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  • Hospital – Day 3 – Escape!

    Today at around 1:30pm I’ll be escaping the hospital and heading home. This has been quite the uneventful stay, but that was pretty much to be expected. I also won’t really know the results of my stay for a few weeks. The downside is that my Prednisone dose will go up for a few weeks. Hopefully I won’t put on the same amount of weight as I had. I’m just shy of where I want to be.

    Also, having the laptop has been a big lifesaver. I’ve made it through two DVDs and been able to interact with people on-line. Much nicer than just staring at the wall for hours and spacing out. Next time I’ll have to let more people know that I’m going to be having a hospital stay so I can get more visitors (thanks for stopping by this moring Ece!).

    And the nurse has just arrived for my last steroid dosage for my stay, which will take around an hour.

  • Hospital – Day 2

    So far things are uneventful. It’s mostly just sitting around waiting for the next time to take meds. Luckily I have my Powerbook with me so that I’m online and finally caught up with lots of posts. I also brought some anime DVDs along so I can finally watch the last disk of Azumanga Daioh (YAMAMAYA!) and some other stuff.

    Anyone feel like stopping by today/tonight and bringing me a snack? Leave a comment if so and I’ll email you back if I see it in time.

  • Back in the Hospital

    As I said in my last post I’m back in the hospital for three days to get some nice high doses of steroids to combat some acute rejection. This is fairly run of the mill stuff, no need to panic or anything. I actually feel fine, the goal is to nip this in the bud before it gets serious.

    Given that there’s not a heck of a lot to do here I’ll possibly be posting a bit more often than I have been.

  • Lung Update

    Last Tuesday I had a bronchoscopy, which is a fun procedure where they send a scope down into your lungs to make sure everything is okay. In my case there was a little bit of inflammation, which can be a sign of rejection. As a result they want me to come in for three days to get some high doses of anti-rejection medications via IV.

    So on Monday I’ll be going into the hospital till Wednesday. If I get my act together I’ll set up a dial-up account before then so I can be online from the hospital this time.

  • Hot Damn, Pt. 2

    I made it to the end of the street and back. The key thing to do I’ve discovered is wake up early an do it before the day warms up. Next up is to make it halfway around the block, which will mean I can hopefully go the rest of the way around the block to return :).

  • Hot Damn

    Just now I made it up the stairs from the first to the second floor without using my cane. I never thought I’d be so excited by stairs. The lung is working great still, every bit of exercise makes me feel a bit stronger. My next goal is to be able to walk around the block by the end of the month.

  • More on the Lung

    After my bout with acute rejection I woke up to find myself in the ICU again. This was a kind of weird time for me. The medications they gave me to fight off the rejection/possible infection scrambled my brain a little. Between that and being cooped up in the ICU I was more than a bit confused. For a while I pretty much forgot I’d had the transplant.

    For the next week or so everything snapped back into place and I remembered where I was and what I was there for. But it was so strange to look back and and my thinking still makes sense. There is a condition called ICU Psychosis what is experienced by some people, and we think I had a touch of that added in. I remember having lots of really odd dreams, which I guess had me speaking out loud too. My parents and sister have all kinds of stories of me talking about too many countries and leprechauns.

    After close to a week I was moved back to step down. At this point I’d barely eaten in weeks and my weight was down 35 pounds. So the next week was gaining strength, starting to walk again (with the help of a walker). Getting used to eating again (which took some time).

    After just over a week of that I was ready to head home. I was going pretty crazy with boredom and got to leave just in time.

    So far things at home are going well. I get better at going up and down stairs every day. It’s amazing how hard even little things like that are still.

  • The Other Big Thank You

    I wanted to have this thank you be on its own. I would like to thank Emily for keeping this blog updated. I’d asked her to do it for me years ago and was glad that she was able to do it. My friends and family have all be so impressed with it. And it really helped keep information flowing.

    Thanks again Emily!

  • The Thank You Post

    There’s so many people to thank for their support with my ordeal. At the very top of the list is my family. My parents, who were there for me every single day without fail, are the best. Even while I was a bit out of my head with ICU Psychosis. My sister, who came up from Louisiana and also watched over me. It was good to have her nearby.

    Next are all the people who sent me cards and presents. I’m not even going to try and name everyone because there are just too many and I’m sure I’d forget. But at the top of the list would be Bree and Ellen.

    And finally, a big thanks to all the nurses and doctors at Brigham & Womens. They were all so amazing. Even when I felt like I must be bothering them too much they were always there for me.

  • A Tale of a Lung

    On April 13th at around 2pm-ish I got a call from Brigham and Women’s asking me to come in for a transplant. After packing things up my parents and I zoomed up to the hospital. After getting there I learned things were a go and was prepped for surgery. At around 1am on the 14th they were done with my surgery.

    Fast forward to the Sunday after that. That’s the first day I remember being able to connect events together. Everything has gone well with the surgery and I am recovering nicely. Within two days I’m eating solid foods and being ready to moved to what they call Step Down. Step Down is where you go through the second stage of your recovery. They have you exercise every day to get your new lung working better and start to get you learning about what the rest of your recovery will be like.

    Unfortunately, after a day or two in Step Down I had a setback and went into acute rejection. At the time they weren’t sure if it was rejection or infection or what, so they were treating me for everything. This also meant going back under sedation as they put me back on the ventilator. I pretty much don’t remember anything between then and waking up a week or so later in a fairly confused state.

    I’ll continue this tale in one of my next posts so that this doesn’t get too long.