A Competitive Scope

This morning was exceptionally awesome as it rained and snowed like crazy overnight and the G-man and I had to go out in the lake park at 7AM. It only took him a glorious 45 minutes to do his business. However, I can't complain as I can actually walk around for 45 minutes without collapsing in a ditch somewhere.  

My bronch was moved ahead to today. Docs want to make sure there's nothing wonkified going on in my new chunkers; like no ugly rejection monster lurking in my lung shadows...stuff like that.

We landed at the hospital a bit early so we went upstairs to visit Carman. Turns out he was scheduled for a bronch today too.

The monkey takes the fear away

 If you're wondering who was scheduled first...

ME!

He was being wheeled into the prep room as I was being wheeled to the
procedure room and you can bet your a$% I reminded him that I won.

As you can tell, there's obviously no competition between us.

A bronchoscopy involves an IV being jammed in the body, gargling with a horrid freezing solution (which I avoid as it makes me hurl), an aerosol with the freezing solution, an atrocious freezing spray and some beautiful sedation. And that's just the prep work.

To get the party started a scope is shoved down my throat, the doc gawks around at the goods and a biopsy is done.

Something like this I'm sure

It's all very glamorous.

Cons: disgusting freezing spray   

Pros: sexy sedation

Sedation is a beautiful thing. Especially when you are dead tired and just want a freaking nap before a shopping trip. I say bring it on and knock me the heck out.

Results will be in by Monday.

Up, Up & Up

Yesterday was beyond awesome.

Whatever the heck happened to my beautiful new super chunkers has stopped. Or is gone.

Whatever.

Read on.

I peeled my eyelids back at 6:20AM when my stupid alarm got all up in my face. Then I looked into the G-man's adorable brown eyeballs and decided not to take my alarm and smash it against the wall.

We landed at TGH just over an hour later so I could have my rounds of poking and radiation.

Next up was physio where I improved from the week before, while managing to spill coffee all over the place.

Yup, leave it to me.

Got to pop in on my boy Carman who's still rocking some sexy chest tubes but free of other lines. He continues to do amazingly well and I couldn't be more proud, however he better not think this means I'm going easy on him in any future competitions.

Hamilton - I will lay the smack down.

Next up we headed up so I could do some box panting. After some fast hard blows, the results were in.

Tell me how cool this is:

Last Wednesday - a drop to 69%

Monday - 82%

What?!!?!!!!

Ok, ok, ok. Even cooler news.

CF clinic today.

Good news - clinic only lasted 2.5 hours.

Great news - I did some more fast hard blows.

Fantastical news - lung function came in at

86%

I'm not sure what exactly happened. My best guess at an explanation for the drop in lung function is it being the remnants of that ugly rejection I had. 

Definitely feel back on top and ready for a good time. It's looking more and more positive for a Nova Scotia return in mid March.

Anyone feel a par-tay coming on?

Lazing

I can happily report a day of feeling well. No sickness. Tiredness stuck around, but no sickness.

As hawt as this is, there was none of it today:

I know you all love hearing about it

It was a day of relaxation. Griff too; he laid around, followed me around, laid around, filled his guts, laid around, etc...he's got it hard. 

The best news that I have to report is that James is back on the transplant list!!! New blowers will hopefully soon be his *****crosses fingers*****. This is super freaking awesome coolness. Thanks guys for your support. I know it makes a difference.

You can read all about it here: http://breathtoblog.blogspot.ca/

I've just been stuffing my face with Bonnie's cooking and lazing around. It's just preparation for a full day at the hospital tomorrow. A day of poking, radiation, panting in a box, busting a move on the treadmill and questions from doctors.

I'm counting on an increase in lung function, or at least not a decrease. Instead of counting sheep, I'm going to count high lung function numbers.

I'll let you know if it works.

Seems I've been busy

What a week. It's been fun, emotional and exhausting.

Tuesday, Kristy and Derek arrived. Kristy is currently inactive on the transplant list as her health miraculously stabilized (which is such a good thing), so she moved back to Montreal in early January. It had been over a month since I saw her (aside from Skype) so it was super cool to see them again.

