i found the cure for diabetes....

I have found the cure for diabetes while living out here on the west coast....the cure requires you to leave your apt at 8am and don't come back till 5:30pm...what are you doing in all this time? Walking, walking, walking everywhere. I did have errands to run, dr's to see until 11am, so really it was only like 4 or 5 hours of walking, but ask me how much insulin I took yesterday, while I ate my ice cream, my hot chocolate, my pizza for lunch, my bagel for breakfast, and my sweet potato for dinner (all carbs and all usually requiring insulin) I took NOTHING all day. It was one of the nicest days ever not to get poked with every meal I had. My sugars all day long were 7.6 and 7.8mmol.
Take that diabetes, up your ziggy with a wa wa brush.

I went to the vancouver transplant clinic. They are really nice. Much smaller then Toronto, which I am enjoying since I'm impatient to get outside and do things, rather then sit in a blood lab, sit in a waiting room to see the dr. all this sitting around. I'm glad it's in an out. They see 6 patients a day in the morning. Super fast, compared to what I'm used to in Toronto.

In BC they've started practising putting all their patients on azithromax. I liked this idea immediately, since before transplant I was on azithromax for inflammation.
I have rejection...which essentially is inflammation. Why not go on azithromax to help stave off rejection? Hey if it was him, the dr. out here, he said he would want to go on it if he had a lung transplant. Why not try everything you can to keep these babies perfect, happy, healthy and pink?
So the acute rejection, coupled with this annoying nagging cough and little bit of sputum I've had, we decided to start me on azithromax. Perfect. Lovely.

My lung function yesterday was back up to 2.01liters. My WBC was back down to 8.5. My haemoglobin was at 105...the only thing I can complain about is my creatine, kidney function was running at 110. A smidge high for my liking.
Also for all you other cystics out here, my tac the last two weeks, they keep trying to raise it, but it's still staying at 4.7. Could it be the domperidone they started me on? flushing the tac out of me before it can get absorbed? Any thoughts, suggestions?

If you want to check out what we've been up to while being in Vancouver, head over to my non medical blog hattitude-hattitude.blogspot.com

broken record

I started working on a new winter collection of Hattitude jewellery www.GotHattitude.com. It was a bit hard initially, putting the pliers and wires up real close to my face ( I could not see well after transplant) and then of course the shaky hands (which were real bad due to the meds after transplant), it proved for a challenging work day on jewellery. The last month though I got a new prescription, and the shakes have calmed down, so I've been able to work better. The condo was good for working and catching the light in my photo shoot....although I wish it had of been a bit more sunny, but that's November for ya.

My tac level was through the roof the other day...so they've lowered my dose, and my white blood cell count was down to 2.8...at 2 they start to panic, I guess it's pretty much like I'm walking around totally defenseless against colds/flu/viruses etc. So they backed off on another pill, hoping to bring my WB cells up a bit...but not to much, since the whole point is to not have an immune system so that I do not reject these lungs.

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but it's sometimes hard for even me to remember, because I get feeling so well, and think everything is dandy, and start doing things I probably should not be doing...but please if you have any symptoms of a cold, or were just in close contact with someone who was sick, please don't come near me...I'm totally defenseless now and it realllyyyyyy would suck to get sick and wind up in the hospital on IV's or something...so I appreciate it soo very very much, just if you are sick stay away from me for a bit. Thanks! My new lungs say thanks too!

made it!

well so many things have happened since I last posted...


Im out of the hospital. Last night for the first time in 6 or 7 weeks I slept outside of a hospital bed. It was wonderful...although I did miss my roomate Loretta. She is the funniest little duck. This sweet old lady, yet does she have a mouth and a wit on her when the nurses are not looking. She was hillarious. She had a double lung transplant ten years ago and is now 75 years old. She was calling to hook up her phone and she was getting so frustrated with them, and said no i dont want to talk to your wife...i want to talk to the fat woman who works there...the things she quips off...maybe you had to be there...haha she must be 3 feet and 80 pounds, and just hillarious.



Yesterday was also the first time in 6 months that I am tube free.....they pulled my last hand IV....I have not had a picc line, oxygen, any sort of tubing hooked up to me for the last 6 months...i always had something in me...and today...nothing. Its very surreal and ghost like. I sat out on the patio today and took off my sweater but only took off one arm, since I am so used to covering up my picc line with the other sleve and realized...um no I no longer have anything in me, take it allllll off! it will be weird going shopping and not looking for sweaters or things to cover up a picc.



They are still adjusting my tacc levels, anti rejection meds, and my levels were through the roof, so it makes my brain a bit fuzzy, hard to concentrate on things, and general not feeling myself...so please bare with me as they straighten out my drugs, if I seem a bit out of it and not myself. I;m susper weak still, but that will come...i;ve also lost 13 pounds gah! mission gain a lot of weight starts yesterday.

Its surreal lying in bed though and breathing...you lucky dogs doing it all your life! haha

not to wake up in the morning with gobs of mucus, not to hear crackles as you go to sleep...just to lay there and breathe through your nose as if its the most natural thing in the world...which it should be....but it just boggles my mind...like i still am so humbled maybe thats not the right word...in awe...that this is what to breathe normal is like. Sometimes I wake up and I am like am i still breathing...because its just no effort...before it was such an effort, I have to check sometimes, because its too good to be true?

The chest incision still makes it totally hard to breath full same with where they pulled the chest tubes, so I am also on a lot of pain killers...my eyes are also still blurry but i hope that will go away once they figure out the drug levels and such.

So we did it...we made it! Monday is clinic, next week is back to the physio room for three months to build up strength...and yesterday is the beginning of my new life.

heres me a few days ago, while visiting the condo on my day pass!