And so, seeing as I can't seem to commit the time to writing enough on any one of those topics to do them justice, I figured a general, bland update would be the best course of action for now. :) Sorry I don't have something more profound to offer at the moment...
First things first - I've been out of the hospital for about a month and half now. The stay ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated (though that's mostly my bad...when has a hospital stay ever ACTUALLY only been those "4 or 5 days" the doctor promised you when you agreed to be admitted?) and I was there a full two weeks. That meant missing several classes, but thankfully toward the end I was able to conspire with my RTs and nurses and plan my daily schedule around some "long walks" I wanted to take at certain times of the day (aka sneak out of the hospital and go to class, then come right back to my hospital room, haha). One reason law school is tough is because the American Bar Association will only let you miss up to 25% of classes each semester, or you don't get credit for your course. So when it became clear my "5-day weekend" stay was going to stretch into something more like 12 to 14 days, I made it clear I wasn't going to accept missing all those classes. I'm grateful my doctors, nurses, and RTs were willing to work with me to "turn a blind eye" when I needed to sneak out for a little while. Thankfully my school was only like a 5 minute drive down the road, so I was never missing more than 1hr. 45min. at a time. I guess this is a great place to also mention how grateful I am that my hubby and my mom were willing to participate in this temporary escape plan and act as my getaway/delivery car drivers. ;)
The hospital wasn't awful but it definitely wasn't fun. It turns out my pseudomonas has decided to procreate and produce a few new strands over the past few months, two of which were resistant to two separate panels of antibiotics. I'm not gonna lie, that news really freaked me out, and unfortunately my doctor was out of town the first 10 days I was in the hospital, so I felt pretty lost. The other doctors that stopped in wouldn't really commit to telling me much information, which made me feel pretty scared and desperate. Eventually an ID (infectious disease) doctor came to see me and started me on IV Colistin, as well as inhaled Colistin. That was a whole other traumatic story, but I'll save it for another time. (woohoo! don't get too excited now, you know my blog updates are sporadic at best...) Bottomline, something started helping me get better, though my PFTs never skyrocketed into the range I wanted them to end up in after two weeks of IV antibiotics. This recovery has definitely been a slow climb, but as long as those PFT numbers keep going up every time I go in to blow, I'm satisfied, even if it's only 1 or 2 points at a time!
So, now that I've been home for about a month and a half, I am like a new person when it comes to therapy compliance. This last hospital stay/exacerbation really freaked me out, and I am determined to FIGHT with all I have to get all those PFT numbers back! I have been extremely compliant with ALL of my therapies (there are the occasional slip ups, due to a late start in the morning, a day too busy to come home and do an afternoon albuterol treatment, or falling asleep as I do my treatments at night...but for the most part I've been nailing it). I've also started exercising. It's been a slow beginning, but I'm trying so very hard to build up my strength...and it's working! My new routine is to get up with my husband about 5:00 am on M/W, get all my treatments done, walk/run on the treadmill for 20 minutes, come back to shower and eat, then be at work by 8/8:30. On T/Th, I've started boxing classes - they are so much fun!! I'm definitely the scrawny little girl in the back, trying to keep up with everyone, but all the trainers are very encouraging, and while they push me to try hard, they know to back off when I hit a point I need a "breather" (which, let's be honest, is about 4x as often as the rest of the people in our class!). I really love it, and I feel so much better than I did two months ago. It's encouraging to feel my body getting stronger even after I leave the hospital and stop the antibiotics. I hope and pray this keeps up for a long while!
Other than health stuff, life has been super busy for us - I'm wrapping up my next-to-last semester of school EVER, working 16 hours a week at Legal Aid (where I've been able to prep and participate in several trials and hearings recently - so much fun! and so much work...), and, most exciting of all......
WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE!! Yep, our very first house. Neither hubby nor I have been a homeowner before, so this has been an extremely steep learning curve, but we are set to close on April 15, then move in on the 18th. We are exhausted, but just pleased as punch about our cozy new digs in an historic neighborhood just south of downtown. :) It's a really old home, built in 1921, but the inside has been completely redone, which means it should be safe for my sensitive little lungs (no excessive dust, mildew, or mold for me, thanks!). It's little, about 1400 square feet with only one bathroom, but it is just so perfect for us; plus it has been a ridiculously cool experience how God has led us through this home buying process to this particular community and house. Hopefully I'll get around to writing that story in a future blog, too. ;)
So, here it is - yes, we have a front porch, and yes, that is a chandelier hanging from it, haha. It's the little quirks like that that made me fall in love with it so quickly.
Ok, I think that's all the big updates for now. Thanks for reading, and I'll try to have some more updates/musings posted soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment