Pasta in Olive Oil with Pancetta, Shallots and Garlic!!

Well I have FINALLY decided to dust off the old blog and and get back into the habit of cooking and then documenting my food here. Its not that we have been not eating around here, trust me on that one!

It all started with my camera's battery charger deciding it didn't want to charge anything anymore which left me without a working camera. Of course I had my trusty IPhone but unfortunately with all of the meds I am on because of my transplant my hands shake a lot and makes for some VERY blurry pics and I just didn't want to post pictures of my food that tasted SO good but looked SO crappy once I snapped the picture!

Then I had a few months of being in and out of the hospital due to severe nausea caused by a lovely med I am on that just hates me and causes me all kinds of problems! So I literally at one point didn't eat really anything of substance for like a week because everything I ate, smelled,  or even looked at made me sick so the LAST thing I wanted to do was cook and blog about it. Luckily (knock on wood) I am better and working at trying to pack on some of the calories I lost PLUS I got a new camera for Christmas so I am ready to rock and roll!! :)

I have SO many recipes that I have made recently that I want to share with you PLUS I am attempting to channel my inner craftiness and I borrowed my mom's sewing machine so that I can TRY and attempt a few DIY projects around my house. I am so inspired when I read some of these amazing moms out there who can turn nothing into something fabulous and if I can even have a remote oz of that I will take it! LOL I will be trying to take pics of my sewing projects along the way and post about them (good or bad) so keep your fingers crossed for me...

Today, I thought to myself ok today when you make lunch document it so you can get your first blog post of the year up...mid Feb I know but better late than never, right?

So anybody who knows me knows I love to cook but am still pretty terrified if I don't have a recipe and I think its cause I just don't trust myself or something I don't know. My grandma can go into a kitchen, a dash here, a pinch there and out comes a fabulous meal every time! Me not so much.

So when I was hungry this afternoon but didn't want the old stand by of soup and a sandwich I decided I would look through my pantry and fridge and just try and make lunch by "winging it" and I don't mean to pat myself on the back or anything (ok I do!) but I think I did a pretty good job!

Here's the ingredients I came up with:

Spaghetti noodles~ 4oz (about half a box)

Olive Oil~ 2 tablespoons, or more as needed

Parmesan Cheese~ 1/2cup grated from a block of Parmesan

Pancetta~ 4oz (you could use bacon here if you don't have the Pancetta on hand)

1 Shallot~ chopped

4 cloves of garlic~ minced (can you tell I LOVE garlic?)

Fresh Parsley~ about 2 tablespoons....just to add some pretty color! 

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Bring a pot of large salted water to a boil.
2. While that gets started go ahead and put the oil in a medium sized skillet over medium heat. Add the shallot and minced garlic, stirring occasionally. Then add the pancetta and cook until nicely browned (about 10 minutes.) Turn off the heat.
3. Cook the pasta in the boiling water until tender. Drain it (or I just scoop it out and put it right in with the olive oil and pancetta) reserving some of the starchy pasta water.
4. Toss the pasta with the pancetta, shallot, garlic and olive oil. Stir in the cheese and parsley. If the mixture is dry, you can either add a little of the pasta water (which I did) or a little more olive oil. Taste and then adjust the seasoning if needed with salt and pepper.

**You most likely wont need a ton of salt because both the pancetta and parmesan have a salty flavor but I did end up adding a little bit to mine in the end! 

Well, there you have it. Nothing fancy but very flavorful (how could it not be with ALL the garlic...but can you really ever have too much garlic??) and I for one had a second helping!! 

I hope that since I have been away for so long I still have some people willing to check out my little old blog from time to time and I promise that if you come back and read I will post! 

Just heard the hubby pull up so I am off to start dinner! Its the Pioneer Woman to the rescue for tonights menu....more on that later....

Last Week...

