Another Good Day, Well Sort Of

Joy had a restful night without incident and walked three laps in Acute Care before walking to her new room in the Step Down Unit. Once she settled in there, we went for a three lap walk for a total of six laps today (1800 feet) and she seemed to tolerate it quite well. She still requires O2 for walking. Her voice is getting closer to normal and she does not get out of breath talking like she used to. I am wondering how her now talking better benefits me? That was a joke! She was able to sleep another three hours this afternoon so hopefully she can begin catching up, little by little.

I was thinking on the way home tonight, how best I could caution you to not be overly optimistic about her progress without sounding negative or pesimistic. Well, here is the best way to explain what I am talking about when I say this thing can turn on a dime!

Joy called me about 9PM tonight to say the doctor that does her broncs each day came in and she was joking with him about having to do another, twice in the same day. He said he was there to talk about something very serious. The preliminary results from yesterdays biopsy came back and showed a "real funky" (his words) rejection that they would not have known about without the biopsy. Apparently quite rare. This he said, may explain why she has not progressed as well as anticipated, which has baffled the doctors recently. He said the med they need to give her have serious side effects and requires several other IV meds prior to taking the rejection medication to balance the effects. BP becoming unstable, dizzyness and nausea are just some of the side effects. She will begin taking these meds tonight.

I have received inquiries about flowers or plants for Joy and nothing has changed from my very early blog stating that lung transplant patients cannot tolerate these and may be the case for months and months to come. So Joy has asked me to write in this blog that anyone wishing to do something like that should purchase and donate some school supplies for a needy child. We sincerely continue to appreciate your cards, emails and blog updates and thank you so much for your interest in riding along with us.

So, I don't know right now if these meds will require the type of monitoring they do in Acute Care or if she can remain in Step Down. And, how much impact this will have on her progress / set back time is not know at this time. She is taking this like a champ and as with everything else, she does not complain and knows to expect infection and rejection at any time during the rest of her natural life.

Will keep you posted tomorrow night. Thanks for listening.