Last Friday GNO!! :)

Last Friday night Danny went to a concert with a bunch of boys so I went to my FIRST Girls Night Out since my transplant! It was so much fun and I always like spending time with my ladies. We went to Buca Di Beppo (sorry mom) it was SO yummy and I always leave there way to full. Steph and I shared the Chicken Carbonara...one word DELISH! :)

Here are a few photos...enjoy!

Enjoying the food!

Me and the best SIL! :)

All the girls outside...

Holly, Steph, Crissy & Me

My GFs from elementary/middle school! Love them! :)

Gainesville Bound...

I was supposed to already be up in Gainesville as of yesterday because I had a clinic appointment this morning. BUT...the last couple days I could feel junk rattling around in my chest and because I still have a stupid hole in my neck cause of the wonderful trach I had (can you here the sarcasm??) it makes it VERY difficult to cough anything up! It basically gets stuck in my throat and its horrible. The little mucous I managed to force out luckily was clear/to a very light yellow so I wasn't to concerned. But I did call the coordinator yesterday to see about having a bronch Wednesday afternoon after clinic to suck all the junk out. I just don't want it brewing down there in my lungies and causing a bigger issue than it needs to be...I want it outta there!

SO, after my coordinator called me back with the fabulous news that my Dr couldn't fit me in today for a bronch. They cancelled my clinic appt and are just having me come in at 8am tomorrow morning for bloodwork and a bronch instead. Which is all fine and dandy except now I have to wait one more day of feeling congested (which I don't like btw! I have had months of normal breathing I like it that way!) plus I had to re-configure my ride situation. Luckily my SIL is awesome and her boss is awesome and gave her the night off to help me! Cause lets be honest I can't drive myself home after a bronch... :)

I am exhausted though! The last couple nights when I lay down is when I REALLY feel the congestion so it keeps me awake. Last night I even tried to sleep kinda sitting up and that was little help. So I am just hoping (an praying) that the bronch fixes everything and I will be sent home a happy camper. Because two of our really good friends are getting married Friday night out on Sanibel Island and I can't wait!! We got a room out there and everything (the resort is like 45min from our house and with an open bar till 2am we thought it best to stay there!) so we are gonna take full advantage and lounge by the pool....im even trying to talk Danny into parasailing with me but he is afraid of heights and being a sissy about it! LOL The man can walk not tied to anything on a roof beam but cant go in the air strapped to his wife....WTH! :)

I will definitely have pictures from this weekend that I will post once we get home. Until then I am gonna finish packing my bag for Gainesville and wait for my SIL to get here so we can hit the road!! Have a great rest of the week.....XoxoX

Gainesville Update!

Well I got my biopsy results back from my bronch last Monday and they were NEGATIVE!! Woo Hoo! So relieved....its kind of stressful waiting for those results.

Thursday I had the pressure test done on my legs and both have 100% blood flow in them, they are perfect! Well...except for the little bit of numbing I have on my left shin and parts of my left foot. The doctor said after the year mark of my surgery any numbing that I still have will probably be permanent but at this point its to early to tell what if any I will have!

Thursday night Mom and I met a great gal by the name of Lori. I have been reading her blog for some time now and she reads mine as well. When she emailed me and told me that she would be visiting her cousin in Jacksonville and would I like to meet up for dinner I jumped at the chance! We had an awesome time and I can't wait till the next time we can hang out...who knows maybe I might have to take a trip to NC soon! :)

Physical therapy is going good. Not to much to report there. Still working on our downstairs bathroom...its half painted its just needs the glaze but Danny has been working so much he hasn't had time to finish it. I wish I could help but painting is a no-no for me! Oh well it will

get done soon one thing Danny is not is a slacker!

Here are a few pictures of dinner the other night!! :)

Me & Lori

Lori, Me & Mom

Me & my Mom :)

Busy Week!

Hello! I think I told you all in my last post that I was scheduled for a bronch/biopsy on the 24th and then I had other appts as well with other Dr's since we were up there. I figured get everything done in a couple days then we don't have to drive to Gainesville for awhile.

Well that was a great plan until my transplant Dr called last week and wanted to move my bronch from Thursday morning to Monday morning. So needless to say we had to drive to Gainesville Sunday night to sleep in a hotel, woke up had my bronch (first one since my trach has been removed I will get more into that in a minute) slept in recovery for a couple hours, was released to go home, had lunch at Fridays, got in the car slept some more and then finally arrived home! AND because we still have all my other appts that I made we get to do it all over again on Thursday and Friday minus all the sleeping since I am not having another bronch!