Well last Monday my SIL Stephanie took me back up to Gainesville for an x-ray to see how my little lungies were doing and he ended up scheduling a bronch for that afternoon and I was admitted again! :(

Steph spent the night with me and then headed home the next morning after we woke up. I am so lucky to have a SIL like her...she is ALWAYS there when I need her no matter what!

Unfortunately, we aren't entirely sure what is going on with me. When he does an xray and bronch it looks like pneumonia in the left lung but I have had no fevers at all (knock on wood!) and my biopsy's keep coming back negative for rejection but for some reason I don't think he is happy with those answers and thinks something else is going on! He said infection/rejection can look the same in a bronch so sometimes its hard to tell. So at the moment I am on IV cefipime twice a day and while I was admitted into the hospital I did 3 days of high solumerol IV and now I am on a prednisone tapper. Oh I am also on coumadin for a month (hello bruise city!) because I had a CT scan last week that showed a small blood clot so they are treating me for that as well! I tell yeah if it isn't one thing its another! :(

Easter was great. Dinner with my family was awesome and I am glad I wasn't in the "Get Well Hotel" as one of my friends calls it! I was there for 4 days last week but was able to leave on Friday to join my parents and little sister in Panama City Beach for the weekend to visit my Aunt and Uncle! It was a nice but WAY to short of a trip....next time it will have to be a longer

visit and maybe Danny can go too!

Our little family at Easter!

Me & Danny! :)

Me & Jessie in Panama City Beach!

Speaking of Danny...while I was away my awesome husband checked some things off his Honey-Do list and painted/added chair-rail to the living room and dining room. I am so thankful to have a husband that is handy AND motivated to actually do the projects that I think up in my head! :)

boring living room from when we first moved in....

slowly getting there...

Dining room from when we first moved in...

Now! :)

Well, thats all I got for now...I am on IV's for the rest of the week and have to go to a clinic appointment on May 11th so we will see what he says then. I have a meeting tomorrow for Jen's Kids so we will see how that turns out. The hospital unfortunately hasn't done a darn thing while I was away so we are meeting to decide where to go from here. I am kind of disappointed in them that they dropped the ball so we will see.

Anyway....have a great week everyone!! XoxoX

Twelve days just FLY by...

I just looked at blogger and realized I haven't updated in 12 days!! Geez-louise!

Where to start...well I got my biopsy results back from my bronch a couple weeks ago and it was NEGATIVE for rejection!!! Woo-Hoo! I love hearing those results! :)

We had and awesome time at our friends wedding on Sanibel. It was so nice to "get away" for a night even if it was only an hour away from our house. Lounging by the pool with a RumRunner in my hand is the way to relax in style! Unfortunately, we didn't get to do the parasailing thing because my doctor said NO until my sternum is "completely" healed...bummer! But one day I will...

Us and the Newlyweds!!

Me, Danny, his brother Troy & wife Stephanie

Me & Danny <3

View from our room! :)

The next few weeks are jam packed for me. We have Easter next weekend, next week I think I am going back to Gainesville (I swear I am always there!) then the following weekend me and my family are going to Panama City Beach to see my Aunt and Uncle. Then May 4th I am riding up with my dad to Ohio to pick my little brother up from college. Then that following weekend is Mother's day....and in the middle of ALL that I go to physical therapy for 2 hours three days a week!! Im telling ya I am a busy girl!! :)

Man I am exhausted just thinking of all I have to do! LOL I just got home from PT so I am gonna straiten up my bedroom a little bit and then jump in the shower. I need to have dinner done a little early tonight cause we have to go to the grocery store after dinner and I don't want to be going super late!

Have a great Monday everyone.....

XoxoX

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

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

It's been WAY to long....