Thankfully, around 2pm on Tuesday I started feeling human again and was able to avoid sticking my head in the garbage can for the rest of the day. We actually ended up going out to dinner with Kristy, Derek and Shilpa. I managed to suck back a few fries and 1/3 of my burger before handing it over to Brad. My stomach was still acting like a fired up diva, so I had to tread carefully.

Wednesday brought a day long hospital visit. Alarm blared it's ugly face at 6:30 and I popped out of bed. Brad dragged the G-man out to the park - or was it the other way around?

First stop of the day was to visit the crank-faced ladies at the blood lab. Seriously, why are they the grumpy ones? They are NOT the ones getting pricked. I just don't get it. Next up, radiation. It's ridiculously quick, I think people understand that I have things to do, so they wait to show up for x-ray after I'm finished. That's got to be it, right?

Clinic wasn't supposed to be until 3:30, which would have sucked since games night was at 5:30 (we would have been glamorously late) so we checked in with clinic to see if there were any cancellations. Bingo baby! They moved me to 2pm. Since we were close we checked in with physio and again I was able to switch appointments. So I showed off my skillz a bit early in the day.

Then we headed up to see Carman; he was sitting in his chair looking all studly. Mark and his wife, Diane, also had a date at the hospital, so the Squat Squad was finally reunited.

However, this visit wouldn't be complete without a shot of these:

Here is where the magic happens

Love my boys. Happy to be together with everyone breathing easy and no hissing oxygen tubes flung all over the place. It's about time Carman came over to the other side. I can't wait until he's out of lockup and the three of us can get down to business - you know, lifting 150 lb weights and running 40k. Stuff like that.

Eventually I had to leave the fun and go to the rest of my appointments. PFT's, aka panting in a box. Wish I had better news. Stupid chunkers are being a tad lazy. My lung function has dropped over the last two weeks. Not what I wanted, but ups and downs are expected.

The docs, Brad and I talked everything over and they decided to move my 3 month bronchoscopy to next week. We need to make sure there's no further rejection or infection hiding out in there. If it is, I'm warning it now: things could get ugly. I'm a pretty good fighter; I've been known to execute a pretty effective roundhouse.

Wednesday night was games night in Transplantland. It was a smaller group than usual. Carman decided that himself, his IVs and his chest tubes would stay at the hospital. Others had prior engagements and some have already left Toronto with new chunkers.

It was a fun night. I think I only stopped laughing long enough to shove food down my throat.

Thursday night we went to the Toronto Maple Leafs game!!! My first NHL game. It was so cool.

I have to send out a HUGE thank you to a certain someone. We had such a blast; it was such a great experience. 

More of the fun:

I guess a great time is sometimes followed by a bad time?

I woke up yesterday feeling craptastic. Tuesday all over again. I spent the majority of the day between the couch, bed and filling up my hot water bottle.

Thankfully I have awesome friends who took the G-man to the park for me. Hilda, Craig, John - love you guys.

I'm going to spend the day relaxing and hoping the sickness has left the building. Bonnie comes back today to babysit me for a few weeks. Although, this time will be a bit different. I'm sure she'll miss the hum of the oxygen concentrator and the 50 feet of tubing splayed all over the condo.

And let's not forget the granny shuffle.

A night Out & A Day In

So, I'm a bit behind with the blog. Some would say slack a$$ing, perhaps?

I think I have a good excuse.

I'm distracted by my tall, dark and handsome.

The last month and a half without him seemed to go on forever and were the worst weeks for me as far as being homesick. Thankfully I'm kept extremely busy here between pokes and probings from different medical professionals. Sweetness.

Saturday night Brad and I went on a double date (oooo yaaaa) with Sandra Rinomato and her husband, Gary. The best part was that this time there was NO tubing stuck to my face, I could actually eat and I wasn't breathing like Darth Vader; as sexy as all that was.

Lots of stories, laughs, and crazy. I'm really glad Brad contacted Sandra back in July. We've had some great times with those two and made great memories.

