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Today I had a CT Scan in the morning, a full PFT, and a clinic visit. The sheer volume of people at UC never fails to astound me. Simply trying to maneuver through the crowds getting to my various appointments, squeezing into elevators and seeing the continuous flow of people going up and down in the stairwell reminded me of the picture of Times Square my mom took when she was in NY last week. It seems the older I get, the less I’m tolerant of all the hustle and bustle of it all. I was supposed to go in for a bronch tomorrow morning, but my doctor said I didn’t have to have one! I just need to give a sputum culture. THRILLED.
The CT Scan showed no significant difference from the last one I had. It appears that, at the moment, the sole function of my right lung is just being a vessel for the stenotrophomonas. Lovely. The current plan is to cycle me through antibiotics to manage it and prevent my left lung to succumbing. In a couple of weeks I’m going to start a new round of antibiotics. Ecstatic beyond measure that I do not have to get a PICC to start iv meds.
After my PFT I had to have my arterial blood gas measured. As some of you may recall, I originally went into cardiac arrest when the doctors were trying to put in an arterial line in my wrist. This was definitely not one of my most memorable moments in life as that lead to being hooked up to ECMO/life support and ultimately getting a double lung and heart transplant. I realize that happened because not only are my veins and arteries tiny, but my poor dying heart couldn’t handle the stress of having IAPH. Logically, mentally, I know that I now have a strong new healthy heart and won’t happen again, but it’s hard not to feel apprehensive.
I had to go to the auxiliary pulmonary room at the chest clinic for my PFTs because they were short staffed at the PFT lab at the hospital. Afterward the tech attempted to take blood from my artery. Guess what happened next! Yes, she couldn’t get it after trying three times. The last one being very painful as it felt like she jabbed the needle into a nerve and then attempted to wriggle around. So, off I was sent back across the street to the hospital where success was achieved after 2 more techs tried. Unfortunately my favorite tech who usually gets it the first time wasn’t working today.
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I found out not too long ago that Kelli is having a baby girl. Despite the fact that she’ll probably grow out of them in a blink of an eye, I couldn’t resist making her these when I saw them in a book I was flipping through. The dress and booties were made from the same skein of yarn, but the colors came out inconsistent in the photos.
Present for Kelli & Ben’s baby
Patterns: Garden Trellis Dress by Susan Boye & Hanna’s Special Slippers by Lise A. Gill from Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight in Vancouver Violet
Needles: US 6 24″ circular needle