Bye Bye CF Stuff...........

It never ceases to amaze Anna that her O2 sats hover at 99 to 100%
She found her sat meter today and just had to check.

(After a day or two of rest my virus left, energy returned and I returned to Sunnyvale.) Today was a very good day that started out early. We had to be at Stanford by 7:30AM for a blood draw. Then, we were up and out so went to Hobee's for breakfast. Anna ate a large breakfast. What was just a few days ago symptoms of slow gastric emptying now seems to have eased. She can eat well with little discomfort now. Another sign of healing for sure.

We went shopping for fun after eating. While in the store I got a call from the nurse coordinator. Anna's INR level, blood clotting factor or coumadin level was way high and so was the prograf level. I was told, "don't let her near knives, or let her fall or bruise today." Oh, OK, no knives. I felt that I was in charge of a delicate china doll more than ever. I hovered over Anna and watched every move. This balancing act of medications, blood sugars, digestion and healing is tricky. One day it is on the mark and another it is off. I suppose it will still take a while to get the dosages perfect. So, we must have blood draws Sat, Sun and Monday too.

The big event of the day was O2 pick up! Finally, today, Anna and I ventured to her house to see the kitties and get rid of the bulky liquid oxygen tanks. There was also some ceremonial throwing away of unneeded medicines and putting away, The Vest. Never, never again will Anna have a percussion treatment. Never, never again will she fill bags with mucus filled tissues. Never, never again will her day be determined by the schedule of aerosols and Vest and pounding and coughing and spitting........... Never, never again. Her home is now rid of those CF reminders.

(To be honest, if one day she enters chronic rejection she will need O2 again and some aerosol medicines will still be in her transplant life but the major part of her CF lung pulmonary toilet life is now over, forever.)

Yes, today was a good day. Each day healing is happening. It is wonderful to see. So great to get rid of that past yucky part of CF life...............

And today, we laughed, we laughed so hard, so much harder than ever since transplant. It was an amazing experience. The laugh was only made of air. There were no subsequent coughs. It was trans formative. When Anna was a little one, if I thought she needed to cough out crap I would tickle her and make her laugh producing coughs and coughs and being out of breath. As she grew older and more compromised her laugh coughs became more and more profound. But now, you know what, she can laugh and laugh and enjoy the jiggling, the spasmodic breaths of joy and stop without turning bright red or purple because the laugh caused the cough of the century and the need to gasp for air..........now only joy at the humor that is in life.