Clinic Day (Week 1)

Today was a most excellent day...Tricia says it was her best day post-transplant so far. Here's a few reasons why...

We arrived at Duke South around 7:45am (which is a miracle in and of itself, if you know how much Tricia likes her sleep...) to make her 8am Swallow Study appointment. The swallow study is done by Speech Therapy, and in Tricia's case, helps to determine if and what Tricia is allowed to eat and drink. Today's study went well, and Tricia is now allowed to eat a lot of "normal" food for the first time since early January. She is still not allowed to drink "thin" liquids (basically the stuff that you and I drink everyday...water, soda, juice, etc.), but, needless to say, she's very excited.

The next stop was to get her blood gas and culture around 9am. We'll hear back about her gas levels tomorrow, but everything tells us that they will be good. She also had her first official PFT (Pulmonary Function Test) which help to accurately measure how well her lungs are functioning. Her FEV1 level was at 37%, which is more than twice as high as her lowest known level a few months ago. This is incredible to us!

Next up around 10:30 was an x-ray, which looked good.

We then had about 3.5 hours to kill until Tricia's appointment with her pulmonologist. So, we headed over to catch up with Gwyneth for about an hour (she's doing very well and continues to grow...more on her in a later post tonight). We then went out to find me some lunch (Tricia didn't get the news that she is allowed to eat until her afternoon appointment). Check out my new favorite sub place, Firehouse Subs. And, we still had an hour to walk around the entire Duke Gardens (which allowed Tricia to get her exercise in despite missing a day of PT).

Made it back to Duke in time for the appointment. Everything looks good so far! No signs of infection or rejection yet. And, Tricia got her chest tube sutures and remaining 51 staples across her chest removed today, which totally made Tricia's day! She is very excited to lay on her sides to sleep with limited discomfort/pain for the first time since her surgery!

And, to finish the day off with a bang, we drove out to Cary to hunt down the nearest Rita's for Tricia's most favorite childhood treat of all time...an authentic Gelati. Tricia was in heaven...

Now we're chilling at home, thinking of all of the foods that Tricia is allowed to eat and wants to try out in the next little while and relaxing after a busy and fun day.

Pictures of the day coming soon...

Nate