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.