Ahhhh, healthy lungs, suflowers and the country life....
I have been bogging down on the blogging. The energy seems to be waining as we relax more. Time is proving to be the healer as Anna gets stronger and "weller". She still is some moon faced due to the prednesone, a true tell tale sign of a transplant recipient and there is a sense of the delicate. It is like if you see the strong limb of a tree you may reach out to grab it and hold on like its the arm of an athlete but if you see the pink plumb blossoms opening on its stock your inclination is to approach it gently. Anna is a plumb blossom aspiring to be the strong limb and athlete one day.
At clinic yesterday Anna's PFT (pulmonary function test) proved to continue to go up to an FEV1 of 71% and the marker for her small airways at 133% of what would be expected of a healthy person. Wow, to see growth in the PFT instead of decline is a real gift and an oddity still. All is doing well, still some adjustments in meds but all signs are of recovery. Anna was given the go ahead to drive and her sternal precautions were lifted. She was also given the go to be able to travel a bit and go to Murphys! Things are starting to get normal. So I need to back off a bit and start handing over the reins to my plumb blossom.
I have misplaced my camera. I think that word is kind of like "misspoke". Did I misplace it or did I loose it? I can not find it so perhaps the truthful thing to say is that I lost it. I have thought of one more place to look but I can not get to it. I have missed having my camera. I have enjoyed taking photos through this experience and sharing images with the words. Hope I find it soon or I must buy another camera.
I wanted to share photos of yesterday when we went to Jeff Wine's Cystic Fibrosis Research Lab at Stanford where Sara is the research assistant. Anna volunteered her CF sweat for an experiment. It was great to see Sara in action. They are studying various ways to collect data about the sweat response in CF. The sweat test was the original test for CF. Now with genetic testing one can have their blood tested for the gene. I believe any positive sweat test is also followed by genetic testing as well. Because my camera is "misplaced" I used Anna's but it quickly left my hands to meet the floor with a crash. I broke it. I may be having to buy two cameras now. Oh hum.
There will continue to be more updates on Anna as there are still more procedures and tests for her in the next month but I am finding my mind wandering to other things like, do I want to be a farmer? Or more accurately, do I and Doug want to finally end up in a few years "retiring" from Livermore to live full time in more of the country (expanding Murphys) with some acreage, a barn and a few animals, a pond, a country garden, a few grapes and the sounds of the creek and frogs? Is this Livermore home an interim to be followed by a more rural life? On this we are pondering. Could it truly be that what was chronic illness as the center of our decisions is now gone and we can think about ourselves as the center of our own universe now? It is very hard to make this shift. Our minds are so ready for illness and care giving. Can our minds now accept Anna's improving health and growing independence? We do need to make some attitude adjustments so that we can expand our horizons.
........The thought of a cute red barn with a split rail fence holding a miniature horse or two, designing a new home that compliments the surroundings and opens to the western sunset, walking into the country garden to harvest the sunflowers and fresh English peas, sweet and crisp, is very appealing. Just dreaming......... It is a very different place (mental space) than where I have been. I think my mind just needs a vacation........... Could I really do this as I enter this older stage of my life? I must think, why not? All dreams are possible, don't you think?
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