I wouldn’t exactly call it a Swan Dive this time….the nurse, Jarrett, called it a “Slide”. Yes, made it out of bed to slide down the side of the bed on your ass. Randy felt that he had learned from the Swan Dive, that he needed to untangle himself from sheets and blankets and tube lines. Well, you have to admit it worked better…but he needs to stop falling! One of his nurses from ECMO, Jenna, told him she’d let him have pizza if he would STAY IN BED. The Pizza arrived…and he has stayed in bed. Whew.
The medicines a lung tranplantee has to take for the rest of his life is a little overwhelming. And they have potential side effects. Right at the moment, it appears that a rapid heartbeat is a side effect of something….they are trying to get it down below 100, and if they can do that, they will actually move him to the floor! Meaning out of ICU. Of course, that means less supervision, so he needs to be careful….but he is going to need to learn to work with his PT team, not independent from them.
On another note, I returned to yoga today. I felt absolutely wonderful and peaceful afterwards….
until another of the women in the class and I backed our cars into each other. No, I’m stressed about it, I mean, accidents happen, right? This is pretty small potatoes compared to lung transplants, ECMO, and life support. I think the other woman is taking it a bit harder than I am….but hey, I have a totally different perspective. Don’t sweat the small stuff!
September 23
Randy did PT this morning, and I think he is feeling anxiety because he still cannot walk. That will be quickly remedied, though, as he begins working in earnest to recover. They are planning to move him to the 6th Floor Lung Transplant floor, which is good news. I believe he will feel better about being in a “regular” room, and I know visitors will be more comfortable.
UPDATE: Randy has been moved to the regular floor!!!! Cards are great…no flowers for lung transplantees! He’s in room 613.