Its not so bad I just hate being in the car for HOURS....especially if its just me and one other person because then I feel like I have to stay awake and talk to keep them company when all I really want to do is sleep so the trip goes by faster!! Ever since I was a kid when I go on road trips my eyelids get very heavy and I am usually asleep before we have left the driveway! LOL Happens every time.....

I don't have the results of my biopsy yet but all my blood work came back ok and Dr. Baz said my lungs looked really good and that they were clear! Now onto my bronch experience...this was my first bronch post-trach and the first time going in through my nose so I wasn't entirely sure on what to expect.

First of all, the lidocaine breathing treatment taste gross let me just throw that out there. SO then my Dr comes in we chat for a minute he asks how im doing I get a few Rx from him etc., he tells the nurse to give me the meds (300mcg of Fentanyl and 3mg of Versed) and then he basically starts the procedure right away. So I felt him numbing my nose and while I don't really remember the whole procedure I do recall bits and pieces and I could feel some of it too. So I think if he gave me the medicine and waited I don't know 5 minutes maybe I would be more out of it than if he just started right away. Plus I think next time I am gonna see if he can give me 4mg of versed since I know of other people who get DOUBLE that amount! He can be so stingy when it comes to pain medicine and things like that....

Other than being sleepy for the rest of the day the only other side effect I had was a minor sore throat but that only lasted the rest of the day when I woke up Tuesday I was fine. One of the things I talked to my Dr about was the fact that im not happy with my weight....all 92.8 pounds of it! He asked me how my appetite was and I said that it was ok but not great so he gave me a Rx for Megace. Has anybody ever taken this before and if so how did it work out?

Onto more exciting stuff other than bronchs and weight gaining....we are almost done with the downstairs bathroom! Danny did the first couple coats of paint Sunday and Monday while I was out of town and hopefully if he has time this weekend he will do the glazed sponge paint on top of that! It looks SO good already I love my beach theme bathroom! :)

I went to my first post-tx yoga class on Friday and it was AWESOME! I also started physical therapy last week too. I will be going to PT 3 times a week where I will walk the treadmill/maybe start on the elliptical, work on my leg and foot a little since I still have a lot of numbness there from my arterial bypass surgery and then the BEST part of all is the massages since I have been having so much trouble with my lower back lately. I have an appt today at 4! :)

Well I think this post is long enough....I probably wont post again till I get back from Gainesville so I will let you all know then the results of my biopsy and how all my other appts went! Have a good rest of the week!

Im Home! :)

Friday morning at around 7:30am I officially had my trach removed and before lunch I was discharged from the hospital!

We had some loose ends to take care of at the apartment (equipment pick-up etc) but were on the road and made it safe and sound to our house at around 4:00pm!

Friday night Danny and I went to my favorite pizza place for dinner and then on Saturday we went to Target in the morning and then spent the whole rest of the day deep cleaning (I say we loosely because I kind of sat there and "supervised") the house and putting away the Halloween decorations that were still up...yes thats right I said Halloween because I haven't been home since October!!!

My kitchen looks so pretty! When I was in the hospital I did a little shopping on Amazon (I tend to shop online when I am in the hospital...oops) and got new kitchen knives (which are FABULOUS by the way I have never cut an onion so well in my life!) and a really cute bottle to hold EVOO....that extra virgin olive oil for anybody who doesnt watch Rachael Ray on the Food Network! I will have to take some pictures of my kitchen tomorrow when I am downstairs and post them so you all can see. We have lived in the house 3 years and its just now starting to come together with the decorating for the longest time there was nothing on the walls and I didnt know where to start but its all coming together nicely!

This weekend I am re-doing the downstairs bathroom....3 years of palm trees and I am over it. I am gonna have my mom paint the bathroom this really pretty blue color and then I am going to do a beach theme in there! I found this shower curtain with flip flops on it thats really cute...I can't wait! :) I will take before and after pics of that as well....

Next week on the 24th and 25th I have to be in Gainesville for a bronch/biopsy and then see the vascular doctors as well and have the pressures in my leg tested to see how that is doing. Lets keep the fingers and toes crossed that its a CLEAR bronch and everything goes well!

Ok well its midnight so I SHOULD probably turn off the computer and try to go to sleep......wish me luck! Good Night :)

XoxoX