Just wanted to share these thoughts

I have two things on my mind today that I wanted to share.

 First of all, our family was fortunate enough to be able to singled out as a contributor to Jewish National Fund's Book of Life.  The book chronicles stories of Jewish families, how they came here before, during and after World War II.  Each page is devoted to a particular family's history and how they got to be where they are today.  Yesterday I, as the writer in the family (although my daughter is my editor and is becoming a far better writer than I think I am), sat down with my in-laws and interviewed both of them.  I have been married to their son for over 26 years. Didn't know at the time that I wasn't just marrying him but his whole family which, as it seems, turned out to be a blessing. But I digress.  I knew most of the family history and stories already and came prepared with questions but it felt so good to write it down on paper; to know that it will be published and therefore available to future generations.

The other thing that's been on my mind for awhile is my kids.  My son is 23 and my daughter is almost 20.  Maybe because of my health or maybe because they were raised in this village we call our family, they are both very astute and not afraid to speak up.  They tell me what they think I should do in certain instances. I'll give you a small example.  My husband's surgeon (see a previously blog entry entitled "The Hip") told him that a recumbent bicycle would be the best kind of rehab for him.  In my present condition a large part of my recovery and getting off of the oxygen is exercise.  When one has a lung transplant (and probably a heart as well) fifty percent of a successful recovery and prolonged life span is exercise, the other fifty percent being the anti-rejections medications.  But again, I digress.  My son told me to wait until Cyber Monday to buy the bike but I bought it on Black Friday.  Of course he was right and I could've saved us about $130.  I asked my mother-in-law how it feels to have your children give you advice.  She told me that she looks at it like she has "staff".  I need to get into that mindset.

And I rode that bike for twenty minutes this morning!

Friends

I have been home from the hospital for almost a month now.  I am still on oxygen but only when I am showering, exercising or going out.  Last Thursday I actually went and met my "cousin" for coffee and picked up a few groceries.

I exercise daily with hand weights doing chest expansion exercises to strengthen my lungs.  I use a spirometer (google it, as my husband would say) while I am watching TV.  We await the delivery of the recumbent bicycle I bought last week.  It is good for my husband's hip as well as cardio for me.  I quite possibly can exercise my way off of the oxygen.  However, I have no control over the underlying fungal infection on my lungs and it's progress.  When I picked up a re-fill of the medication for it last week ($1200.00, by the way), I asked the pharmacist how long patients usually remain on this drug.  He told me it was three to six months.  All I can do is exercise and take my medication, the rest will remain to be seen.

Last Saturday night we had a friend over that we hadn't seen in well over 15 years.  I am dedicating this blog to her because she pointed out the following:

Since I have been sharing my life with the world via this blog it has caused a lot of people that I have not seen or heard from in years.  I spent an hour on the phone last Sunday with a friend from Edmonton who I haven't spoken to in 30 years.  Another woman who I went to university with and was a close friend at the time called me.  It's not like we had an argument and our friendship dissolved.  Life just happened.  I get messages on Facebook from people from my past and my present after I publish a blog entry.  A few friends from summer camp, girls who I shared a cabin with from the age of 8 - 18 for two months every year, have contacted me.

Needless to say, all of this makes me very happy.  There's no friends like old friends, especially for someone who is living in a city other than the one they were raised in.  I don't think that people who have been born and lived their whole lives in one place can truly appreciate the magnitude of that.  Or maybe it's just me and my circumstances.

And so it continues...

Now it is November and two months since my husband's hip replacement.  Last Monday he went back to his regular routine of seeing clients which means in and out of the car countless times. On Sunday he drove to Barrie, about forty-five minutes away for a meeting just to see if he could do it.  He had his post-op appointment and the doctor was very pleased.  However, because he was in so much pain for so long with his left hip he relied on his right hip. An x-ray of that shows that it too will have to be replaced in about a year. But right now, today, he's doing well.

