Clinic Visit Number 6

From Jane:

"Another great monthly checkup at northwestern lung doctor's office.  They are thrilled with my progress and my breathing numbers. In January they will do a 6 month bronchoscopy to check for any early antibody rejection.  Thus far, no indication of this!  PTL amen! my right diagram is fully working,  this is miracle from God!  Doctors cannot figure this out! It's wonderful to see their smiles with my progress. What a blessing!  We have much to  be thankful for! Love Jane and Jude" 

Yes another good visit. Blood tests show that her body has not created any anti-bodies for the donor tissue which is great news.

We are happy that the bronchoscopy has been delayed until January 2016 because her breathing numbers are so great at todays clinic.  If you remember the last time Jane had one, it did not go well, she had to be put back on the ventilator for a few hours (total-respiratory-failure). Because of this we are a little nervous of having one and glad it is delayed.  However, we cannot avoid the bronchoscopy forever, as this is the only way to know for sure if there is no more rejection.

Speaking of bronchoscopies

Speaking of bronchoscopies here is a video of one I took back in July.  Back in those days she still had her tracheostomy so it was a super easy procedure. I am posting this because you are able to see the stiches where the donor lungs were connected which I find very fascinating. Took me awhile to get around to this posting but they let me watch and record Jane's bronchoscopy back in July, 2015. If you look closely at about the 20 second mark you will see some green stiches and a patch of whitish tissue. The green stiches are, yes you guessed it, where the donor lungs are attached to her left bronchial tube, wow! The white tissue is normal scar tissue at the location of the donor lung connection. Then you will see the camera go down into one of the donor lungs bounce around into deferent levels of bronchial tubes. The reason they did the bronc on that day was to flush out mucus (back then she did not have to strength to cough up) which is what the water splashes you see.

A couple of small disappointments. 

We were hopping they would remove the need for the Lovenox shot but we have to keep them going until January.  The reason is that they want her to take it for 6 month period which will be up then.  So a few more weeks of those yucky stomach shots....ouch

Secondly we an idea of driving down to Florida over Christmas break. Would be in to be in the presence of palm trees instead of the cold and the snow. We were looking very forward to it.  However the transplant team feels it is too early for Jane to go on such a long car trip. Perhaps in a couple of more months.  Oh well we will have to make it for next year.  And now with the gift of new lungs we have many more years to live to go to on Florida vacations!

1st Year Celebration and Appreciation Event

 There were several other transplant and pre transplant patients at this event and it was very nice to meet them all, including others working in the program who we had not met. Jane was transplant number 15 at Northwestern hospital and had the longest hospital recovery time (96 days).  The other transplant patients we met all had a hospital stay of about 2 weeks.

However regardless of her long hospital stay, now she is doing quite well and has surpassed everyone's expectation for recovery. She still has a way to go before being back to normal and being self sufficient again.  We expect Jane to be back her normal strength in about 9 months to a year.

"Northwestern lung transplant meeting & thank you. My speech went well & new transplant listed were inspired by my story. Yes, I planted the Jesus seeds. They want me to speak again." -Jane

Listen to her speech below.

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The lung transplant program has performed 22 transplants since being approved by UNOS in April 2014.  In October 2015 the program underwent a CMS site visit for initial approval. Transplant number 22 was performed during this event. Surgeons were working hard doing a another double lung transplant in the operating room a few floors just  above us.

"We express appreciation to all that were involved to help us launch the program.  There will be a few brief comments by the program directors, Dr. Sangeeta Bhorade and Dr. Ankit Bharat.  Come meet the lung transplant multidisciplinary team, visit with our patients and hear their stories." -Northwestern Hospital