I know, I know I am a horrible blogger! It's not that I haven't had anything to say because I have and everyday I think to myself "ok I am gonna write on my blog today" and then I go to bed and it doesn't happen. But I do read and keep myself updated on what is going on with all of you! :)

Ok let's see where to begin....a few weeks ago I was sick as a dog with nausea for like 2 weeks. So bad that I could barely eat or drink anything

with out having major dry heaves! I think I ate toast and applesauce and that was pretty much it. My doctor kept thinking it was the pain meds making me sick (which I knew it wasn't) but until I was off of them for couple days he wasn't ruling them out. So even though I still needed the pain meds for my foot/leg pain I stopped taking them for a couple days to prove that wasn't the culprit. When I was still sick he finally agreed to switch my prograf to cyclosporin and once he did that I wasn't sick anymore!

Now onto my leg issues....

The above picture shows a scar on my leg where the ECMO machine (the heart/lung bypass) was attached pre-tx. When I was still admitted in the hospital and both my legs and feet were massively swollen they did an ultrasound on them to make sure I didn't have a blood clot. Well good news was I didn't but there was a pocket of fluid that had formed right under the scar but they said it was fine and should go away on its own.

Fast forward a few weeks and now I am in tx housing doing outpatient physical therapy everyday but still having VERY bad pain in my left foot/leg. Its the only reason I am still having to take pain meds because if I don't its unbearable but the doctors just kept saying work through it its the nerves coming back to life after my leg not having blood flow for a day when I was on ECMO. Fine.

Well two weeks ago I noticed that the pocket of fluid under my leg scar had gotten bigger. It looked like a little football was under my skin so we once again said something to the doctor (like everyday) and finally they agreed that it wasn't normal and got us in to see the vascular surgeon that day. I had another ultrasound on my legs along with a pressure test and after those were done they found out that I had a blood clot in my left leg so I had to start taking coumadin and lovenox. The doctor then wanted to wait a couple more weeks and then have us come back in to see how my leg is doing.

Well that appointment was yesterday and we were totally blindsided to find out that not only do I have to have surgery on my leg but its apparently a pretty big surgery where I have to be readmitted for a couple of days! :( The only good news out of that whole meeting is once I do have the surgery I won't have any more pain in my leg and foot which I am very thankful for. I guess my artery is blocked (once again because of ECMO...do you see a pattern here???) so the doctors have to go in and do an arterial bypass in my leg. That consist of either taking a vein from somewhere else in my body (although I don't have many good ones so I don't know how good an option that is) or using some sort of plastic piece as a fake vein.

All of this we are hoping to get over with rather soon. My mom's FMLA runs out soon and she has to be back to work on Feb. 14th so we are really hopeful that I can go home then too. If not Danny is going to have to take off work and come and stay with me.

Well, I think thats it. I hope everyone has a great weekend! :)

Oh yeah I almost forgot...while I have been here I went to see an audiologist (with my moms insistence!) We went on Thursday and gave them the check and Tuesday I get my hearing aids. I am not to thrilled about the whole idea of having hearing aids at almost 29 yrs old (my bday is Thursday!) but I will let you all know what I think about them when I get them!

One Month Anniversary!!

Today, I have had my wonderful new lungs for an entire month! And while nothing about this transplant has gone easy (but what with me ever does?) I am thankful everyday to be able to sit here and blog to you all, or hang out with my family all while being on no oxygen and not fighting to breath.

Friday was the first day that I ventured out of the apartment/hospital radius and went to the mall. Boy was it nice to not have to lug O2 around with me! :)

The only thing that still really hurts me is my foot and I plan on bringing that up with my doctor tomorrow morning because something has to give. It hurts so bad its holding me back from fully enjoying my new breathers and thats not a good thing....

In case some of you are scratching your head wondering why my foot hurts when I had a lung transplant I will tell you! Before my surgery I was put on an ECMO machine (I was REALLY sick) this gave me a big cut on my thigh where they attached the tubes. This caused there to be no blood flow to my left leg for 24 hrs. So fast forward to after my surgery and now I have horrible pain in my foot!

Other than the painful foot I had a wonderful Christmas with my family and a good New Years too. I can't wait to see what 2011 brings my way!

Out of the hospital

For the first time in 65 days I slept in a bed other than a hospital bed!

