Merry Christmas!

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas! I’m so thankful for the time set aside to celebrate the gift of God's Son that was sent for us!

It's been a bit melancholy to celebrate without Dakota here with us. She may fly out in a few weeks, but we'll see. She's not too keen on the whole idea of flying!

Monday was quite an eventful day. Shelly and I headed to the transplant clinic for what we thought were routine appointments, but one of the nurses noticed that my PICC line was oozing, which it basically had been doing since approx Thanksgiving, and it had grown to the point where it looked very questionable. She called the doctor in and he said it had to come out & be replaced. So, it did come out on Monday and they also drew blood to check for any kind of blood infection. We will know those results in the next few days. I have such a reaction to the tagaderm bandage that my arm is now itchy/hives where the bandage was.

Shelly has been such a trooper!  I'm so thankful for her willingness to help us and for her patience! We were at the hospital from approx 11 to 6:30 Monday, and she had to push me in the wheelchair from one end of the hospital to the other, twice!! Not to mention the sitting and waiting we did; thank God for Kindles, tablets, phones, etc to somewhat entertain us during the periods of waiting.

Friday is going to be a full day filled with labs, pulmonary function tests, PICC line insertion, pulmonary rehab, and meeting with the pulmonary doctor. It will be a full day, no doubt.

Prayers appreciated that my arm heals from the rash/hives and that the PICC insertion goes well on Friday with no complications, blood clots, etc, please and thanks.

God Bless you!
Lynda

A1c

I misunderstood about the labs drawn yesterday. An A1c was not ordered. Since it is a 3 month average of blood sugars, they ususally wait 3 weeks or so before re-drawing the A1c. There's a small chance they may draw it again this Thursday to look for slight improvement. I have been working hard on keeping sugars under control, so much so that I had a blood sugar of 48 today at pulmonary rehab! It was easily remedied with some apple juice and peanut butter cups  :)

I'll report in when/if anything changes.

Hugs

Root Canal

Well...of all things, I had a root canal today! Approx a week ago I noticed one of my teeth was more sensitive then usual and as the days passed, it got to the point where cold milk, hot coffee, or even chewing just sent me through the roof in pain. After a friend referred me to a local dentist, the dentist  referred me to an endodontist to have a root canal done. I will say that the dentist was very nice and I was in such dire need of a dentist that I forgot to ask if he was a preferred provider with my insurance, and he wasn't, but I was willing to pay full price to find out what was wrong! He did my exam at no charge, which I thought was very nice of him! The Endodontist wasn't quite as generous though. lol

This week I also spoke to one of the transplant surgeons who wanted to make sure I was on board and knew exactly what I was getting into here at Duke. I am just completely trusting that God's will will be done and know the road isn't going to be easy, but want to keep the end picture in mind. I am very close to being listed!! At this time, the only hurdle in my way is that my A1c, which is a measure of average blood sugars for the last 3 months, is a bit high. They want it 7.0 or below, and mine is 7.3. I will continue to work on those blood sugars and labs are scheduled for Monday. I'm not sure if it's realistic that they will be at 7.0 by then or not.

More updates to come as things progress, thanks for checking my blog, and as always, thank you for the prayers and thoughts :)
God Bless,
Lynda

Progress...

I'm glad to report that the rash has almost resolved itself. There still are blotchy spots here and there, but it's not itchy or hives at this point, so that's good. The doctor is planning to re-start IVs this week, making some adjustments for the medication I am allergic to.

My big tests this week were a Esophageal Manometry test and a 24 hour PH Study test. You can look these up if you want to, but let me just say that they were not fun. The 24 hour test involved a small catheter inserted thru one side of my nose and down into the espophagus. The catheter remained there for 24 hours. This test measures acid reflux. If acid backs up into the esophogus and is aspirated into the new lungs, post transplant, it can be pretty serious. For this reason, they like to have an idea of what they may be dealing with ahead of time with GERD, acid reflux, etc. so they can treat it or correct it.  I'm glad to have that behind me!

I have a sonogram of my liver this Friday, then I expect the transplant team will meet next Tuesday to make a decision about accepting me into the Duke program. If I am accepted, I will still have to complete their pulmonary rehab program, which will take a few weeks, then, God willing, I should be ready to be listed for transplant!

As always, thank you for checking in, for your thoughts and prayers, and I hope you have a blessed day :)
Hugs,
Lynda