Quick Updates

So not much to report on, which I'll take :D

I got my blood levels drawn yesterday and my magnesium has fallen, yet again. Right now we're just going to increase my oral Mg intake to 3 times a day. If that doesn't work (they'll re-check the levels Monday at Cleveland) we'll either change magnesium tablets to a different compound or do IV magnesium. No big deal, at least we have a plan.

Cleveland has also decided to cancel the broncoscopy for the time being since I'm on coumadin. It would just be more difficult to admit me in the hospital for the 5 days prior to do the IV heparin to do the bronch and then stay to get my coumadin levels back to where they need to be... sheesh. The alternative would be to switch me to heparin or lovenox injections, but my kidney function isn't where it should be in order for me to have this option.

So Mom and I will leave Sunday night and go up to Cleveland for our appointments on Monday. We'll be home Monday night hopefully by dinner... I know that's wishful thinking, but we'll see :)

Kelly's competition this past weekend went much better than the weekend before. She scored a 1st place with her solo and the group dances scored "ultimate victories" - it was a weird scoring system... but the group dances also placed overall in the age categories! I was so proud of her!!

That's it for now, I'll post again after we get home from Cleveland!

Rough Days

Is it just me, or is God calling a lot of the CFers back home lately? Every time I log into CF.com anymore there's at least one other post saying someone else has passed.

I found out yesterday that Jessica had passed away. My family met her husband in the ICU waiting area the night I was transplanted, she had received hers that morning. There were a lot of comlications after the surgery and they ended up having the trach her. Come to find out later that she had B. Cepacia which infected the new lungs. She passed away on March 8th.

I've heard of people having survivor's guilt after transplant but I always assumed it was for the donor. I never expected to have such guilt over hearing this news. There's a whole lot of fear attached to all of this too. I'm 6 weeks post tomorrow... Just 6 weeks. It's just hard to think, that could of been me.

On a brighter note, Kelly's competition went well this past weekend. Her team got several overall high scores and she got sterling silver with her solo. Not as good as she wanted it to be, but she did well and we were proud of her. Solos are hard and this is her first year doing them... and it's in lyrical, which in my opinion is the toughest to compete in! She has another competition this weekend, which I will be at again and I'm sure they'll do great like they always do :)

Busy Busy Busy :)

Over this last week I've been pretty active. No marathons yet, but as soon as my legs are strong enough, watch out!!

Got my INR checked today at the anticoag clinic and they said it was perfect :) 2.2 so they don't need to change my coumadin levels, which makes me happy. Got a call from Cleveland about my other drug levels, they're doing great too! Only thing is one of my white blood cells is a little on the high side so they're increasing one of my meds which will knock that number back down. Glad to hear that they're so on top of things like that :D So there's the boring medical part of all this... on to the fun stuff!!

Sunday was my first outing since I've been home. I did it up big, LOL. Cameron and I went to Smokey Bones for lunch. Apparently, if you walk into a restaurant wearing a mask and want a table for 2, you get seated immediately. hmmmm, maybe this mask isn't such a bad thing :P We then went to Kroger's since I've been craving fruit and dairy. I was able to walk around the store for a good while and when I got to the car... I WASN'T SHORT OF BREATH!!! My legs hurt like I was running, but Andrew was nice and strong still. It was amazing!!

Monday was lab drawl day, so I got poked and then got some yummy McDonald's breakfast :) I spent most of the day on the couch though because my legs were a little fatigued, haha! I did go see Karen Vaske (the angel lady) that afternoon though. Just some theta healing to help with the side effects of all of the drugs. Nausea, tremors, hair thinning - ya know, the fun stuff :) Tuesday was boring, but my legs had recovered.

Wednesday Cameron and I decided to tackle Kenwood mall. I only did the lower level so we could finally get his birthday present. His birthday was in September and I just hadn't felt well enough to go to Fossil with him to pick the watch out. I was able to do that, get some new lotion for my face at Clinique, eat dinner, just overall, be normal. Well, as normal as one can be with a mask on their face that has little multicolored bandaid people on it, LOL!!

Thursday was spent doing some laundry and watching the WKU game later that night - GO TOPS!! and Today I had my clinic visit and then Mom and I went to Target (where I walked the whole store without gasping - BEAUTIFUL!) and then met Caroline, Brian and Moo for lunch at El Caporal. It was very yummy and I was actually able to eat quite a bit which was a nice change. Tonight Aunt Pam, Jerry, Aunt Lois, and Uncle Don are all coming over to watch the X game - Let's hope it's a great game!!

This weekend's Kelly's dance competition so we'll all be busy with that. It'll be nice to be able to go to one and cheer her on :D I'll be sure to update about all of that later on.

HAPPY SPRING!!

Blog Changes

Yes, I like changing things around on my blog... just wanted to let everyone know that I have changed things around again. :)

Enjoying Home

I'm back home in Cincinnati for a few weeks until I go back for another surveillance bronch. For right now the family and I are just enjoying being home.

I got the results back from the 1st bronch and showed slight rejection. My nurse said that it's completely normal and laughed saying if I didn't show any they would think I'm weird. We did a 3 day Solumedrol burst followed by a 3 week prednisone taper back to my normal dose.

All the aches and pains are getting better. The worst part of all of the side effects have been the tremors and my hair's thinning a little. Nothing too horrible and I've been told that within 6 months things should stabilize. Plus, if this is what I have to go through to breathe.... totally worth it!

Oh, and the blood clot thing. They think it's from all of the lines I've had placed over the years. My clotting times have always been fine and I've never had any swelling so no one ever thought anything of clots. After my arm swelled so bad (which is now back to normal - YAY!!) they searched and found several clots. I'm just on coumadin now until a few days before procedures and then switching to lovenox until after the procedure then back to coumadin. And it's only for 3 months they're thinking.

Now comes the fun part of regaining muscles... who knew staying in bed for a week would set me back so much in the physical department :D But that's all that going on here. I plan on taking my demon of a dog for walks this week to enjoy the hopefully nice weather. Plus some blood work, a trip to the angel lady (Karen Vaske) and my first visit at the Coumadin clinic. Busy, but easy week :) Hope all's well with everyone else!! It's just good to be home!