All around town — Lung Story Short...

It's been a bit since I was last able to post. I guess that's a good thing in a way since it means our days are filled and almost non-stop. Every so often we have a lull and when it occurs we literally just want to veg out and try to binge on a Netflix shows. Since Rima has gotten her new lungs about eight and a half weeks ago life has taken a 180. An amazingly wonderful 180! People tell you how amazing post transplant life is for CF patients after they receive their new lungs. But nothing could prepare me for Rima with new lungs. The amount of energy this nugget has now is ridiculous. I had gotten so used to the sloth like Rima. The one who took forever to do anything. The one who had hours of nebs and vest therapies a day. The one who took naps and got exhausted at a drop of a hat. Bye Felicia! The real Rima has arrived and it's nothing short of spectacular.

Every week she just improves more and more. I'm not sure when we can call her a success story, as in how far out from transplant doctors start attaching that word to patients. But if I'm allowed to jump the gun, then heck I'm going to. Rima's a double lung transplant success and also if I may say she was not predicted to be. That's right this was not supposed to happen so smoothly. Why would I say such a thing you're probably thinking? Well, her post transplant care was the tricky part of the entire process. That's why Boston said they were not the right hospital for her. That's also why Colorado rejected her, after accepting her, rude...I know. I still need to write them a strongly worded letter about how unprofessional that whole process was. Even here at the U of M her team was concerned that fevers and infection would be a high probability right after she got the new lungs.

Maybe out of spite for all of this negative energy Rima's body decided to prove them all wrong. You're stronger than you think and Rima proved that and still proves that on a daily basis. She cruised through her recovery and exceeded all expectations. Now don't get me wrong it was a lot of hard work. Long days, extremely long days and even longer nights. This is something I personally never want to do again, but if needed I know I can and I know she also can. We've been tested and we've won. It's awesome to have a teammate who carries their own weight. No, she didn't just accept the prognosis she was receiving from medical professionals. We had a game plan. The plan to get her to her best self before the call. To be mentally ready, to celebrate the small victories. To be positive, to be honest with one another. She knew I had her back and I would be there no matter what. That I would push her when she needed it and I would help her stand when her legs got weak.

Since she's been home we've had a whole new routine. Completely different from the one she had about two months ago pre-transplant. Every morning I wake up at 7:55am and I get her morning pills together and make her breakfast. She tells me what she would like the night before. After I bring her pills and food I take her vitals: weight, blood pressure, temperature, oxygen percentage, and heart rate. I log it in our vitals log book, which we have to keep updated twice a day for a whole year... Yep, for an entire year Rima will need her vitals taken twice a day, morning and night. A small price to pay to be able to run around again, huh? She has to take her anti-rejection pills and other meds at certain times during the day. Our schedule is 8am, lunch, 3pm, 8pm, and 11pm.

Other than pills and vitals there's not much that she has to do. Keeping active is key to keeping your lungs healthy but thankfully this is not an issue for Rima. She has pulmonary rehab once a week now instead of two because she's so committed to staying fit and opening up her lungs. So she goes to the gym with me five days a week. Not only that, but we try to go on walk everyday and now Rima is finally able to play games with me. Frisbee is my favorite and until recently she has not be able to throw with me. Now we play on a daily basis. Soon we will pick up disc golf! Not just that, but she now has a ridicules amount of energy. You can usually find her bouncing around the house and casually walking up to me showing off her (strange) dance moves.

Over the last few weeks we've been busy trying to explore new parks and take advantage of all the bodies of water here in MN. In Colorado, they're a bit harder to find. So in the interest of time and since to be honest I can't really recall the last few weeks in extensive detail I'll let the pictures do the talking for me in this scenario. So enjoy the moments we captured of Rima's lungs livin' it up!