7 weeks tomorrow!

Well tomorrow it will be 7 weeks since I had my transplant!  So far I have been feeling awesome for being transplanted 7 weeks ago.   My pain meds. have been lowered so been having a little pain in the chest area but its all good because I do want to get off of them.  If some of you remember I was on pain meds before the TX because of major pain that I was having in the lower back area, I had this pain for almost two years.  I have had several MRI's, physical therapy and some type of shots that were done in the lower back area.  No one could figure out the cause.  I know up to the TX a lot of people were concerned that the pain was either caused by the addiction of the pain meds or just plain in my head.  Sorry for being blunt.  I had a feeling that the pain since it was so hard to describe and figure out the cause,  that it may be related to my CF and since the TX I have not had this pain so I guess I was right that my diseased lungs was the cause of this pain that I was having.  So I am thankful that I don't have to worry about dealing with that pain, which I was kinda worried that I would still have to deal with it after surgery.   I am also retaining some water from the prednisone which they are lowering each week.  I am on 15 mg in the morning and 10mg at night so with that and the healing should be going away soon, well thats what there telling me.  I have also gained weight.  When I went in for the TX I think I was around 118 lbs. or so and this morning I was 143 lbs.. Some of it is water but still I have gained weight which in my 41 years has always been not hard but truly discouraging.  Most people don't understand that it is just as painful, discouraging etc.. to gain weight as it is to lose weight, it really is.   Keeping my blood sugars  under control have been challenging.   I think I have been doing a really good job keeping them under control though.  With the prednisone it makes them go all out of whack but once all my meds are adjusted to my final dose then it should be easier.  In talking with the nurse from the last visit that we had at clinic they don't seem to get that I am way farther ahead in my progress in terms of my body movement?   What happens is when you go to clinic the nurse comes in that is part of the TX team and talks to you about how your feeling and if there is any adjustments to my meds to make sure that we have those down and make sure we understand that there is a change.  So at that appointment she asked if I could get out of the chair with out holding onto the arms of it, mind you I was doing that the second week out of surgery, then she wanted me to do these spider wall exercises where I put my hand on the wall and crawl up it with my fingers to stretch the under arm area because of the surgery, needless to say I have had my arms over my head many times using my arms for reach but I cant tell you when so I  don't incriminate myself, so its stuff like that that makes ya feel a little frustrated.  If this was the first time I had met her and talked with her then I would be a little more patient ;-) or as patient as I could be.   I am very happy with the University's program and the care and treatments that I have received.  Would I have a TX if I knew what I know now the answer would be heck yes and would I let them do it the answer would be the same it was a wonderful place with compassionate and caring people.   I think my plan is to let the University of Wa. to continue my follow up for the first year or a little after and then have my pulmonary doc in town take over my health, but we will see.   I am not fond of the OHSU CF center where most of the U of W TX patients go to if they are living in Oregon.  But we are going to just take it one day at a time and for now its gonna be U of W.   This week I wrote a letter to the donor's family the Process is that you write a letter and mail it to Lifecenter Northwest which is the organization that handles the placement of organs.  They review the letter to make sure that there is no identifying information about me and then forward it to the family.  Then its up to that family if they want to respond.  They also have the choice to write to me as the recipient.  We did find out that my donor  was from Alaska and was 35.  The Lifecenter Northwest can only give you little bits of info.  I guess he was doing some remodeling and fell from a ladder.  Please remember him and the gift he gave me.  Well we have an appointment in Seattle on Monday at 7:30 so were gonna get up super early so we can make it a day trip, so we will post after my appointment.  Thanks again for all your prayers and bye for now.