Thanks guys, you da bestest!

Sunday we headed back to the hospital to hang out with the Hamiltons. Carman is doing freaking fantastical; he is clearly trying to beat all transplant records. He looks amazing. I can't believe how alive and healthy he looks already. His face has a nice pink tinge instead of the hawt gray.

We ended up playing UNO in the waiting room with Danica (you must realize by now that games seem to happen wherever we go) and the winner was...

ME!

Two studs

Monday we sat around like a whole bunch of lazy - we ate, watched tv and spent some time outside with the G-man. He's been really vocal lately. I'm thinking it's cause he's so excited about Carman and he just wants to tell the entire park. Plus he's pretty happy to have Brad here. He nearly lost his mind when Brad walked through the door Thursday night; tail almost flew off and hit the wall. 

I just want to put it out there that Brad cooked dinner Monday night.

This morning I woke up with my head in the garbage can.

I couldn't get out of bed. I have no idea if it was the stomach flu or food poisoning. Brad???

I had to cancel CF clinic as I didn't want to make anyone else sick in case it was the flu. It's now 4PM and I'm finally able to sit on the couch instead of laying in bed. Progress!

Kristy and Derek are coming today and staying with us until Saturday. Not exactly great timing for me to get sick. Fingers crossed that there will be no more cookies being tossed up in here.

Unless someone wants to toss some oreos my way; that'd be cool.

Squat Squad - oxygen free!!!

Remember me saying I wasn't in to Valentine's Day??

Now I am!!!!

Carman got lungs!!! Carman got lungs!!!! CARMAN GOT LUNGS!!!!!

I was at the hospital on the 13th when he got the call. I practically lost my mind. My wish come true.

His call came exactly 2 months after mine. My call came exactly 3 weeks after Mark's. I guess Carman just wanted to take his sweet time.

Here he is waiting to see if it's a go:

The shirt will direct the surgeons on where to stash the new blowers

Moral support:

Throwing our thumbs in the ring

Sending good vibes

Linds and I had to eventually go home to take the G-man out to run around and show himself off (he is important you know). Surgery was booked for the next morning. I was on edge the entire night hoping that this was truly it; that the chainsaw and duct tape would be utilized tomorrow.

I got a text the next morning at 8:30ish from his daughter, Danica, "Walking to the OR" and then, "Gone".

Cold freaking chills babeeee.

We booked it to the hospital and spent the day waiting with Pamela, Danica and the rest of his family. It killed me to leave for the hour and a half for physio (although if I'm honest I would tell you that I rushed through and was done in record time).

Around 6:30pm the surgeon came in to let us know that Carman had flown through surgery like a champ and had no complications...and here I thought he'd be giving them all a hard time, being all annoying and stuff. Oh ya, he was asleep and therefore couldn't open his mouth.

I will now be able to go home in March (fingers crossed) without worrying about my buddy. I will be here for his entire recovery and get to enjoy bossing him around for the next few weeks. He has to listen to me as I'm the one with the transplant experience, right??

Love you Carman. So happy you got your second chance; your gift of life.

Organ donation is amazing. 

Check us out:

We are now an oxygen-free Squat Squad

3 Month Package

It's been an emotional few days. Lots of things happening. Still sending positive vibes, thoughts and prayers to James and Adena. He is truly fighting for his life...for the second time. It's a hard thing to watch your friends go through, let alone imagining what it's like for both of them.

James is currently on hold on the transplant list. His infections need to be cleared up before that he can be activated again. It's a very precarious situation and they need all the support you can throw at them. Just thinking of them must help, right? Please do.

http://breathtoblog.blogspot.ca/

I had clinic yesterday. Things continue to go well; my new chunkers continue to please. I do have some junk in there that needs to come up, but you try coughing with new blowers. It's harrrrrd. Sounds funny, eh? But it's true. We don't feel the need to cough - we have an interrupted cough reflex. My cough sounds like a strangled squirrel - whatever that sounds like.

