Clinic Day Wednesday!

Woke up to a wet Seattle today. By the time we went for our walk, the afternoon was dry and Mr. sunshine was trying to peak through. He didn’t last long, the clouds came back and it has been raining since.

The morning started off early, we had to be at UW by 8:30 for clinic! Up first was a chest X-ray. Kind of nice going early we were in and out within ten minutes! That’s even checking in and validating our parking pass. Next, we traced our steps back down the hallway for PFT’s. Numbers are still looking good!! My FEV1 (is how much air you can blow out in one second) was 72%, which was identical to last weeks. But my FVC (forced vital capacity) was 75%, which is higher than last weeks! New breathers are working great!! Again doing PFT’s seems so effortlessly now, it’s amazing. No coughing, no shortness of breathe, get in, get out, LOVE it!!!

After PFT’s we hopped on the Cascade elevators heading to Post Transplant Clinic. Since I have a Mediport, the nurse can draw my blood (for my labs) out of it. The last several clinic visits my port has decided to be stubborn. It will allow you to flush fluids through it fine, just won’t give you blood when you need it to. Last week the nurse put TPA in my port, and it definitely should have given blood this week. NOPE! My arms are still bruised pretty good from being in the hospital, so finding a “good” vein in my arms, or hand is a chore. I ended up getting poked twice in the back of the hands. Ggrrrrrr. Oh well, sometimes you have to do, what you have to do! It took almost an hour, the nurse was trying every trick up her sleeve to get my port to work.

After all the fiasco with my port, Dr. Sid was running behind. We had about a forty five minute window before we could see him. We stopped by the coffee cart, grabbed a drink so I could take all my morning medications. Once those were down, we headed up to ICU to see some of my nurses, who took extremely good care of me. I brought my lung pillow with me today, and had a lot of my ICU nurses, receptionists and physical therapist sign my pillow. The funny thing is they all remembered me, and was very impressed with how well I’m doing! Plus it was great to see them again! We spent almost the entire forty five minutes visiting with people!

When we returned to clinic, Dr. Sid was ready to see us. It was a short visit. He said my PFT’s are still in the “normal” range, which I was excited to hear!! My weight is holding steady, he was also pleased with my blood sugar levels. I am not requiring as much insulin throughout the day. My new lungs sound amazing!! Dr. Sid pulled up my X-ray from today, that was pretty cool to see!! The air pocket is getting smaller, not completely gone yet but getting there! Anyways back to visually seeing my new lungs. WOW!! The actually look like “normal” lungs!! He then pulled up several of my old pre transplant X-rays. For me that was scary. He started with my X-rays taken this past July, (when we were trying to get on the transplant list) all the way up my last pre X-ray on February 3rd. Looking at the progression of my old lungs was hard. Lots of shadowing, A LOT of scaring is all you can see. You could also see lots of dark looking circles throughout my old lungs. Which indicates either infections or mucus plugs. The X-ray of my new lungs in Dr. Sid’s words “looks normal!” It’s hard to describe but they look black. Which is good, it means they are clear. No infections, or scaring lots of room for air movement! My goal is to obtain a a pre and post X-rays and post them so you guys can see. I know they can put X-rays on a disk! Next we discussed my lab results. All my levels are looking and functioning great. Except my magnesium level was low, so my daily dosage got upped. Overall, Dr. Sid was very happy with our progression!!

Once we finished up a clinic, we headed back to our apartment, parked the car and jumped on the Trolly and headed downtown for a walk. My mom ended up taking me to get our nails done, which was fun! After that I was ready to head back to the apartment. I was getting pooped! Soon as we arrived back at the apartment I kicked my shoes off, plopped down on the couch and I was out! Woke up in time to write this blog, fill up my SAMS box again, do my nightly routine and now I’m off to bed!! I don’t have anything on my agenda tomorrow except for sleep in and watch The Price Is Right! Ha ha

Hope everyone had a great Wednesday! Good night everyone!

Until next time………

~Jen~
“Just Breathe”