You would think that it would have been the best night sleep ever but unfortunately that was NOT the case! I still am not able to sleep flat and since I obviously don't have a bed that can sit up I had one heck of a time trying to get comfortable on a stack of pillows propping me up.

Plus I think that coming "home" for the first time in such a long time along with my whole new regimen of meds was a little overwhelming. Plus not having the security of being able to call a nurse if something was wrong was also a little scary. Although I have to admit I haven't really dealt with my meds myself yet. When we got home yesterday my mom was the one who got them all out and in the pill box for the first time...she's so organized with the whole thing I swear she had pie charts and graphs of all that I was supposed to do! LOL

I think its just going to take me awhile to fully trust my new lungs and know that yes I can breath now and yes I am going to be ok. There are just so many emotions that I feel all at once it feels sorta like a roller coaster ride sometimes.

But I made it through the hard part now I just have to do my physical therapy and get strong so I can go home and live my life again. Cause that is what this whole thing has been about to live my life with the ones I love.

Danny and my sister are coming up tonight and the rest of my family will be here tomorrow night so we can spend Christmas together. I am just so thankful to be here and out of the hospital! I hope everyone has a great Holiday and Merry Christmas!! XoXoX

All by myself....

For the first time in 3 weeks! Danny had to go home yesterday and go back to work so I will only be seeing him on the weekends now and mom just left an hour ago to go shower and freshen up at the hotel.

What a wild and crazy path my transplant journey has come to. I never in a million years would have thought this would be how I got my new lungs.

I don't even remember all that had happened to me I only know what people tell me or I read. The last day I remember is 11/28 and then the next thing I know I am being wheeled in for my transplant on 12/1 with my family waving at me down the hall.

Everyone in the hospital is calling me a miracle. They can't believe at how sick I was and how wonderful I am doing now.

I am having a little problem with retaining fluid in my legs but we are dealing with that and I am getting stronger everyday!

It so amazing to finally be on the other side of the fence. I waited SO long and watched so many people get there lungs ahead of me I thought my turn would never come. But the big guy upstairs had it all planned out and I got my lungs right when I was supposed to and straight from the surgeon's mouth "they are the best lungs" he has ever seen! :)

So thanks to all who kept tabs on how I was doing through the whole process. The thoughts and prayers where definitely answered and I am truly grateful.

Lung Transplant Center Party

Its already almost been a week but at least my post is better late than never!

Last Friday my mom and I went back up to Gainesville (after being there Wed for a clinic appointment) for my transplant centers 16th anniversary celebration. We drove up for the party that was from 2pm-6pm stayed the night in a hotel (its a 4hour drive from my house) and then woke up the next morning to come home. Needless to say I was pretty much exhausted all weekend from the trip!

I was a little apprehensive about going and im not sure really why. I mean I love all the wonderful people I have met and talk to through my blog and you guys have been tons of help to me in any of the questions or concerns I have brought your way but still I wasn't to excited about going. But my mother thought it would be good for us so up we went!

When we first got there they had guest speakers talking about all the different experimental things they have in the pipeline as far as lung transplants go and its all very exciting stuff! I will have to see about getting some of the pamphlets from my mom and maybe doing a couple post on them.

After all the speeches were done they had food and drinks and everyone kind of mingled around and talked. I met some really nice people who all have had there transplants at Shands. All of them gave me some "pointers" on what they thought the hardest part of surgery was, what to expect etc. This one gentleman in particular I was really impressed with looked like he just stepped off a golf corse (you know polo shirt, khaki pants, shinny silver hair, sun-kissed skin) he looked FABULOUS and he was 10yrs post-tx!!

I also met a girl there who is around my age with CF and she just had her tx like a week or two before. The crazy thing about her story is after we were talking for a bit we found out that she not only lives like literally 2 minutes away from me we also have the same hair dresser! Small world, right?

In the end I am super glad my mom pushed for us to go. It was really nice. Oh yeah...and I won a necklace and earrings in a raffle and I never win anything!! :)

This week has been ok health wise. I finished my 14 days of Cipro. My cough is better but I am still slightly more SOB than usual. I just started for the first time in years Tobi so maybe that will help!

