It's been a great week since coming home from hospital last Saturday. My rejection period appears to be over. Today, clinical tests at Prince Charles Hospital produced the best lung function test yet with an FEV1 value of 3.46. I have had readings of 3.5+ on my home machine but never this high with the hospital's more sophisticated machinery. (FEV1 = (forced expired volume in one second) is the volume expired in the first second of maximal expiration after a maximal inspiration and is a useful measure of how quickly full lungs can be emptied). . Many of you wouldn't blow these numbers.
X-Rays show up lungs in very good condition and all my vitals including kidneys, of some concern last week, are working normally. This is all very gratifying.
Oh, by the way, my left hip is getting better everyday since replacement surgery three weeks ago. So well I'd almost forgotten about it.
To top things off, my older brother Rob and his wife Maureen, who live in Sydney, accompanied by my (also older) sister Marian who was holidaying with them from Melbourne, came over for dinner on Tuesday night. They decided to pop up to Queensland for a bit of a holiday and to see how I was doing. We had a great night and Janyne cooked a magnificent meal as usual. Paul, Jacqui, Jason and his girlfriend Kym were also there so it was a big happy family event.
Sister Marian and brother Rob with yours truly. Yes I had a glass of wine. Just don't tell Dr Peter Hopkins.
From the left, sister Marian, Janyne, brother Rob and his wife Maureen and yours truly.
Yesterday the interstate visitors were due to come back and spend the afternoon with us. Janyne was going to take them for a tour around Hope Island Resort on our golf buggy but the weather set in so they ended up visiting for a couple of hours. This time my younger sister, Theresa, and her daughter, Leah, who I haven't seen for years, accompanied them. They live in nearby Currumbin. Naturally there was a lot of chatting about old times and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
They all head off home to Sydney (and Melbourne) tomorrow but I am sure we'll see more of each other in future. Have to admit I have never been very close to my extended family but I guess major health events such as lung transplants do make us realise the importance of family ( blood thicker than water and all that stuff). We won't be living in each other's pockets but more regular contact will be fun.
Today we also started the ball rolling with the establishment of a more formal organisation representing lung transplantees, principally in the areas of research about what organisations and activities already exist at The Prince Charles Hospital to ensure that we are not re-inventing the wheel. Janyne and I came away from these discussions with the view that proceeding would be very worthwhile for both current and prospective Lung Transplantees and their close relatives as well as providing support to the transplant medical team where required. We have names of other members who may be interested in being involved in the establishment period and I will be seeking meetings and discussions with them over the next couple of weeks.
We'll keep you informed of progress but if anyone has any ideas I'd welcome them. Just hit the "comments" button below and email me your thoughts.
Tomorrow, we start getting the water feature underway. Everything is ready to go as far as the physical feature is concerned but I am sure there'll be some hurdles with Hospital administration in relation to its position and installation. I don't want this thing tucked into a far corner of the hospital grounds where no one will see it and therefore no one will make a wish and help us raise funds. However, we have some good support amongst hospital staff and even the Health Minister for Queensland, Mr Stephen Robertson, was very supportive at the presentation last Friday, so I'm sure we'll get the job done.
I have waffled on for long enough now so I'll say goodbye. I'll talk again soon.
Ben
Some photos of our newly clipped "god dog" patch and his "mother" Suzanne to leave you with. (He's cute and we can give him back after a nice day's doggysitting)
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