So...good news and not so good news...

On Sunday I woke up feeling VERY congested around my trach. NOT my lungs I just felt like crap was getting stuck in my trach and it was driving me crazy! I was coughing up paper towels full of mucous out of my trach (very gross by the way...you would think after 29 years mucous wouldn't gross me out so much but it does!) Finally I said to Danny should I call my coordinator and of course Danny being Danny says "I don't know"....thanks babe!

So I said for him to grab my thermometer (I check my vitals 9am and 9pm everyday I don't know if that is standard with everyone or not but if my temp is EVER 100 or greater I am to call immediately no matter what time of day) I didn't think I had a fever but I thought I will check it anyway and then decided if I am gonna call the coordinator. That was as 1:30pm and guess what I had a fever 100.4 to be exact! So I called my coordinator and of course they admitted me an hour later.

After x-rays and blood work it was determined that I have a little bit of pneumonia in my right lung. :( I of course was upset I mean I have done EVERYTHING right and worn my stupid mask everywhere how could this have happened? Well apparently I still have Psedomonas in my sinuses and that dripped down into my pretty new lungs and caused the pneumonia. Wonderful.

I was also upset because as you all know I was supposed to go home this weekend and I thought for sure this would delay my home coming by another week or so at least. Well I saw my wonderful Dr this morning and he said that I was going to be released on Friday and that he wanted me to do one more week of home IV's. I said Home, Home or tx-housing home....he says let me think about it.

Well my coordinator JUST called me because she wanted to know who I used for home health cause my Dr wanted her to set up my home health...that means Friday morning I get to go home!!! I haven't been to my house since the beginning of October and I am SO excited you have no idea!!!! :)

So I have to do IV's for a week...big deal I have done them before I get to go HOME!!! WOO HOO!! Thanks to everyone out there who put out all the good going home vibes for me I (and Danny) appreciate it!!!

XoxoX

P.S. Another piece of good news I found out the other day is my dr told me that my latest culture came back that I was sensitive to a bunch of abx which is great news so we can kick this pneumonia's butt! ;)

Almost home free!!!

Saw my doctor today and the game plan is on Tuesday I am going to have a bronch and biopsy done AND drum roll please......get my Trach out!!! WOO HOO!! You have know idea how bad I want this thing out. Three months is entirely to long to have a foreign object protruding from your neck. Very annoying!

If the test results from my biopsy are all clear then next weekend Danny and I are moving on out of here! I can't wait to sleep in my own bed. The bed here in the apartment we are staying at SUCKS! I wake up every morning with a terrible back ache. I know the first night at home is gonna be like sleeping on a cloud...our mattress is awesome and I miss it!

So if you could all think clear positive thoughts for me I would appreciate it. I wanna go home and Danny needs to get back to work! :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

XoxoX

How long did it take you??

This is a question for all of my post-tx peeps out there....how long did it take you all to "heal" completely from your surgery?

I know that since I am on prednisone and a ton of other medications it takes a bit longer to heal than most people. But it seems like even things that seem pretty much healed (meaning not scabbed over any more, etc.) are still red. Here is an example of where the line was in my neck...while the hole itself is completely closed and flat like its not even there its still VERY red which makes the stupid thing noticeable.

This is only one example. With the amount of surgeries I have had since I have been in Gainesville (9 to be exact) my poor body looks like a road map that belongs in an Atlas of the USA!!

So I was just wondering how long I will have my lovely body souvenirs around as a reminder of my time here in good old Northern Florida and when I can look forward to finally having them start fading away a little bit.

I do realize that it has only been two months since my transplant and 2 weeks since my arterial bypass surgery so I don't expect to be completely fine at this point but I will be honest and say it makes me feel a little bad knowing I look like this right now. Last night as Danny was helping change some of my bandages I actually started crying cause I felt so bad. And of course he was completely wonderful and says I am beautiful no matter what and I know he means it but I was still sad. :(

Anyway..thats all I got for tonight. Gotta go blow-dry my hair and then we are gonna watch a movie. I have my first post-tx clinic in the morning so that means its early rising for us!!

Good Night Ya'll!

XoxoX