I received my 3 month assessment package!!!! All the millions of tests will be done the week of March 11th...so there is the potential that I could leave this city the week of the 18th. I just need the go ahead from the doctors and I'm outs.

It will be bittersweet though as I will miss all my Transplantland friends, my park friends and everyone else I've connected with here. But watch out NS! I'll come blazing in and won't stop. I have lots to talk about, lots to advocate about, lots of people to see and plenty of just being cool to do.

I'd say Happy Valentine's Day, but I don't actually celebrate it.

However....

Brad flies in tonight. In fact, he'll be here in about an hour.

Gots to go.

Back At It

**Thanks everyone for your thoughts, prayers, well wishes and positive vibes for my friends James and Adena.**

Big Scary Monster IV guy

Today was a much better day for me - health wise. The big scary monster IVs used to fight the rejection did quite a number on me the last few days. I was starting to worry until I heard from my post-transplant nurse coordinator (also thanks to Fran for listening to me ramble on and maybe not make sense all of the time, but I guess she's used to that (as is most everybody)).

Apparently the mega powerful IVs give you a huge boost of energy and then bring you crashing down (and here I thought it was simply a Gaga hangover).

I finished the IVs last Thursday and definitely felt a rush of energy on Friday (although I would argue that was half due to Ms. Gaga face), but then felt extremely worn out for the next three days.

Saturday was a wash; Linds and I both felt like we'd been run over by steamrollers. We spent the day lounging and sleeping. Sunday we had good intentions to do something, but after picking up some food from the store, resumed our positions on the couch.

Yesterday I thought I would have my "new chunkers energy" back for sure.

Not at all.

I felt just as craptastic.

I almost, and I repeat almost, felt like I did pre-transplant. I just couldn't get it together. Everything I did at physio was exhausting; I couldn't even do the entire workout.

After physio I had PFTs. Unfortunately, it was a disappointment. I wanted to pull in a higher number than last week; actually had my eye on 85. That sounded like a nice sexy number.

Alas, my new chunkers had other plans. I had a slight set back.

77%

I will admit - I was concerned. My lung function having decreased, along with low energy and a bunch of weird noises coming from inside my chest, made me wonder if the enemy known as rejection was hanging around. Like an annoying guy at a bar who just doesn't get the hint.

I called my post-transplant nurse, explained what was up, and patiently (honestly I was) waited for her to return my call and assuage my worries.

Good news: she did.

It's likely the IVs. This is a first for me as I've never taken a butt kicking like they gave me. They knocked me to the ground.

BUT, I'm baaaaaaaaaaaack.

Today, my energy was reclaimed. Not only was I able to walk around in an un-zombie like state, but I upped the intensity on the tread.

3.3 mph @ 1.5 incline.

Yup, Squeegee the Superstar.

I should make t-shirts, pens and other memorabilia. You want?

Best part of the day came after physio. While sitting there having coffee with Adena and Lindsay, we saw the freaking coolest thing!

We saw an

come to a screeching halt outside the hospital.

Two paramedics came in rolling a stretcher carrying two

I can only assume that there were ORGANS inside!!!!!

Someones life was possibly saved today. Perhaps even more than one life.

That is the definition of awesome.

Support Requested

I need to take a minute and explain how much I hate lung disease.

Lung disease rips the guts right out of you; never mind the air.

It sneaks up slowly and attacks. It's not patient, it's not kind and it certainly isn't trying to win you over; wearing you down is more its' style.

I hate it.

It makes you weak, tired, exhausted...then you may see a glimmer of light, you think you will be fine, you can get through anything.

And then it brings you to your knees.

It punches you in the face, pulls your hair, kicks you while you're down and laughs the entire time.

It doesn't give you a break; it doesn't care.

It doesn't care.

It doesn't care.

I have too many friends fighting lung disease. Friends who are relatively healthy, yet still dealing with lung disease and all its daily struggles. Friends who are battling end-stage lung disease like warriors. Friends who are waiting for new lungs and maintaining a brave face, while hoping and praying they'll come any minute so they can finally have some peace. Friends who've received their gift of life and continue to have problems.

