I'm on the mend

Hellllooooo everyone! I have been feeling better and better every day. It's really amazing. So here is today's diary entry ;-) I woke up about 0530 to have vitals taken, blood drawn, yadda yadda. And then after the nurse left I heard this hissing sound... followed by the smell of natural gas. I immediately paged my nurse. Dang, she had me out of the room in about 5 minutes. That required disconnection from my leg clampers and my chest tube air bubbler tubes. I was in a wheelchair with a mask on before I knew what was even happening! I was wheeled down to an empty room while they figured out why there was natural gas in my room (with oxygen). I guess it's a test they do every week that somehow leaks natural gas into a few rooms. Sigh... not surprising, really. So then breakfast came at 0800. I actually like the breakfast here. Lunch and dinner leave much to be desired. So I don't eat it and Jeff brings me outside stuff. It's weird. I can't have soda, beans, dairy, or cantaloupe from the outside world. Everything has dairy in it so it's a little challenging to find stuff without it. But whatever he finds is always better than the food here. So back to breakfast- I get rice crispies, a hard boiled egg with mayonnaise, a muffin, and apple juice. Perfect! Except I forgot to circle the thing for Splenda. You really can't eat rice crispies without some sort of sugar! So I called the nurses station at 0803 and asked very nicely for some Splenda. 0815. No Splenda. I feel horrible and call again, asking very nicely for some Splenda. I am told it is on the way. 0830. Still no freakin' Splenda. My milk is getting warm and I am getting pissed (I guess a sign that I am on the mend). So I undo my leg clampers, I undo my bubble tubes and carry my 10 lbs of chest tube drainage with me to the nurses station so I can get some damn Splenda!!!!! I am not supposed to lift anything over about 3 lbs. UGH. So I get some Splenda, eat my cereal and all is right with the world again. Nothing really exciting today. My white blood cell count was lower today (a good sign), so it might not be infection and it might be a side effect of one of the meds. My doctors weren't concerned at all. I am getting an ultrasound tonight to check my liver. I guess it's still not doing so well, so we'll see what the ultrasound says and go from there. Good news!! I am getting out 2 of my 4 chest tubes tomorrow!! WOO HOO! Those puppies are itching me like crazy, and from what I hear, I have at least a foot of tubing on each tube inside my chest cavity. Yucko, Bucko. Jeff and I have been walking a few laps a day and it is absolutely amazing how fantastic I feel. I tested myself and walked about 10 yards a fast as I could. No shortness of breath! I can walk and talk and keep up a decent pace. Jeff said he's gonna have to relearn how to walk with me since I moved like a snail before. :-D My kidneys are still being stupid. But they pulled 3 liters off me yesterday in dialysis, so my puffy legs aren't nearly as hard and tight. They are actually soft and squishy, which is a great sign. I need to pee 1000 ml over a 24 hr period for my kidneys to be considered "okay." I am barely getting 300 ml. Soooo.... I may be here a while. The chest tube drains are also related to my kidney function and ability to remove fluids. So as long as my kidneys aren't putting out the juice I have to keep at least 1 chest tube on each side. Whatevs. I'm alive and breathing like a healthy person! We (Jeff, Mom, Dad) did some training with my transplant coordinator today. She is the bomb diggy. So is my PH nurse that I won't see anymore, boo hoo! Well, I'll see her around the hospital but not when I see my PH doc! Cuz I don't have PH! Every day I think about how grateful I am that Jeff got orders back here basically just for my medical care. And how fantastic the medical team here is. I have been sleeping. A lot. A lot of sleeping. I fall asleep sitting up in the chair. I fall asleep at all times of the day. I have been sleeping like a baby. Sometimes I sleep so much I don't have much time to walk around the halls. My docs say it's good to be so sleepy- it's my body healing. Yup. My body is healing and I have absolutely no worries. Well, I worry about infection and stuff, but I don't worry about passing out or dying or my heart failing. The chest tube machines have these bubblers that provide some suction to the tubes. It seriously sounds like a spa in my room. I think that is what does it. Knowing I am well taken care of and my room sounds like a bubbling spa makes me sleepy! Jeff and I both took a nice long nap today. We both needed it, especially Jeff. He has been doing so much. It's nice that I am mostly independent now and I don't need Jeff to be here that much. So he's had some time to get stuff done around the house and at work. Jeff and I love sitting here like an old couple at night, in the quiet, with the bubblers going. We are both just so happy and content with life that we just sit here and enjoy each other's company. Or we walk out to one of the sitting areas with these really great benches and watch the world go by with the lighted spa rocks and lighted landscaped area below us. Very peaceful. Life couldn't be any better. Every breath I take just fills me with a sense of peace and happiness :-)