Waiting Game: 8 Month Update

Well, I've officially reached the average wait time. As usual, here is a bit of an update/recap on what's been happening over the past month. 

- Since I never seemed to really recover from the horrible-never-ending-May infection, I am staying at a 4L oxygen flow during physio. However, I have managed to increased everything back to my earlier levels without crashing out my oxygen levels which is good news. I've also managed to increase my leg weights to 10lb, I reached my personal leg weight goal!

The 10lb weight is so big that it needs two velcro straps.

- I started a new puffer two weeks ago after a doctors appointment at St. Mikes and returned today to make sure that it was working. And it is! My lung function has skyrocketed up to 28%. 28 is so incredible that I didn't believe the nurse at first. It's almost last year's levels. Yay steroids!!! Steroids cure everything (a good lesson for the kids out there)! The doctor was very pleased and told me not to change anything. The other good news is that I don't have to return for another 6 weeks. I was worried that bi-weekly visits were going to become a regular thing.

- I thought I had gotten super chill about getting calls from unknown and blocked numbers but last night at the Jays game (which was fantastic, btw), I had a missed call from a 416 number and I still had a few second panic. Even though the caller didn't leave a message and no one called call Isaiah's phone or my pager, I still thought for a minute that it could be the hospital. It's amazing how fast the rational part of the brain gets overridden by blind panic.

Go Blue Jays!

- We have so many visitors this month so I may be a bit slacking on the blogging front, I'll try my best but I may be off visiting new museums or restaurants instead.


The past few weeks, I've come to the realization that I am absolutely ready for a transplant. I know I said I was absolutely ready in Feb when it was cold and I didn't want to go outside, but now I actually feel like I've reached a deeper acceptance and preparedness (is that a word?) and not just because I don't want to go outside. I thought I was ready when I agreed to be on the list but I wasn't. If I had gotten the call during the first few months, I probably would have had a panic attack and tried to back out. But now, I'm ready.

I think that seeing so many people at physio go through the process helped me reach this point. It has given me a realistic expectation for the post-transplant world and the challenges that are on that side and I feel prepared for them. Being able to listen (aka creep on other people's conversations) to everyones post-transplant complaints has taken out a lot of the unknown so of course it has become less scary. Turns out I just needed a little more education. It has also helped that I've seen people go from using a walker while on oxygen, to strutting around the room talking about how awesome they feel.

The average wait is 8 months and today is my 8 month mark, so anytime now would be good. Average is more than fine with me. I'm not looking to break any 'longest wait' records. I want to strut too.