Friends who've received their new lungs and are back waiting for a second set.

Please support my friends James and Adena. James has Cystic Fibrosis and received new lungs on May 12, 2011. He had a great year. He married Adena and had an amazing future to look forward to.

Unfortunately, lung disease isn't as sentimental as some of us. James is in chronic rejection. He is in the ICU. He needs us.

Thoughts, prayers, positive vibes...anything you can send. Please.

Their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/JamesQuestForLungs?ref=ts&fref=ts

Their Blog:
http://breathtoblog.blogspot.ca/

Lung disease sucks. I hate it. We all hate it.

Help us overcome it. We need all the help we can get.

A Gaga Hangover

No, there was no alcohol making its way down my throat, however a hangover was had.

What a night!!!!

It started with the G-man begging to go with; apparently he's a Gaga fan as well. I kinda thought so as I've caught him dancing to her songs a few times (he's got skillz).

Sorry Griff Griff

I had reserved a cab (one of the orange ugly ones) two days before; I really thought we were set. Apparently that doesn't mean squat. Not squats, but squat. The cab company called me a few thousand times just to let me know they still didn't have a driver for us and to double check that we still wanted a cab.

Naw, we'll just zap ourselves to the concert.

Here we are waiting in the lobby:

I have no idea what I think I'm doing here

We waited and waited for a cab. We went out to the street and tried to flag down a cab. No luck. Every single taxi had their light off, no one wanted us. We went back inside and dialed every cab company there was.

Finally, Pamela decided to be her amazing self and set off outside to create some magic. Minutes later I received a text - she found a cab driver at the gas station who was doing off duty, but after hearing her story, agreed to drive us.

She be awesome.

Here's her awesomeness on the ride there:

Finally we got there! I'd been excited the entire day, but the level of excitement was now through the freaking roof upon approaching the ACC. We sprinted out of the cab, security ensured that we didn't have any AK-47s or other threatening things in our purses and our tickets were scanned.

The music was pumping and so was my blood. I couldn't stand it; I started dancing. There is even video evidence of this, however I'll leave it to your imagination.

First things first: food.

Next: seats. We didn't want to miss a thing.

Thank God we got there when we did because we only had one full hour of sitting there before Gaga came onstage.

Eating...and waiting...

PJ & Shilpa pumped

Is she coming????

OMG she's cominnnnnnnnngggggg!

 

 

Lady Gaga is too cool. I am a bit disappointed however, as she forgot to call me up on stage. Not sure what happened there, but I'm expecting a phone call any moment now with an explanation. I'll likely be invited on tour with her to make up for it. 

I spent the entire day yesterday recuperating. That Gaga hangover was narsty, but totally worth it. My body wasn't still the entire night, chair dancing at it's finest. I have no idea how I didn't lose my voice.

Me and my new chunkers had a blast.

Thank you donor for not only letting me have this experience, but allowing me to be breathless in a good way.

Introducing Stanley

Friday morning I stumbled out of bed, woke up Linds and we headed off in the snow storm to TGH. Imagine our surprise when the place was practically deserted...what's a matta? 'fraid of a 'lil snow, Toronto?

First on the list was shoving a delicious Tim's breakfast wrap down my throat, along with 30 pills - yes, I seriously have 30 pills to take in the morning. My daily total is about 50; not including the thousands of insulin injections throughout the day. Those, my friends, are a good time.

This was quickly chased by a tall hazelnut pike - remember, blondes are so last year.

Clinic was the first appointment of the day. Annnnnnd I picked up this bad boy:

Stanley, my sexy spirometer

Post new chunkers, we are required to do a few things for the rest of our lives.

1. take our temperature morning and night
2. check our lung function every morning
3. be careful of narsty germs
4. attend a gizzillion medical appointments
5. stay cool in red kicks
6. other stuff

As I've stated in the past, the two major things to watch out for post-transplant are infection and rejection. There are some tools we use to try and catch these - a thermometer and that bad boy in the photo above.

