Whoa! It has been forever since I've blogged, and so much has been going on. I've been home now since July 18th (the day after the golf tournament-which raised over $10,000). It has been so nice being able to sleep in my bed, eat my food, and play with my dogs. Little things have made me extraordinarily happy (i.e-getting to vaccum for the first time). LOL! My health has been surprising me everyday.
There are 2 numbers a C.F patients is told to focus on when we do our Pulmonary Functions Test (PFT)- the FEV1 and the FVC. The FVC represents the total amount you can blow out after the biggest breath in you can take. And the FEV1 (which is my favorite to watch) is the amount you can blow out in the first second of your FVC. This is measured by blowing into a spirometer and measured in liters. Ok, now that the lesson is over I can tell you that when I was pre-transplant, my FEV1 was only 0.21 L, pretty much how much oxygen capacity I had. Not even a liter. Then as of Tuesday when I did my PFTs again at the hospital, 6 weeks and 3 days later, I am at 1.97 L. AMAZING! Before transplant, I would dread PFTs because I would work so hard blowing out, and then cough up and be sore from it, only to produce incredibly low numbers. Now when I do PFTs, even when I feel I'm working hard, I'm not exhausted, I don't hurt and my numbers get higher every day! I still do breathing treatments everyday, and I have breathing exercise I do to expand the lungs muscle. I can't wait to see how far I can go!
Another thing I had done on Tuesday was a bronchoscopy. Doctor take a camera attached to the end of tube and looks around, then he takes a small piece of the lung to biopsy for rejection/infection. We're still waiting on results from that. My numbers from bloodwork seemed decent however, and the only adjustment made could be my blood pressure meds. That has been my newest battle. It is always high. I'm talking 140/100 and up! So we have been moving the meds around and hoping for a change soon. And I think the diabetes is starting to get undercontrol after several insulin adjustments, but I'm on it like a hawk. Sometimes I think I may be annoying because I am so insistant with getting the sugars under control and getting off a sliding scale, but I don't want to have to face kidney damage on top of everything else. One challenge that has been driving me nutso is I can't drive yet! Not until I'm off the pain meds (which each day is less and less). And I finally got the okay to go in the pool or bath (but no swimming-still healing inside).
One really nice thing about transplant is that I have seen the people in my life I really want around me. And everyone has been there that I've expected, and some that I haven't. I only wish I could drive to visit everyone, I'm just so darn far! I have to wait for Jon to get home in the evenings to go anywhere, or when I have a friend or family member come by. By the way, I love having my vistors =) It definately makes the day so much happier. It gets a little lonely, and I think my house is almost at it's maximum cleanliness!LOL
So, I apologize for putting you to the side my loving blogger-but I promise to return way more frequently, as my mind is a running like a hamster wheel these days and I got to spit it out somewhere!
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