Up The Farway Tree

Tx Update - Day 7 - Thursday 11pm


Today was busy and a lot of physical progress was made. Although still on a lot of pain meds having the chest drains out has made a huge difference.

The day started with the physio getting her onto an exercise bike for 3 minutes along with the usual arm and leg exercises. They will gradually keep increasing her level of exercise over the coming week.

Jac then insisted on having a shower since a week without washing her hair was really starting to bother her! This was a large and complex operation involving a nurse and her mum and not a great deal of privacy. She felt (and looked) so much better for it.

This afternoon was also busy with a trip to x-ray, there is still a small pleural effusion (fluid in the space around the lungs). The doctors don't seem too concerned as this is quite common. They will keep monitoring it as they do daily x-rays anyway. This was followed by a trip to lung function and despite the pain managed to blow 40% of normal lung volume!! That is double what her lung function was before the surgery and they would expect this to keep steadily improving over the next few months. She found this very reassuring because she has been finding breathing quite difficult (probably due to pain and having to relearn how to breathe with normal lungs).

Tomorrow will be another big day, she is getting her first routine bronch with a biopsy to look for any evidence of rejection or any other problems. This is her first major milestone post-transplant so fingers crossed that all goes well.

After such a busy day she is feeling overwhelmed emotionally by the whole experience. Hopefully she can get a good nights sleep before tomorrows activities begin.

Andrew