Trudging Along

This has been another good week, so there is not a lot to update. I am still making slow progress in the right direction. Putting on a little bit of weight each day, building a bit more muscle as we keep pushing our daily walks a little bit more. I am able to walk just over 30 minutes at a time, on 5 liters of oxygen. My doctors don’t really care about how much oxygen I use while exercising, as long as I am pushing myself and keeping my heartrate up. It’s not so much about the lungs anymore as it is about conditioning the rest of my body.
 
I have not talked to any doctors this week, so no news there, but later next week I have another appointment at the transplant clinic. I went to a Pulmonary Rehab appointment yesterday and they were pleasantly surprised with the progress I have made.
 
It has almost been a month now that I have been home, which is longer than I thought I would have. I was discharged on May 30th and back then we were hoping I would be able to stay home for two, maybe three weeks. But here we are 4 weeks out and still feeling relatively well.
 
These next seven days are going to be interesting. Over the next week I will be finishing up all the meds that were started while in hospital. I have already been off one of them for about two weeks, and so far so good. I will stop one more over the weekend, and a third, the most important one, will be peeled off at the end of next week. This will be a critical time period to see if any infection comes roaring back, or to see if my immune system wakes up and begins attacking (rejecting) my lungs again. This is kind of what my doctors expect to happen (hence the reason I am ready to be placed on the waitlist at a moment’s notice). There is the outside chance that I keep poking along at this level, flying under the radar for a period of time until that other shoe decides to drop, we will just need to wait and see.
 
Whatever happens in the next seven to ten days, we are very thankful for these past four weeks at home, and the weight and strength I have been able to gain during this time. While in hospital, I never thought I’d be able to get off supplementary oxygen the way I have (I only need to use it while exercising).
 
Again, we appreciate all your prayers and support in all the different ways it comes in. This next week is going to be pretty delicate as we watch and wait to see how my body reacts to coming off these extra meds, but we will just need to take it day by day.