Christmas is over finally

I am glad Christmas is finally over. I didn't do anything at all this year except go to my moms for dinner. I have just about kicked this cold but it left me an ear infection.....not fun! I can barely hear out my left ear and it drives me crazy I can hear my heart beat in it and after awhile it gives me a headache. At first I thought it was just a blockage as ive had one before. Went up to the ER in Midland Saturday morning cause I couldn't take it anymore. Usually when you go there your a guaranteed 3 plus hour wait. I was in and out in 20 minutes, I don't know if it was cause they were efficient or that they knew I was a dbl lung transplant recipient and imune compromised so they didn't want me sitting with all the sickies lol, but I'm not complaining. The Dr looked in both my ears and said my left was clear and he could see my ear drum but it looked all red and swollen so he gave me a 7 day course of antibiotics. If it isn't better by then to see someone. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Its 3 days I've been on them and haven't really seen any difference :( So if not cleared up not sure what the next step is. Maybe iv antibiotics :(

Easy call called me Friday, well got 2 messages from them, first was that no calls will be taken and replied to after noon and not till the holidays are over. The next was about my blood work the day before, my white blood count was at 14 and it usually is at 7, thank god I still have some WBC left alot of people after TX get it wiped to 0. So they said I must obviously fighting something and wanted me to let them know how I was feeling, WTF? I called them 5 days prior on this sinus cold I had and coughing up a little bit of phlegm. So I left a message leting them know and about my ear and of course they never called me back before noon. So not sure if they will get ahold of me this week or wont be till the new year.

Today I ventured back down to Sick Kids to visit my niece who's daughter is waiting for a liver transplant. She told me that all the tests came back and that her husband is a match, which does take some stress off things, she thought may be on the search for a donor. I have alot of friends who offered to be tested too, I am so grateful for wonderful friends.

Yesterday was my 10 month lungavisary. It was kinda a sad day for me, sure I was happy to still be here but for my precious donor and their family. Not being able to celebrate this Christmas with their loved one. Who knows if they had children who had to try and cope with not having their mother/father there :( I know for me it was really tough trying to get into the Christmas mood after my dad passed away. It just didn't feel the same at all! So I completely imagine what they are going thru. I thought about my donor all day long. Thank yous can never say enough, you gave me my breath and life back! Maybe next Christmas will be a better Christmas for me, like I said before I don't like all the commercialization they have made out of it, being sick at Christmas (this will be the 3rd Christmas sick ) and not having someone special to share the times with. I guess life goes on.

Below is a picture of my nieces daughter Alyson.

Finally feeling better

Its been just over a week now and today was my first day back to work. I still have a partially plugged nose and ears plugging up. It seems to get worse at night when I go to bed. Don't ask me why. Last night I ended up getting up at 3am and sleeping downstairs on the couch and actually got some sleep. I guess its just gonna take a little longer. I gotta say though being sick for the first time is kinda scary and a learning experience all at the same time. At least I know what to expect the next time around.
Well its only a week away from Christmas. I still have no feeling what so ever. I'm sure its not a good thing but really doesn't bother me one bit! Christmas for me has just not been the same since my dad passed away over 11 years ago. Just couldn't really get back into it. Another factor is not having a significant other to celebrate the festivities with. But ohh well guess its what life has dished out for me.
I am planning on a big New Years party at my house again. This year a bunch of us are gonna dress right up for it. It should be fun :)

This past weekend I went down and visited my Niece,her son and daughter. Her daughter was born May 5 2011 and is now waiting for a liver transplant. Poor girl has no idea what is going on. I feel so sad for her. My nieces dad is starting tests to see if he can donate some of his liver. My niece is unable seeing as she donated some of hers to her son back in 2009. If her husband is not a match then the terrible task of trying to find a match begins. I do have a couple of friends who have said they would get tested to see if they are a match which means alot to me! As I was telling my niece that its so crazy that the waiting list for livers and kidneys are so high seeing as they can be a living donation and not from a deceased donor. I checked the list today and liver waiting list is almost 300 as the lung waiting list is at 69. Even since my dbl lung tx I have had 8 friends who have received their new lungs. Its just so crazy!

Today is my dads 77th birthday its hard to believe he would of been that old if he was still here.

Getting sick after transplant...so different

Well come December 25th it will be 10 months since I got the chance of a new wonderful life only made possible by the gift of life from my lovely donor and their family.

Well this past week and a half I have came down with this cold. You never know where you pick it up, I stay away from sick people like the plague hahahaha. It all hit the same time my transplant coordinator called on my results of my 9 month assessment. Everything looked good by my blood pressure was up a bit still so they prescribed me some blood pressure meds. I picked them up at the drug store here in town, the pharmacist went through a few things with me then said that this med may cause me to have a tickle in the back of my throat and cause me to have a dry cough some or all the time....great I put up with 34 years of hacking my brains out! I don't wanna cough anymore lol. She also said it may cause fatigue too...wtf! Sounds like a great med. Especially a person like me that is on the go all the time and doesn't wanna cough anymore.

So anyways I called my coordinator and left a message the Easy Call system on what I should do about this cold. Tell you the truth I was kinda scared. It was the first time getting sick after transplant. I was afraid of it getting into my chest...which is the way it worked overtime before transplant. So my coordinator said to just take things easy and drink plenty of water. I also went and had blood work done just for piece of mind. They called the next day (Friday) and said that my cyclosporin level was high and cause of that my creatin level was up(kidneys) so I have to go back Monday and have blood work done again, if its still high then they will decrease my cyclosporin med level which means one less pill probably.

My brother and I attended a party my nephews put together for my brother and sister in laws 30th wedding anniversary (actual date is my dads birthday Dec 19) It was down in Kitchener. It was fun, got to meet some extra extended family...but for the life of me dont ask me names lol. We left there about 11 pm and drove back to Barrie to drop my brother off then came home. Today has been a write off. Got up to do my meds at 9 then fell asleep on the couch and didn't really get up and do anything till after 3pm. It was nice to be able to just relax and hopefully give my body a chance to kick this colds butt.
With talking with other transplant friends they say they have been sick and it just takes us longer to get over it then a person with and A1 immune system. I do happily still have some white blood cell count, I think it was 9 for my blood work for my 9 month assessment.

Below is a picture of my brother giving my sister in law a ring as his 30th wedding anniversary gift and one of me getting dressed up at my brothers.