Sunday Chillaxin’ Day

Well hello everyone! Hope everyone had a nice relaxing Sunday. I know it did. I haven’t been sleeping well at night. Not being able to turn over I primarily have to sleep on my back. So needless my back gets stiff after awhile, and being on the go yesterday I think it finally caught up with me. I woke up about 8:00 this morning, did my morning routine, went downstairs for breakfast. Haven’t done that in awhile. The hotel puts on a delicious continental breakfast. I took advantage of the fresh cantaloupe, banana, and hot scrambled eggs topped with cheese. I also enjoyed a hot cup of tea too! Came back to the room sat down on the couch, and decided to take a nap. Slept for several hours, woke up got in the shower, got ready for the day, my plan was to finish watching the Atlanta 500 with my dad, next thing I knew I was watching the back of my eyelids again. When I woke up the race was over, my dad had to tell me who won.

After I collected my thoughts and woke up, it was getting close to dinner time. My family and I decided to walk across the street to a Brazilian steakhouse. Boy oh boy was it a VERY delicious dinner! So many different meats to try, needless to say I got my fill of protein for the day! After dinner we waddled back to our hotel, and now I’m ready to hit the hay! I feel like I had a very nonproductive day. But as I think about, my body is still trying to recover, and it’s okay to take a day and sleep.

Tomorrow morning we have an appointment with Dr. Mulligan. I am very curious what he has to say. Hopefully he will be pleased with my progress. I don’t know if I’ve shared this with you folks or not, but my old CF lungs I donated to CF research. I had no use for them! Ha ha. No but seriously if I can help at least one fellow CF’er then I’ve done my job. I think that’s pretty cool! Also tomorrow I will be in contact with pathology about obtaining pictures of my old and new lungs. I hope I can get them. I am very curious to compare the two! I will keep everyone updated about obtaining the pictures. I also have a Power Point presentation that I have taken to several science classes that I would like to add this picture to.

Erin Garland Ziebart wrote in an asked “what has been the most unexpected result or experience you’ve had so far in your transplant journey?” There were two totally unexpected things happen in my transplant journey so far. The first situation was being wheeled in to pre-op and then having another gentlemen wheeled in next to me. He needed one lung, and I needed two. I had no idea we were competing for the lungs, I was under the impression if both lungs were good they were solely mine, I was completely unaware I was competing with another gentlemen. This time I won, and the gentleman and his family had a “dry run” but in the end the man did receive his one lung one week later! We eventually met on our walks around the halls. So happy for him and his family! My family shared how hard it was to be so joyous and walk by that man and his family, who were being told “not today, go home”. The second situation (even though I don’t remember a whole lot) but my new lungs were packed on ice for four and half hours. Which is typically longer than Dr. Mulligan likes them to be packed, and they tend get stiff and to take on fluid. Because of my new lungs retaining fluid I had to stay on the ventilator much longer than expected. Typically the surgeons like to have the ventilator turned off within 24-48 hours, but for me with all the extra fluid I spent five and half days on the ventilator. By far the best experience is being able to breathe easy! I wouldn’t trade this journey for anything! Great question! Thank you for writing in!

Your prayers are working, keep them coming! My friend, Jay was moved from ICU to step down today! This is a HUGE step! He’s a fighter!! Keep it up Jay!

Well it’s time to start my nightly routine. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Until next time………

~Jen~
“Just Breathe”