OK..have a few more good days of the week and a great weekend!!

Disney on Ice!

My sore throat is gone! Yay! It took about 2 1/2 days to go completely away but now I am fine. I am still on Cipro and have noticed my cough improve a little bit so thats good.

Yesterday, I went with my SIL and niece Delaney to see Disney's Princesses on Ice! It was such a cute show and I was glad Steph asked me to go with them. :)

Princess Delaney!

Today Danny is working in the yard again putting up a fence to block off the area where we keep out trash cans and stuff. I swear we will NEVER be done....

Next week I have a Shands appointment. All the usually test have to be done six minute walk, Pft and labs. So it will be a long day! I will let you all know how I do when I get home.

Have a great week!! :)

Not feeling to hot

Yesterday I woke up with a sore throat. I haven't had a sore throat in years and it all came rushing back to me on how painful they are! I can't swallow, cough, talk or eat with out being in pain. Hopefully it doesn't last much longer.

I called my doctor and told him I was feeling a little under the weather and he started me on 14 days of cipro so hopefully that helps.

I am hoping I feel better by Saturday because I am going with my SIL and niece to see Disney's Princesses on Ice. :)

In a couple of days it will be a whole month since my "dry run." I kind of thought I would have had another call by now. I just hope I don't have to wait to much longer I am ready to get this show on the road!!

Home again...

Well I am home again. Got here around 11:00pm last night. Did my vest (first therapy I got all day, it never occurred to any one in the hospital to give me a breathing treatment or anything while I was in the hospital for 12 hours waiting!) ate a bowl of ice cream then snuggled in my blankets and went to sleep and didn't wake up until 11:45 the next day! I was exhausted!

I then did my morning treatment routine, went to a late lunch with Danny and his parents then went home and took a short nap before getting up and getting ready for some of our friends to come over for a game night. It was tons of fun and I really enjoyed having everyone over. Tonight marks the first night EVER the boys actually won fare and square without cheating, so it was definitely a night full of laughs. We played Trivial Pursuit: 90's Edition and we always play any game boys vs. girls. We have way to many couples to just play couples vs. couples...there is never enough game pieces to do it that way. Plus its always fun to battle between the sexes! It definitely gets loud thats for sure. :)

Tomorrow we are going out shopping for all the things we noticed we needed and didn't have for my dry run yesterday. I guess that is the positive thing that came out of being able to go home, we will be more prepared next time. I know I had 2 1/2 years to prepare for yesterday but until I actually went through it I had know idea really what I would need until I went through it....even though I was told by other CFers who have already been down this rode. Now I know first hand the things I will need!

I wish I could say that the moment I heard it was a no go because one of the lungs had pneumonia I had a happy thought that at least another family was going to receive a wonderful gift but I didn't. I just cried (for the first time that day though!) because I was really sad that I had been there for 12 hours and now I was going home and I kind of feel bad that my first reaction was to feel bad for myself....

Hopefully the next call won't be to far off behind this last one. I was really liking the idea of being able to have my surgery and be home in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas!!

Well all, I am going to finish my vest and hit the sheets! Good Night!! :)

UPDATE

Unfortunately we just got some very bad news. The transplant has been called off because there is pneumonia in one of the lungs. Jennifer is upset and so are we. However, I know that everything has to be perfect when it's her turn and she will have her turn very soon.

I love you Jenn,

Mom

UPDATE

The nurse just came in and said that right now everything is looking like a go! They are anticipating the surgery to start around 3:45pm.

I got my call!

This is Jennifer's mom - I'm going to be helping update this blog for her. She got her transplant call at 1:30 this morning and we made it to Gainesville by 5:30. We are now in the cardiac intensive care unit waiting to hear if the lungs are good for transplant. I'll post another entry and let you know as soon as we know.

Transplant Check-up

Went to Gainesville yesterday and it was a really good appointment!

