I Am Still Blessed.....

After all I have been through since coming to Duke in June, I have to say I am very fortunate to still be here. Just a recap of my journey I received my double lung transplant on July 1st. Not long afterward I developed a seroma which is a fluid filled pocket, this was located in my groin area. I wore a wound vac pump for three months until it finally healed. In the meantime, I battled a bout of mild rejection which formed as fluid around my lung. Once that was taken care of, I was on the mend, until my left hip developed a stress fracture. The only assumption is that I got it from prolonged steroid use. Currently, I am still recovering from the hip surgery and it is going great only now I have a bowel blockage from too many pain meds. I've had an ng tube down my nose into my stomach with no food only ice chips, until earlier today. I finally got cleared to have clear liquids and laxatives and an enema. Oh yay! I also had mild rejection again with the last bronchoscopy. I've been treated again with solumedrol (iv steroids). This is not uncommon after lung transplant so I am not alarmed. I am breathing good and this is another techicallity keeping me from getting home to MS. At least I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel again and hopefully will be getting out of here by the weekend (back to the hotel). I am still optimistic because compared to how sick I was before I got here, what I am dealing with now is minor compared to where I was only four months ago. God Is Great!

I haven't been on the computer for a couple days so when I logged back on to check blog updates I see inspiring and heartbreaking news. It makes me stop in my tracks and say a prayer for the families that are having much harder times than my own. People like myself tend to be selfish when we don't feel good physically or things aren't going the way we want them too. That was me until today. I read about a fellow Cfer who lost his battle waiting for a lung and liver transplant. I also read of the great progress another fellow Cfer is making from receiving her double lung transplant. I'm so happy for her and her family and so sad for his lose to this terrible disease.