First thing I do in the AM, after I peel my eyelids open, is jam the thermometer in my mouth. After what seems like 15 years, I get a reading. Seriously? Why does it take sooo long??

Next I pull out Stanley. Remember "panting in the box"? Well, there is no box and no panting...so forget that.

I simply take a deep breath, put my lips around the tube that resembles a toilet paper roll and blow out as hard and as fast as I can. Stanley gives me a reading and voila! I have my lung function.

The first time I did it I almost threw my back out. I'm such a champ.

So, clinic, right?

Dr. T is happy with me. My lung function is sweet, my x-rays are looking sexy, my blood work is good and I'm feeling super.

After my nurse, Debbie, showed me how to manipulate Stanley, we were out of there.

Next, we met with the pharmacist to go over my meds. Pretty routine, nothing exciting.

For the next hour we were entertained by squat buddy Mark. He's still in lockup, still waiting to hear about release, but it may be Monday - fingers crossed ***!

Last appointment of the day was physio. Once again, Linds did the stretches with me. I pedaled my face off on the bike, upped my leg weights to 6 lbs (crazy, right?), added leg weights to my box step routine (much better work out) and jumped on the treadmill.

I Immediately asked the physiotherapist if I could increase my speed. She had a better idea. A little thing called incline. Incline of 1. Yup - superstar. Practically a 90 degree angle.

Finally we were finished at TGH. We busted out of there to get home - we had a concert to prepare for...

IVs over; Gaga begins

I visited my squat squad buddy Mark yesterday. He's in lockup fighting his own lungfungled battle.

However, the true battle was between our drinks of choice:

His may be taller, but mine's tastier!

We told lies for awhile, had some laughs, were reminded of the miracle of transplant and then I headed out for another round of monster IVs.

I had the same nurses again which made me happy. It's nice to have some smiling faces during a not-so-fantastical procedure. No, it's not painful, but who seriously wants to deal with rejection?

It's just a narsty word.

However, I've had more than one transplant friend reach out to me and let me know that they've been there, done that and came out on top. So, I guess we're all superstars at the end of the day.

It's just another reminder that transplant is not all sunshine and rainbows (not that I've ever had that particular thought) but that it is a treatment with it's own set of obstacles.

But hey - there's no enemy I'm not ready to spar with.

I'm all about living and breathing into the future.

Here I am on day 1 of the monster IVs:

Slightly stunned

And here was me today:

Realizing what's important

I was a bit late for physio today and therefore missed strutting my junk on the treadmill. I did the bike - pounded that one down and was able to complete all the stretches and weights. People are keeping a wide birth of me now...they are getting scared of my humongous muscles.

Proof of the terror

I've kept mum on a HUGE freakingly super cool thing Linds, Pamela, Shilpa and I are doing tomorrow night. I've let Linds in on the secret, so now I'll share it with you too.

I'll give you a few hints:

Telephone
Just Dance
Poker Face
Papparazzi
Born This Way

If you're still stuck.....

Air Canada Centre + Lady Gaga =

OMG!!!! Lady Gaga concert!!! I can't freaking wait! It's going to be nuts!

She will likely call me up on stage to do a duet, so I will record it for you all and post it.

However, I may not be able to control myself; I may accidentally kick her off the edge of the stage so I can ride that out solo.

Stay tuned...

A little bit of Rejection to pass the Week

My body and I aren't quite seeing eye to eye (I guess that works if you give one of my eyeballs to my body and one to....me?).

It seems that one day my body started catching on to the party that's been taking place inside my chest cavity for the last, almost 8, weeks.

It saw through the web of deceit that the anti-rejection meds have woven and has sounded some kind of annoying, screechy, high decibel alarm.

It's recognized my new chunkers as alien and has sent in the troops to attack and destroy.

I have stage 2 acute rejection.

Ummmm...white flag? Truce? Peace treaty?

Naaaaaaah - Let's bring in some heavily artillery in the form of omnipotent IV's.

Stupid body won't even know what hit it.

I got the call on Monday from my transplant coordinator. The broncosopy results showed the rejection. Course of action - 3 days of ninja-esq IV's.