It started at 6am with us getting on the road since my appt was at 10. My whole check-up was a breeze yesterday since I had no test or labs. So all I had to do was give a sputum culture and see the Dr.

When the Dr came in I told him all about my recent hospital stay and my pulmonary hypertension (which he already knew about from my Pulmonologist at home) and he informed me that my number has gone from a 41 to a 43 and that I am 4th on the list for my blood type. But he said that doesn't necessarily mean I have to wait for 3 people to get lungs because the 3 people ahead of me have smaller chest cavities than I do so if a bigger set of lungs come in they couldn't use them so it would go to me. So it could be anytime now....

I have been having real bad ringing in my ears which I thought was from the diuretic, so my transplant Dr told me I could D/C it since I wasn't swollen anymore. Yesterday morning was my last dose of it and I still have the ringing tonight! I am starting to think it is the Revatio that is causing it. But since that med is for my Pulmonary Hypertension I don't think Dr. Faverio is gonna stop it. I just hope this ringing either stops or gets lower cause I am going to go bonkers if it doesn't!! :(

Home Sweet Home

I got home last night. It was SO nice to sleep in my own bed and to be able to sleep through out the night with out any interruptions!

I had a little trouble with my new prescriptions at the pharmacy last night. I am now on Revatio (viagra) and Aldactazide (diuretic.)

When Danny went back to the pharmacy to pick them both up he was only able to get the Aldactazide because the Revatio needed a pre-authorization from my doctor. Danny asked the pharmacists how much it was, if for some reason insurance doesn't cover it and its $1500 for one months supply!! Can you believe that? That's ridiculous...I called my doctors office this morning and informed them that if they can't get it authorized they are gonna have to find another medication cause I can't afford that!

Tomorrow is my check-up in Gainesville. I don't have any test scheduled but that doesn't mean anything they sometimes make me do a 6 minute walk and PFT's anyway. I will update tomorrow night and let you all know how it goes!

Almost There!!

Less than a week to go and I will home and IV Free!!! WOOO HOOO!!

This will be my 6th and final week on abx and while I am feeling better and my PFT's are actually higher than they have been in like 2 1/2 years (only by like 5% but hey I will take it!) This hospital admission hasn't come without its problems.

It started out with my blood work being all out of whack because of the merrem. But a change of abx helped that out and got me on the right track of feeling better.

About half way into my stay we noticed that I was having some elevated blood pressures. So my doc had me get a EKG and an Echocardiogram. The EKG came back fine but the Echo showed that I have moderate Pulmonary Hypertension. Which if left untreated could cause the right side of my heart to become enlarged. As of right now my heart is fine but I am now taking a med 3 times a day to help and you are never going to guess what it is....VIAGRA!! LOL Apparently Viagra was made to help heart patients originally and it was an accident that they found out what other side effect it has in men...

One of the main symptoms of Pulmonary Hypertension is SOB. So once I started taking the meds my breathing eased up almost right away.

I go to Gainesville Aug. 25th and they are already aware of the hypertension (my doc called them last week to see if they wanted a cardiocath done) which will more than likely raise my score. So while its not a good thing this developed its good that it will raise my score.

The last couple of days I have been taking a diuretic because I was retaining a little bit of fluid so I have been peeing like crazy. I usually have an awesome bladder so this is highly annoying!

This hospital stay has also been smooth as far as nursing goes since I have my "primary care nurses." I basically gave them a list of nurses I trusted and they made them be the ones to take care of me. So I haven't had any issues which is a nice change! :)

I can't wait to get home to Danny and Brodie...I hope these next few days go by fast I miss my boys!

800 Days

Today my little counter on the side of my blog says that I have been listed for a double lung transplant for 800 DAYS!!!

I would never have guessed in a million years that I would be waiting this long. I have to believe that 2010 is my year....it just has to be. If not I am likely to loose my mind!! No not really, but it sure feels that way sometimes.

I am just ready to FEEL better.