Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Mine was great. It is completely different then last years. What a difference a year makes. This is kind of like the same idea I mentioned last thanksgiving. I was so upset because I did not have Thanksgiving with my family and I was unable to do Black Friday with Jay. This year I was able to do it all! I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and every other day of the year.
First we went to my grandma’s house. We had a nice dinner there with my side of the family. My grandma kept asking me what I needed because she is still not use to me being able to do these things for myself. I was even able to help close the table and put it back with my mom. We stayed there until around 4:00 and then we headed to Jason’s Grandma’s. It was a full house. Six out of her seven children were there. One of Jason’s cousins from the army was even able to make home. We all had a good time. We ate dinner obviously and went around the table saying what we are thankful for. I of course mentioned my new lungs. Had I not gotten these lungs, I would have either been at home struggling to breathe or more likely in the hospital dying or already gone. Instead I am here at this table surrounded by family enjoying a turkey dinner. I might be doing some IV meds right now because of an infection, but I still feel great and this coughing is temporary. I am grateful for being alive and for being able to do everything I have done so far. Being with everyone was really nice and I am grateful for all of this.
After dinner we played Apples to Apples. Grandma even joined us. One of her granddaughters was explaining how to play to her. The first two rounds she played she won. She was playing us, she knew the rules all the long. Lol It was a close game with three of us being pretty close. His Aunt ended up winning.
After everyone left Jay and I stayed for a little while longer and then went to pick up two of his cousins to go hit up Wal-Mart. I wasn’t able to go last year so we were going just to go. There really was nothing good there this year. Plus opening up so early kind of put me off to the whole thing. I liked going at midnight. We had dinner spent time with family and then did some crazy shopping. Opening up so early this year ruins the holiday for people who want to spend some time with family.
We went in and just walked around Wal-Mart. I could not believe how empty it was. I could have done some grocery shopping comfortably. It didn’t feel like Black Friday in there at all. So we just looked around to see what they had left. He did find a few things like shirts and jeans, but nothing special. While looking around Jason was making trouble of course. He was playing with the toys and was throwing things to his cousin. This included balls, wrapped up blankets and whatever else he could get his hands on. What else is new? Lol It is so nice to his fun care free attitude back. Before my transplant he put on a brave face, but I could tell he was being run down. Lately he has been making me laugh a lot. Laughing… something else I am grateful for.
We dropped Jay’s cousins off at home after Wal-Mart and headed to Kohl’s. The weather wasn’t really cooperating with us. It was cold and started snowing. We weren’t going to let that stop us though. We really wanted the KitchenAid Mixer. I wanted the Artisan which is normally $349.99. It was on sale for $314.99 with 10% off plus a $50 rebate. I had a $10 off coupon plus an additional 10% off. Also for every $50 you spend you get $15 Kohl’s cash. That was all we wanted in there. This place was nothing like Wal-Mart, it was packed. I found the mixers right away, but couldn’t find an artisan. One of the associates came over and helped me. There were three left, two white and one red. I took the red one. I wanted a burgundy colored one, but I figured I could order that online if I don’t like the red color and return this one. We also got a meat grinder to go with it. Jason has been getting ground chicken and it is so expensive. It will be much cheaper to buy chicken and grind it ourselves. We got the KitchenAid and a $54 attachment for $331 and that included tax. I did the math and for the KitchenAid itself we paid $227 minus the $50 rebate we will be getting. Then we got $90 Kohl’s cash and another $5 per $100 because I am a rewards member. So you can either say we got a KitchenAid and a grinder for $281 and we are going to get $105 worth of stuff later or we paid $176 for them. Either way we thought that was pretty awesome!
After Kohl’s Jay ran into Best Buy while I stayed in the car. I am supposed to be keeping my distance from people and germs. I wore my mask in both Wal-Mart and Kohl’s, but I figured Jason could do best Buy by himself and I would be good and limit my exposure to more people. He ran in to get a new printer and some 16 GB USB drives that were on sale for $5 and then we went home. After all that I still had quite a bit of energy. Energy, oh how I missed you. We stayed up and took the mixer out of the box to look at it. Jason wanted to go and get chicken to play with the grinder. I talked him into doing it the next morning. We decided to keep the red one, because it wasn't as bright red as I thought it would be. Shortly after we got up the next morning Jay ran out to get some chicken. This mixer is already worth it. It ground up the meat so easily. It is awesome because by doing this we save $4 a pound. We can also control the fat content and what parts of the chicken we use. I am loving this thing.
About the infection itself. A day after Erika and I got our hair cut I called for some Albuterol. Whenever I go from the cold outside back into the house I am having some trouble with coughing. The Albuterol is to help with the bronco spasms and to open me up. Good news is I haven’t needed a lot since I got it. It is nice to have though when I do feel tight. Also last week my Cyclosporine levels were high. She had me decrease them again to 200 mg twice a day. After the decrease my blood draw showed that the Cyclosporine level is good. This is only the second time that my levels have been at a good level. I still have to get them checked next week to make sure they remain there. I do want to mention that before I got my Cyclosporine levels decreased the temperature sensitivity in my hands and feet got bad again. I would stick my hand under the water and think it’s hot while the rest of my body said it was cold. After decreasing the Cyclosporine amount, it is much better. I told my coordinator this and she told me to use that as a possible indicator that my levels are too high. I am actually thankful for this. It doesn’t look like I am going to have to go on medication to take care of the sensitivity and I have a built in alarm telling me if my Cyclosporine is high.
I was supposed to be done with the IV medications on Monday. I wasn’t feeling better though so I called my coordinator. She talked to my doctor and between the three of us we decided to do the meds for one more week. Since then my coughing is less and I am feeling a little better. However I am still having a hard time with breathing here and there. It is a slow go, but I am getting better. We should hopefully know more next week when I go for another appointment. I am hoping that the PFTs are back up. I am thankful that is something I can hope for. This time last year all I could think was"How much have they have gone down?" "Is this my new baseline or can I get them back up?"
Today I decided to go for a massage. All this coughing really made my back tight. I wanted to go after my port was de-accessed, but I could not wait anymore. I told him about my port and my infection. As he was working on my back he told me that this was the tightest it has been since before transplant. I could tell it was bad. Coughing really does take a toll on all those muscles. After he was finished my back felt like new. I am really happy I decided not to wait. I am not coughing anymore so it shouldn’t tighten up like that again. After this infection is completely gone another massage should bring me back to where I was.
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