I will admit that when I first heard the news I got a bit teary-eyed and a leeeetle bit scared. After I talked it out, burnt my brain out thinking about it, did some research (I research the hell out of everything) and slapped myself in the face 30 times...I remembered that rejection is very common. I remember the doc telling me that everyone will have some form of rejection.

I've been carrying around stage 1 acute rejection for awhile now, but stage 1 is so minor that they don't treat it. Stage 2 the battle begins.

So, let's do this shizzle!

(Come on, you all know that's a cool word.)

Linds and I went yesterday for the first round. Only 1/2 an hour per day. Easy peazy. Only set back was the first poke - it didn't take. I've been told that my veins are small and sneaky. Weird; I thought they were vibrant and helpful.

Second poke kinda sorta made me groan and twist my face into an unladylike pose, however my nurse had success. Blood came roaring out and then drugs went swimming in; reminicient of the sharks on Jaws.

I have two more days to go. I hope I have the same nurse. She was cool. See how cool she was:

It's both for her patients & to remind herself to chill

The half hour flew by, as we swapped stories with a self proclaimed "old fart" who was also packing a new liver.

He provided us with a heart-warming story of his transplant. A living donor transplant. 9 members of his family were tested to see if they were a match. Finally his son's brother-in-law hit the target. Imagine?

Imagine being that selfless??

Both were released from hospital 6 days post-surgery.

Crazzzzzy.

Sitting there, listening to his story, feeling that awe and respect for the stranger that donated a part of his liver, made me think. It made me want to share:

Notice the red circles?

What does yours look like?

Perhaps it's on your drivers license - as every province (and country) is different.

I challenge you to seriously consider registering to be an organ donor. 1 donor can save up to 8 lives and impact up to 75 others. That's HUGE!

HUGE!!!

Click here to watch an extremely motivating video on organ donation. Then look me in my Squeegeelicious eyeballs and tell me "no thanks".

Honestly, I respect anyone's decision, but ask that you at least take the time to learn, so that you make an informed decision.

Trust me, the results are awesome. I'm alive because someone took the time to learn and then register. I will never be able to express my gratitude and respect for that individual and their family for respecting his/her decision.

I can breath.

I'm alive.

That's pretty damn cool.

BUT I have friends still waiting for new chunkers. Every day gets tougher and tougher for them. It gets harder and harder for them to breathe. Harder and harder to be mobile. Harder and harder for them to simply exist.

And that my friends, is not cool.

Linds does Physio

Monday

Linds and I got up bright and early to head off to TGH. Mondays, if you remember, are my crazy long hospital days, involving many appointments and tests. The exception for today was my clinic being rescheduled to Friday.

The doctors likely couldn't handle their excitement at seeing me so had to give themselves more prep time.

We tackled the blood lab first. Have I mentioned how cheery the blood lab employees are? No? Well, they are like a breath of fresh...oh wait. Nope, just the opposite. It's either a bad work environment, or they all just feel real crabby about poking people all day.

After blood work we booked a ticket for some more radiation. Love me some radiation.

Finally it was time to down a badly required Starbucks, breakfast and my purse full of drugs. (Blood work has to be done before my anti-rejection meds, and I can't eat until I take my anit-rejection meds.)

Next we busted it up to physio. I was so proud of myself! Every day I get stronger (I know what you're asking yourselves..."How could she possibly get any stronger than she is now???") and I upped the tension on the bike to FIVE!! and went 3.3 on the tread.

Linds was extremely helpful - walking in place beside me on the tread, stretching alongside me and even squatting it up with me.

Check out my speedy kicks:

After I was done flexing my incredible muscles at physio, we jaunted off to the PFT lab. Linds thoroughly enjoyed watching me 'pant in the box' and was just as excited as I was to find out that my lung function is now...

83%!!!!!!!!!

She just can't believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Diabetic Dilemma

Well, it's official. Linds can't keep up to me (or the flight made her tired). She collapsed in a heap on her bed for a 45 minute nap that turned into hours.

