Hello again! As most of you probably know, today I had a transplant visit. Everytime I go it's a little different, but essentially I do some kind of test, and then meet and talk with my transplant pulmologist. Today followed that outline, too. Here's my day.
Wake up. Too early. lol let me tell you, my poor mother has really got the gift of cheerfulness when I'm walking around like an attitudey zombie, and my dad is frantic to leave on time .. which we didnt.. shocker. lol but we made it there on time and my first test was the cardiopulmonary stress test aka ride a bike with stuff connected to you. They put a head thing on me -- has anyone seen mean girls? if so, you know that part when regina is getting ready for prom and decorating her head brace? it was JUST like that except it didnt connect to my neck, and i wasn't getting ready for prom, and i try to be a nice girl :P -- anyway they put that on me, and then connect a mouth piece to that and obviously that goes in my mouth lol and then they put the little heart monitors on me, and a pulseox (detects my oxygen levels), and the lady took my blood pressure every two minutes. I was really blown away by how much they can detect, and monitor, and adjust! SO cool! So I had to sit at rest for 5 minutes to get my baseline, and then I did a 3 minute warm up and then they slowly increase the pressure. I don't actually know how long I was on the bike for but the lady said I did really well! The assessment is what really excited me, though. I'm hoping I understood everything correctly but here goes..
She said that I have a lot of lactic acid. That basically there's two types of like muscle energy in your muscles - type 1 is long lasting; where you can exert energy forever basically - this is the kind that burns your calories. type 2 is for short bursts of energy, like standing up or sprinting. Type 2 gets tired VERY quickly. So when you don't exercise for a long time because you're sick or whatever, your type 1s diminish and theres more type 2s. So your muscles get tired really quickly as a result. And as a result of that, you produce lactic acid. They way your body gets rid of lactic acid is by binding it with carbon dioxide and exhaling it. Hence .. the more lactic acid you have, the breathier you are. Soooo she said I have a lot of lactic acid -- which means that I could try to exercise and might become less breathy! I'm SO souped!
Next was my 6 minute walk test -- I do as many laps around these two cones as I can in 6 minutes. Last time I did it, I was on oxygen and my levels still dipped to 85. Today I did it without oxygen, and only dipped to 87! I did have to take a ten second break this time, but I still did really well!
The concesus was to start exercising slowly. They don't want me to jump in to something my body can't handle. And to use a little bit of oxygen while exercising so that if my levels drop, it won't hurt my body, and I'll be able to exercise a little longer than without oxygen. So I am happy!! lol
My weight is back up to 100.4! woo hoo! And my transplant doc was happy that I had gotten all my vaccines and stuff done. My wisdom teeth are scheduled to be pulled and.... I DON'T HAVE TO GET A CARDIO CATH!!!!
For those of you who don't remember, or haven't heard -- there was that huggee uproar about the blood clot on my port, which God turned into a "vegetation". The cardio cath is when they put a catheter into your right heart and check around, but that's right where my "vegetation" is and there were majorrrrr concerns/risks of dislodging it with the cath, so they held it off. The newest opinion from the cardiologist and the cath techs was that it would probably not dislodge and the test could more than likely be done without anything happening. I was happy about this because I don't want a dangerous thing in my heart, but at the same time, I REALLY didn't want that test -- it just really freaked (and still freaks) me out for some reason. So today my doc says well of course there are risks with every procedure, but there is thought to be very little risk of dislodgement with this procedure. And I'm thinking oh great... she's going to say so let's schedule the cath. Then the next thing I know, she says, but if it's a concern to you, we don't have to do it. It's not a test that is absolutely vital for transplant, it's good to have, but if it's going to be a big concern, let's skip it for now and if it ever comes up as an issue we'll discuss it then.
THANK YOU GOD!!! I was not expecting that turn in the conversation and my mom, dad, and i all breathed a sigh of relief!
After that, we just talked about things like if I could wear nail polish and some less important things like antibiotics :P (by the way, I was very happy to hear I CAN wear nail polish !) We finished off well and then were on our way home!
It's hard because after today, I feel like I don't want to be on the transplant list -- which by the way I'm not yet. I can be put on if things get worse, and in case of emergency, I can be added onto it within an hour. But for now, I'm not getting worse, THANK YOU JESUS!, and I really feel like if I exercise and stuff, I could really postpone my need for transplant for awhile. I am super excited to exercise (even though when I know I won't love it so much when I'm struggling to do it.. but still) andddd I'm going to start going to rehab -- pulmonary rehab that is :P -- and I'm really excited about that too!
Thanks for all the prayers and encouragement -- definitelyyy helped make my day so great today!
I had a REALLY great day because God is love.
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