How I came to be in a city far from home

[wilting_seedpod]

In my quest for a lung transplant, I flew to Toronto on the 10th of November. I left the home I love in Victoria BC, with my friends and my pets and my garden, behind. It all happened very suddenly. My health plummeted after a bout with the H1N1 virus and I came very close to death. I had an amazing goodbye party and got to spend time with the

Comments

From Curtis

[babyslime]

Hey James! Raided Heather's comp and her LJ while reading facebook so I could read this.

Glad to hear that everyone seems enthusiastic and that your gaining an appetite. The Mega-Bacon sandwich was H's food of choice while pregnant with Jericho. Even though we were vegetarians at the time.

Why is it that your expected to become diabetic afterwards, anyway? I mean, I know that I have an increased chance of it from my extended time on the steroids, but how does the transplant raise you into "fairly likely"?

I'm doing good and recovering well. Still tender in my incision area but now the latex-based surgical tape is gone! My god, why must it be latex? That stuff left me itching and with little welts for a week! And I find it so weird I am numb between two of my incisions, very odd feeling.

Don't forget to keep up on FB as well as LJ.

All the Best!

Re: From Curtis

[wilting_seedpod]

Diabetes and CF: From what I understand about half of CF patients are diabetic by the time we reach adulthood because of how compromised our pancreases are. So it's normal to have our blood glucose levels checked often to keep an eye on it. My blood sugars had been fine until I got the H1N1 apparently, and then they got some high readings. So first I'm checking every few hours on my own and recording it, then later I'm getting a glucose tolerance test, where they make you fast for hours and then have you drink a sugar-laden orange crush type drink. Hopefully they decide I'm not close enough to diabetes to worry about things yet...

Yeah, post transplant I'll be on prednisone or something for the rest of my days so somehow that screws up the blood sugar thing and if I'm close enough to having CF related diabetes now, it will be guaranteed that I get it post transplant. So all this self testing of blood sugar is great practice :)

Heather now

[babyslime]

That's the same test they use to tell if pregnant women have gestational diabetes. It has an insane false positive rate... and the drink makes tons of women sick. I wonder if it's the same all around? Good midwives do a blood panel instead of that, and/or if they're too pressured they have the ladies eat McDonald's pancakes with syrup. Which apparently has the exact same glucose level. Ew.

[newtsknowplenty]

Hey James,

That all sounds so awesome! Not gonna lie, I really want a bacon sandwich now :D Yay for calories!!

Do you have a camera? It would be cool to see some pics of your new place and neighbourhood. That way when I think of you I can put you somewhere real... Not that the Toronto in my head isn't totally bitchin' ;)

Lots of love and hugs!

nette

[wilting_seedpod]

yay Nette! Love and hugs to you too, I've been meaning to take some pictures so I will today :)

James' Bacon Sandwich recipe:

-5 or 6 slices of bacon
-toast the bread
-generous amounts of mayo/miracle whip (or substitute avocado)
-lots of cucumber and lettuce to add moisture (or substitute tomato)
-salt and pepper
-slice sandwich diagonally like a true pro

~1000cal!

[derryn_007]

Mmm, sounds delish! After reading this last night, we did in fact make bacon sandwiches! Ours went something like this...

toasted bread
bacon (duh!)
avocado
lettuce
tomato
shrimp! (or prawns, I guess, marinated in lime and chipotle and sauteed, so good!)
and mayo, of course!

I'm really glad to hear about how things are going with you. You sound like you're in good spirits!

love, Korena

[babyslime]

Cutting diagonally is what makes it magic.

St Mikes

[anonymous]

Hey

Re: St Mikes

[wilting_seedpod]

Thanks Scott! Nice to know someone else here is doing the hospital hopping. Your advice is really appreciated! I should definitely whip up that cheat sheet. I haven't met Dr Tullis but I did meet Dr Shapiro and she was super cool. She's both a CF and Transplant doctor.

Salad King and Chipotle Mexican Grill are both right beside where I'm living! In fact someone else has recommended Salad King to me already! I'll definitely have to check it out.

Are you a CF patient too? How did your transplant assessment go, are you on the list? Best of luck to you too, I hope your home IVs go well and you can stay out of hospital as much as possible!

Re: St Mikes

[anonymous]

Ah yes, Dr Shapiro is great! She is excellent!
Yeah, i'm a CF patient, Cepacia positive as well.
The assessment went really well, and so far i'm good with the drugs at home. I just got home from my visit to clinic today and my breathing has gone up another .1L in two weeks. So now i'm FEV1 is sitting at 1.58L. Which is enormous considering I went into hospital in February with my FEV1 at .9L

So they are happy with the progress. Hopefully once the home IV stuff stops that it doesn't plummet like it has the last 6 times. Fingers crossed. :)

How is your assessment going so far at TGH?

If you want to email with questions or anything my email is scott@scottyco.net

Scott