Fractures, Rejection, and Home, Oh My!

Well I made it through another surgery with nothing eventful that happened this time, whew! Right now my leg isn't hurting too bad, just a dull ache. Thsnk You Dalaudid, I can barely keep my eyes open,but don't want to sleep. At least the pain is minimal.
One thing that is going to drive me crazy is I can't get out of the bed until tomorrow. You know what that means, a bedpan. Thankfully I'm catherized and hopefully I won't have the urge to need the bedpan for the other, LOL! I have no shame anymore since my transplant :0

Also found out that my last bronch shows mild rejection (A1 is how they classify ie: A1 A2, etc.)which I was told will be treated like the rejection I had last time. Three days of IV steroids then taper down to my regular dose. The preliminary plan is to start the iv steroids on Sunday (cause they want to wait a few days after any surgery). So I'll take dose one on Sun., dose two on Monday, get discharged and take the last dose at the hotel. That is the plan, it doesn't mean that's what will happen. Well, it will give me more to rant/talk about:)

This brings me to the conclusion of my title, going home. Our hopes and plans from the time of transplant were to be able to leave around the first of October. Then it got pushed back to the middle of Oct. Now, it's the middle of November! I'm still hopeful that this time we will be leaving. The Orthopedic docs are saying it won't hold us up. Lets just pray nothing else goes wrong!!!

Bubble Busted!

I try not to talk ugly, but dammit I was ready to go home today. That's not going to happen for another 2-3 weeks. I've had a pain in my left hip for three weeks now. The first week it started hurting I got an xray of the area and it didn't show anything unusual. I was scheduled for an MRI, but it wouldn't be until this past Tuesday (a week later) so I've been walking around on my leg when I shouldn't have been. Turned out to be a stress fracture. I knew it wasn't a pulled muscle because it NEVER gets better. The pain is the same. I have started taking oxycodone to cope with it. I have faith in the doctor's to get me fixed up tomorrow.

I can only say that as many problems that I have had, none of them have involved my lungs (inside the lungs). I had fluid around my lung, but all of the biopsies have been clear. I thank God everyday for allowing me to survive by the miracle of transplant. I pray for the donor's family and am forever grateful for their loved one's generous, selfless gift. I Can Breathe!! Please continue to pray for me. Love To All!

Getting out of The Joint

I am definately getting out of the hospital today. It'll be this afernoon before they get the paperwork done, fgures! Some good news is I'll get to sleep in peace and I haven't had a pain pill in over 12hrs. It seems like I always get a room across from the nursing station. Last night it wasn't the nurses making noise, it was the person in the next to me, well it was the family that was in the room with him. I don't think they had ever been in a hospital setting or they would know to BE QUIET. It wasn't late so my sleep wasn't disturbed, but other patients may have been asleep. They were laughing and talking loud like it was a family reunion.

More good news, I may get to go home by mid October. It isn't for certain, in case something else happns ;). I have faith in God and so far everything has run smooth. I'm still taking it one day at a time. Love To All!

Surgery Sucess

I'm stil here and doing great after my stomach wrap surgery. I haven't been in too much pain like I thought I would be. I'll have five more scars when the latest holes heal. It'll be worth it if it keeps acid reflux from contaminating my lungs. I'm so thankful that I'm alive an able to breathe!

A downfall to this surgery is I'll be on a liquid diet for a week, then soft foods for a few days. The doc said after that I could slowly incorporate regular foods into my diet. Here's a question, if anyone has been on a clear liquid diet, what types of things did you eat. I know things like broth, protein drinks, etc. I'm wondering if anyone invented something that tasted good and gave nececcary calories and energy.

I'll have more to update later. I haven't seen any doctors this morning, of course it is only 8:00ish. I'm hoping to go home today. I'll update again when I find out for sure. Love To All!

I'm A Pulmonary Rehab Graduate!!

Woo Hoo! I finished my 23 sessions of rehab today. I will still go to the center until I leave for home, but I will be on my own more without the instructors guiding me what to do next. I'm excited because Philip can go with me too. The only bummer to it all is after my surgery tomorrow I won't be able to lift more than 10lbs with my arms and legs. I've worked my way up to 75lbs on some of the leg exercises. That irritates me because the rehab center said it would be that way for six weeks.

Sooo, EARLY in the morning I have to get up to be at the hospital by 5:30am for the stomach wrap surgery. It isn't scheduled until 7:30am. At least I won't have to wait too long and I'll get to go back to sleep ;) I'm not looking forward to staying in the hospital overnight, but this too shall pass. Then I'll spend a week on a liquid diet. Next I'll slowly ease back into regular food starting out with soft foods. It'll probably take a few weeks for my tummy to get back to normal.

I went to clinic today and everything looks good except I have fluid around my left lung AGAIN. I don't feel like I'm breathing worse, but my PFT's (breathing test) show my numbers have dropped. I feel like it is the fluid. It was actually there last week too and doc said it was a little better this week so she isn't going to do anything for now. I go back to clinic Tues., so I'll find out what she wants to do next.

That's all the news I have for now. I probably won't feel like blogging, so I hope everyone has a Great Weekend. Love To All!