In the midst of all of this I got sick. In taking care of him I probably wasn't taking care of me. I developed a bronchial infection of some sort that left me coughing and gasping for air. I know that when this happens what I need is oxygen and the oxygen is at the hospital. At 11:00 at night I called an ambulance. Tip: In Toronto if you need to go to the emergency room the fastest way to be seen there is to go by ambulance. First of all, there is oxygen in their truck. They do triage in the truck as well and once you arrive at the hospital they cannot leave you until you have been seen by a nurse. You are their responsibility (plus you're on their gurney) until someone in emergency sees you.

Anyway, I was put in an isolation room (due to the cough) and hooked up to oxygen. Now, I have had a lot of nasty things done to me but the absolute worst, for me, is the IV.  I have small veins that roll away when poked and sometimes it takes several tries (ouch) to get an IV in me. (After all of thiswas over I found out that I even had one in my leg which means it must have gotten nasty at some point.  I responded to the anti-biotic for the bronchial infection within 48 hours. But underlying that was a fungal infection growing on my lungs. This was spotted almost two years ago but all the docs did was send me home with a puffer.  My lung function has plummeted from 1.18% to 0.75% in the last two years.  It is the reason they hesitated to do a bronchial wash on me. A bronchial wash means they numb your throat, make you groggy but not asleep and feed a tube down your into your lungs and literally wash them.  However, someone with low lung function can respond negatively which, of course, I did. I had to remain in hospital on a breathing tube for several days.

I am home now but with oxygen.  This, to me, is a huge step backward.  I haven't had to be on oxygen in the 16 years since my transplant. So I am exercising as much as I can to strengthen my lungs and get off of it. It's not easy but anything worth having never is.

The Hip

I cannot believe that so much time has passed since my last post.  Most of it its sheer laziness but a lot of it is just, well, life!  On August 18th my son left for Hong Kong for 6 months as part of a two year contract with a company that is introducing the world's first robotic lego.  Less that two weeks later my daughter left for university.  And this kid really lucked out.  We had bought our son a used car with quite a few km on it when he was in his 4th year of university.  Because he was the director of his university's solar car initiative he often had to come into the city to pick up parts.  We had planned on buying him a new car upon graduation (didn't see the whole Hong Kong thing coming at that point) but he said he wanted one then and he would drive it until it "died". So off he goes to Hong Kong and offers his sister his car.  He didn't bother asking us, his parents, the financiers of the car, just offered it to her.  Anyway, we said she could take it with her to school if she found herself a free parking spot and upgraded her licence to a "G" this rating greatly affects her insurance premiums.

So I spent my time with my kids.  On Sept. 8th my husband had a hip replacement.  He was only in the hospital for 2 nights.  His mom and I made sure he had every gadget made to help people who have been through this procedure.  His mom really knew it all because his dad has had both hips done.  There were a lot of sleepless nights for the first two weeks.  He just couldn't get comfortable.  He is also an early riser and I could hear him trying to manoeuvre himself on crutches from the bedroom to the kitchen to make himself breakfast.  I had moved some stuff around so there wouldn't be a lot of bending or reaching for him because I knew this was going to happen.  He spent the majority of those two weeks sitting on our deck in the beautiful still summer-like weather.  I set him up with an anti-gravity lounge chair, a slanted cushion (to promote blood flow) as well as a pillow at the small of his back and one between his back and the chair.  When he didn't have someone visiting him he sat out there and called it his "drive-in" because he watched Netflix movies on his phone.  He did the small amount of physio he was allowed to do.

After that it was time to go back to work (for him anyway).  What you don't know is that my husband is a work-a-holic.  His life is (in this order), our kids, me, work, leisure.  He rarely takes vacations.  Because he is in the food business we have never escaped the cold in Toronto to go somewhere warm during Winter Vacation because that's when people eat.

So, back to the hip replacement.  His is an early morning business.  He had one of his employees who has to pass our neighbourhood on his way to work drive him there and then he would call me when he was ready to be picked up, usually around lunchtime.  Sometimes we would go to visit a client to pick up a cheque or deliver a small order.  This continued until the beginning of October.  And then, things really started to fall apart.

But that's enough for now. I'll leave you hanging and write the rest of what happened in my next entry but I promise that it will be soon!