Another Week Down

Last week was another good week with continued progress made. Slowly packing the weight on, although still another 10-15 pounds short of where I was before I started getting sick; and slowly gaining some muscle back in my legs and upper body.
 
The highlight of the week was getting back on the bike and going for two bike rides. It felt good to be able to cover some distance, and to be able to get around and see nature without the hum and puff of my oxygen concentrator.
 
The main event of the week, however, was our transplant clinic visit and CT scan on Thursday. I forget if I mentioned it before, but back in April it was discovered that I had a 4cm hole/cavity in the middle of my right lung. This was caused by an infection and obviously gave us and the doctors quite the scare. The team has been monitoring it closely by way of CT scans and Thursday’s scan showed that the hole has significantly reduced in size. It won’t be viable lung tissue, but at least it is closing up and doesn’t pose as great a risk as it once did.
 
The doctors feel I am in a good position to continue on at home, just doing what I have been doing. They are not putting me on the waitlist yet, but we did talk about the timeline a bit more, trying to nail down what the right timing for being waitlisted will look like.
Even though I am feeling stronger and my body is getting more efficient with its oxygen use, my breathing tests did drop a bit in the last two weeks. This will probably be par-for-the-course going forward. My doctors don’t expect a sudden drop in my lung function, like what happened in May, but more of a consistent gradual decline (barring any infection of course).
 
The conclusion of the matter is that though I am feeling well and getting stronger, we are still firmly on the road towards another transplant. We are incredibly grateful for each day that I am feeling well and able to be at home. If I am able to remain stable I don’t need to go back to clinic until the end of the month, which in itself is also an encouraging sign from the transplant team.