Feeling great!

Well, after yesterday I wasn't sure what to expect from today, but it has been great! The chest pain is gone from that strained muscle and I am very mobile. I am down to only 1 Percoset every 4 hrs. My kidneys have been working very well and things are tracking right along for me to get out of here by the end of this week! I finally broke down and turned on the TV today so I could catch up on what's happening out there in the world. I've enjoyed my little vacation from it all! And I learned that most of the shows are still stupid. I didn't miss a thing. Well, I guess good ol' Tom and Katie's divorce. Gee, I'm sad... I have still been sleeping A LOT. Good grief. But everyone tells me to just give in and sleep b/c my body desperately needs to heal. I am getting out and walking more. It's just so bizarre to be able to walk as many laps as I want. I am not limited by my heart or lungs anymore. It's amazing to sit here in this chair and fill up my lungs with air. As the dressings get smaller over my chest tube incisions I can breathe more fully (less tape stuck all over me). Well, and not having 48" of tubing inside my chest cavity does open it up some also :-P I can stand up and sit down and stand up and sit down and I don't get winded. I can bend over!!!! My tummy has no water baby anymore and I can still breathe when I bend over! Even though I am sleeping a lot, when I'm awake I can tell how much more energy I have. I forget that I'm not attached to anything sometimes and will wait for someone to come help me... until I remember and then I get up and do it myself. It's so awesome. I feel parts of the old Katie coming back. But I have to remember that my sternum was cut and takes a LONG time to heal (6-9 months I think), so I still need to take it easy and let people help me. My skin color looks normal, which is SO weird. No redness at all. The horrible Remodulin rash on my legs is already starting to go away slowly. I have no water retention and get this... my sodium was actually a little low today!! I think that is hilarious. I have numbness in my left foot and all along my incisions (chest and leg). But my fingers and everything else all have feeling. I guess the way they clamp you to the table can cause numbness in weird places b/c the nerves are affected. I'm pretty happy I'm not too numb! I still don't feel completely "normal" because I am hauling around a heart monitor like I did my Remodulin pump for all those years. Once I get rid of this heart monitor I think the reality that I am not connected to anything will sink in. I am at about 97% O2 on room air. I stopped using oxygen in the ICU. I told them to get rid of the stupid hose, I didn't want it near my face no mo'! I posted a bunch of pics on Facebook today in case you missed them. Can you find the huge purple bruise on my arm? It's a doozy! I'm sorry the pics aren't in the blog. When I get home and have access to the computer I'm going to try to fix all of these posts and get some photos in here as well. Sigh... I could really use an eyelash curler and some mascara! Ha ha! Well, I'm kind of not kidding. But I'll survive for a few more days ;-)