it won't cause me to down a bottle of Xanax that day LOL). So as of right now, we don't have an EXACT move out date. Probably lookin like sometime during the middle of the week of Nov 5 (at the earliest). They might be adding one more appointment with my infectious disease Dr but Im not sure when that's gonna be. It might end up holding me up just a bit longer. Mom will be coming back to Orlando for a while to help me get settled and unpacked and to help me with gettin to a few appointments when I get home. Hopefully it won't take any more than a week or so once we get back to Orlando, and she can FINALLY get back home to NC for good!

Another great thing about having the "go ahead" -- I can finally drive again! I haven't driven in close to 4 months (remember, I was in the hospital for about two weeks right before my transplant, so its been even longer than just this surgery/recovery). Im gonna need to practice in the parkin lot or somethin before gettin back on the road LOL! Mom says she'll let me drive sometime tomorrow. Just be glad yall don't live here in Jax - this could get interesting!

Can you believe this? This entire thing is almost over. I can't believe that not even four months have gone by since I was evaluated, listed, transplanted - and now Im almost going home. This has been such a whirlwind it still doesn't seem totally real. I don't think it will be completely real until I get back home and get back to work and school (yup, going back to school in the Spring! That's a whole other thing for yall to pray for, lol!!) I honestly thought this entire process was gonna be much longer. The wait list part I was SURE was gonna be MONTHS, not TEN DAYS! That still blows me a way. The fact that (unless crap hits the fan) I'll be able to be HOME for Thanksgiving (something that hasn't been possible for the last two Thanksgivings --been in the hospital with infections previously)!! Same thing for Christmas. I haven't been in the hospital for Christmas yet, but I was sick the last time - on IV meds - and had just gotten out of the hospital the year before so I was still feelin like crap. I'm actually gonna be able to ENJOY the holidays this year! CRAZY -- and so awesome!! :)

So all in all a great morning. Except for the GI testing I did this morning. Ughhhhh. Terrible. First test was to make sure the muscles in my throat were acting normally and things weren't getting "caught up" and not going down properly. Which honestly I thought was kinda stupid. I mean if I was having problems swallowing I THINK I would have found that out by now. I don't think I would have put on TWENTY FIVE POUNDS in three months if I wasn't gettin things down. I would think that would be something they would do right after surgery if anything. (When you get intubated the tube they insert can make complications to your throat and vocal chords, so I guess thats the point of that one) They inserted this HUGE tube up my nose and down my throat which was AWFUL and then kept messin with it tryin to get it in just the right place. I swear that thing was in for like 20 minutes and it HURT. And since they were testing my swallowing there was NO sedation and no numbing to make it even remotely pleasant. I sat there visibly shaking, hurting, and gagging for what felt like for-freakin-ever. The other test I am STILL doin. Its just as awful. They took out the large tube and entered a much smaller one (one good thing). Its attached to a monitor that is recording the PH levels in my gut. Basically testing to make sure the meds I'm taking are controlling my acid reflux. The LAST thing you want to happen with transplanted lungs is something coming back up and get into my new lungs. It could cause lots of problems, mainly infection. I have to keep this wretched tube in my dang face until tomorrow morning. I hafta say, its very uncomfortable and is DRIVING ME BONKERS. It makes it hard to eat and every time I swallow it tugs like crazy. Every time I lay down I hafta hit this button, when I sit back up I gotta hit another button. When I start eating I gotta hit a button, when I'm done I gotta hit ANOTHER button. When I cough I gotta hit a button, if I have any reflux, another button, when I take meds, another button....its absolutely OBSURD. Im 30 seconds away from ripping this crap right outta my face. *sigh*....I just gotta make till 7am...just 7am. Pray for me people, I might go completely outta my head before then. I hafta keep tellin myself Ive been through worse. But quite honestly Id sign up for another transplant just to get this dang thing outta my nose lol.



Pretty nice huh? Needless to say, we came straight home after Mayo. And it was a drive-thru situation for dinner. And now I've posted this mess on my blog, so I guess all that was for nothin, LOL.

So that's where I'm at. Uncomfortable, irritated, and completely thrilled! Hello Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde! Thanks, as always, for all the prayers and support through these last few months. Its becuase of yall that this has been such an incredible journey for me and my family. I hope by following along these last few months God's grace and power has been a big of a blessing to you as it has been to us. Prayers work people! And GOD IS GOOOOOOD! :)

Much love...xoxoxo

Erin

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