14 Days Into My New Life Part 1

Well it was 14 days ago today that I received my double lung transplant; I'm going to give you a day to day account of my experience for the first week.


Sunday 6 May - I received the call at 5.19 in the morning that donor lungs may have become available and I needed to fast. I was warned repeatedly that this may be a false alarm. We received final word that it was a go ahead at around 1.00pm and I had a shower with surgical soap and dressed in surgical gowns then hopped into my newly made hospital bed. At 3.00pm I was taken up to theatre accompanied by my fiancee Brad, my mum, my sister, my cousin and my aunty. They were allowed to walk me all the way to the doors of the operating theatre and it was very emotional saying goodbye to them all knowing that it was possible I would die on the operating table. The funny thing was that I felt a huge sense of peace and flow the whole time, my gut kept telling me that I would be ok.

Monday 7 May - Sedated all day in ICU. I remember waking up with the intubation tube down my throat and gesturing with my hands for it to be removed. I was asked to cough as it slid out but I don't remember anything else.

Tuesday 8 May - I woke up in ICU and could stay awake for a few minutes at a time. A physio visited me and got me to stand up at the side of the bed, then another time I was walking on the spot. I also sat upright in a chair a lot rather than laying down as this is incredibly important for recovery.


Wednesday 9 May - All I could so was sleep, I would wake up for a few minutes at a time, do whatever the physio asked of me then fall back to sleep again, I remember walking around the ICU room. In the late afternoon I was transferred back to the ward I had came from and it was incredibly difficult to get up and go for a walk around the ward. I had 2 of the 4 drains removed.

Thursday 10 May - Basically I was totally incapacitated, I could not move without great assistance as I was still plugged into a 'christmas tree' of machinery and I was in a great deal of pain. I was hungry for the first time so Brad bought me some yummy greek yoghurt.


Friday 11 May - Today was a big one, I got the central iv line out of my neck, oh comfort! and got a new picc line in my arm for iv access. I also walked the corridor with the physio and got the 3rd drain out. The dresssing also came off my wound.

Saturday 12 May - I walked laps of the big corridor, around 400m per lap.


Sunday 13 May - More laps of the corridor, 2 hours of physio per day and I'm permanently exhausted.

As you can see, I have not had a quiet time of late! Along with the 2 hours of physio every day I also have several hours of education by the various staff of the transplant unit on subjects such as nutrition as a transplanted patient, medication and clinic visits etc. It is huge and full on and poo-my-pants-scary.

I will write more when I can download more photos to my laptop.

love
K