While she slept her face off, I was out running sprints and doing thousands of jumping jacks.

Either that, or I was making like a couch potato, stuffing my face and watching tv.

So, yesterday was all about relaxation and hanging out with the G-man in the park.

How frigging awesome is it that I can walk to the park and even play with Griffin there? I can do a teensy bit of 'lazy jogging' at this point, which is totally cool.

No wheelchair.
No oxygen.
No laboured breathing.
No coughing.
No being carried back to the condo over Brad's shoulder.

Griffin really thinks he's the man. He prances around in his coat and boots. He trots up to the ladies and gives them a good sniff...and then barks in their face if he's deemed them worthy.

I've even mastered putting his boots on all my meself. He gives me attitude and yanks his paws back, but I've wrestled him to the ground enough times now that he's caved and just takes it at this point.

Today was a visit to Wally World, otherwise known as Walmart. I hate that place. It has this freaky ability to zero in on my wallet and suck the life out of it.

The good news is that I had the energy to walk around the entire store; although Pamela and Linds offered to let me ride in the cart. I couldn't even imagine doing that 2 months ago. The mere thought of walking around Walmart, or any other store for that matter, would have made me want to have a nap on my bed made of pillows.

The only minor issue I had was my blood sugar. As I've mentioned, at least I think I've mentioned this (my brain is a bit foggy due to the incredible amounts of medication I'm ingesting on a daily basis), my diabetes is a bit wonky. The immunosuppressive drugs, combined with the prednisone (steroid), has caused my blood sugar to spin a bit out of control.

I went to CF clinic last week to discuss this and figure out some sort of battle plan.

I didn't get new chunkers to have diabetic complications.

My insulin needs have changed - translation...skyrocketed.

I'm doing my best, I'm recording everything, waking up at 3am to test, sticking needles in my body left right and center, and trying to make super good choices. 

I had my diabetes under tight control before the new chunkers and truckloads of drugs. It took a long time and many lectures from a very patient dietitian to get me there. Thanks Janey for not giving up on me, even though I admit I was somewhat annoying and frustrating.

I will win this fight. I will.

TransplantLand Games Night & A New Babysitter

What's better than a bunch of post-crusty-lungers, current crusty-lungers and a boatload of support people getting together?

Getting together with food and games.

Less & less of us are waiting for lungs; problem - some ARE still waiting

This was my first games night sans oxygen. No offense oxygen, but I don't want to hang out with you anymore; in fact, my life is super fantastical with out you. I won't be sending you any "I miss you" or "Thinking of you" greeting cards any time soon, but please know that you served your purpose and I am grateful for that.

This was also my first bbq chicken pizza experience - WoW. YummY. Some advice - try it. Delish!

A few pics from the festivities:

This may be evidence of me trying to steal the entire cheesecake

Pamela

Adena

June

Carman

It was a really good night; only problem was that at the end of the night the scores weren't added up, so no winner was declared. However, I'm sure you will all agree that I won, right?

 ---------------------------------------

Last night was June's last night with me. So we decided to go wild. We hit up a movie. Being Friday night, I thought it would be packed, so I recommended we go early.

There was a grand total of what? 15 people in the theatre.

Crazy I know. Could barely get a seat.

We shoved popcorn down our throats while staring at Hansel & Gretel. I may have spent a few scenes watching through my scarf - cause we all know scarves are great for protection from evil.

Today was the 'changing of the babysitters'. Although, with these new chunkers, my babysitters are having a hard time keeping up with me.

I've been very emotional since transplant (I blame it entirely on the drugs) and got all teary-eyed saying goodbye to June. Once again someone leaves my condo and I'm not going back to NS with them. Soon though! I have to keep my eye on the prize. I need to stay focused, and continue working hard on my recovery, so that at the 3 month mark I get the heave-ho out of TO.  

June, thank you for staying with me for a month, it meant a lot. The month zoomed by, we had tons of fun, made lots of memories and have lots of stories to tell.

Lindsay is back. This time for 2 weeks. She has no idea what she's in for; this is the new Squeegee.