Tappy needs a new set of lungs

No we’re not packing up and moving to the States to work. We’re just moving into another phase of the transplant process.

During the thirteen-and-a-half months we were on the waiting list for a new lung, exercise was a major part of our preparation for the big day. Three days a week at the hospital treadmill room for a workout that would last about an hour and a half. Everyone on the list is issued a yellow, letter-size card on which you keep track of your oxygen saturation and heart levels during exercise; the speed of the treadmill and bike and how often you did each of the prescribed exercises.

Once you have the operation and are well enough to return to the treadmill room, you are issued a green card, a sort of right of passage… a badge that says I’ve been there. And the conversation usually shifts from “how long have you been waiting?” to “When were you done?.”

So Now we are working on a green card and charting our progress rather than decline. I’m pleased to say that so far things are going really well. I continue to get stronger and I have’nt had to use oxygen since last Thursday. I had been using three litres per minute while walking or exercising but on Wednesday the physiotherapists suggested I drop it to two LPM. Since I did ok at that level Georgie and I thought, what the hell, lets try 1.5 lpm while walking the hallways in our apartment building. So I opened the crank on the oxygen bottle, set the guage to 1.5 and away we went with Georgie keeping a close eye on the heart rate and 02 levels. A few times the saturation level dipped below 90 (they don’t like it below that for very long) but a few deep breaths and it was back up. We completed four trips of the hallways ( that takes about ten minutes) and we came back and parked the walker and closed the crank on the oxygen bottle. It was then I realized the whole time I didn’t have the oxygen tubes in my nose.

On Monday at the treadmill room I did the whole card of exercises without oxygen. And although I like the security of the walker I’ve pretty well stopped using that.

In the meantime the doctors are pleased with the way I am progressing as they continue to juggle medications to see what’s right for me. Taking all those drugs is difficult for a guy who, until age 60, never took more than a few tums, a couple of tylenol and the occassional rum for medicinal purposes.

Had a brief visit with our son Ed. He arrived Sunday afternoon and left Tuesday afternoon. Not much time but we went out for a great buffet and enjoyed having him around for a while. Makes us think that with some luck, seeing Ed and Mike and their kids will soon be as easy as a run to Halifax from home.

Thanks to all of you for your calls, emails and blog comments.

Ed and Geor

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 12:40 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.