Nice Long Weekend With No Surgery

I was supposed to be in the hospital today recovering from my stomach wrap surgery. Turns out Friday when we went to the clinic to do the pre-op screening, we were actually supposed to be at the hospital. We arrived at the clinic at 7:30am and found out we were supposed to be at the hospital at 5:30am. Apparently, the surgeon's secretary tried to call me, but the number she had was our home number in Mississippi. I know the hospital has my cell phone number, good grief! So the surgery was cancelled and re-scheduled for next Friday. At least I got the pre-op done so I'll just go straight to the hospital.

I decided to ditch rehab Friday. I was so aggravated having to wait another week that I just wasn't in the mood. The rest of Friday through today has been a great down time, although I have been walking around the hotel at least a mile so it's not like I have been a total couch potato. I still want to exercise my breathers. I'll graduate from rehab next week. I have completed 20 of the 23 sessions so Tues., Weds., and Thurs., will complete my mandatory sessions. I'll still have to go to rehab, but I will have more freedom to exercise in the order of each station that I choose. I was hoping to be home by sometime in October, but with the surgery scheduled for Sep. 10th and recovery will take 6 wks; I don't know when I'll get home.

I'm just taking it one day at a time and am concentrating on getting stronger every day. I hope everyone has a Great Labor Day! Love To All.

Timeline of events

I thought I would put a timeline of how things went on the day of Pam's surgery. I feel funny calling her Pam because a lot of the close family call her Wilbur, and others call her Lu or Lu-Lu. So you'll know who I mean if I call her anything other than Pam. So on July 1st 2010 she got the call for her double lung transplant. She was already in the hospital at Duke for a tune-up as she calls it. She sent me a message that day and told me she got the call. I couldn't wait to get off work to try to talk to her before surgery. I was so excited when I found out she wasn't in surgery yet. We chat all the time on Blackberry messenger, but I wanted to hear her voice. Honestly not knowing if it would be the last time, even though I couldn't bring myself to say those words at that time. So we talked for about five minutes, and I was peppering her with questions about how she felt, what was going on, etc. She was so calm. She said she was nervous earlier but had gotten over it. We both figured her nerves would kick back in as she was being wheeled into surgery. I told her we'd be in touch with Philip and would see her soon because we had already planned a trip up there that weekend. I told her I loved her and she said she loved us too and to "Kiss her baby for her." She always says that about our son Joey.

So here's the time and text messages that I received from Philip. I forwarded them on to a list of people and put an update on Facebook each time.

July 1st
3:15pm-Checking in for surgery

4:16pm- Took her back to surgery

6:09pm- Philip called me. He said he'd just talked to the dr. Her heart stopped while they were trying to put her under anesthesia. For a moment I thought he was calling to tell me my sister had died. He caught his breath and said that they got her back and the dr. was trying to decide whether or not to even continue with the surgery. At this point they hadn't even made an incision. They also said they weren't sure how her brain would be affected from coding. I had to call our Mama and tell her. That was hard. She held it together while we talked, but she later admitted that she fell apart after we got off the phone.

8:11pm-Everything going as expected

11:36pm-She is out of surgery and doing good. We will know more when she wakes up.

July 2nd
3:29am-I just got to go back and see Lu. She looked good and the nurse said all vitals and everything looked good!! Please keep praying!

3:39am-You can call ICU and check on her. Her nurse is Katie tonight till about 6am.

We talked some in between these times. She was doing good. So far so good. At some point they hooked her to a machine that checks brain activity and they said it looked just fine. What a huge relief!! I had already convinced myself that would be fine. It's not like she wasn't receiving oxygen when she coded.

6:47pm-Lu is doing real good! She is awake, breathing on her own, with no oxygen just room air! They are going to try and take her breathing tube out tonight.

7:59pm-Ya'll aren't going to believe how good she looks!

July 3rd
12:28am- Breathing tube is OUT!!!!!

12:46am- I thank you all for all your thoughts and prayers!!! I really believe that they helped her get this far!! They sure helped me get thru it so far! THANK YALL!

12:19pm- Lu is sitting up in a chair and walking!!

2:06pm-Taking out chest tubes and moving out of ICU!!

7:42pm-She is gonna stay in icu one more nite

That's the last text I got because we had made it to NC by this time. We checked into our hotel Saturday night. I was so anxious to get to the hospital Sunday morning!!

It's a go!! Update from Melissa

She found out this morning that they had a set of lungs that were a possible match. They told her this afternoon that it's a go!! I'm sure those weren't their exact words, but you get the drift. She finally went in to surgery around 4:15 our time. She is still in surgery as I write this. Philip called me with the first update and said that her heart stopped beating while they were putting her under anesthesia. He didn't say anything else for a second so my mind starts going crazy thinking the worst. He then tells me that they were able to revive her and were trying to decide whether or not to proceed with the surgery. The doctor said this was not the way they like to start a surgery, and also that they were not sure if there would be any long term effects on her brain. They did ultimately decide to go on with her surgery. Our parents are on their way now. Jake and I will be leaving on Saturday. I can't wait to see her! So for now we are all praying harder than we've prayed in a while and pleading for God to have his hands in this surgery and to heal her in the way that only he can. Philip is sending text updates to my phone and I'm hoping to get another one any minute now. It's going to be a long night, but God's grace will see us through it.