What are you doing today?

I’m catching up a little here. Went on a lovely 5 day cruise to celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday with the entire family. A great time was had by all.

Started couging at dinner the last night, but didn’t bother me enough to slow down or not drive home on Monday. However, Tuesday morning I was quick to do a Covid rapid test. Negative. There was something familiar about the pain though, so the next morning I went to our gorgeous stand-alone ED and told them I was pretty sure I had pneumonia. After a bunch of tests and a chest x-ray, the doc agreed with my diagnosis. I got a breathing treatment, an ass Full of steroids and antibiotics, and was sent home with more antibiotic and an inhaler.

Forward to Friday. Feeling worse. Back to the ED where they repeated all the same tests and gave me another breathing treatment. Pneumonia had spread to both lungs. My first ambulance ride to the main hospital, where I was admitted and kept for 3 days being stuffed with antibiotics and heaven knows what else. Got sent home yesterday with another 10 day course of antibiotic and medicine for a nebulizer so I could do my own breathing treatment. No nebulizer to be had anywhere. Amazon to the rescue! Pity we can’t get next day delivery here, even with Prime. But I’ll be able to start the breathing treatments tomorrow, whenever it shows up. Meanwhile, the inhaler it is.

My ribs no longer feel broken. I still have to do all the laundry and finish unpacking from the cruise!
 
Finally wrapped up a 3-day project to get an old iPhone 13 unlocked so it can be switched to T-Mobile. Long story short, we couldn't unlock it because it was blacklisted. Turns out it was reported stolen back in 2014. I said "Did you just say 2014?" and she confirmed that. When I pointed out that the phone was reported stolen 8 years before it was available for purchase, that got the process moving again. :ROFLMAO:

Now it's un-blacklisted and unlocked.
 
Renzatic said:
Welcome to the southwest, Herd. AMERICA'S SHAKE BOWL!
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What;s kind of funny is when that "hurricane" hit LA last year, she didn't even blink an eye. She had been through 1 and evacuated from 2 more while at college in Savannah. So she is sitting in her apartment during the storm and a quake hits. Her first. Up to that point, she had been feeling pretty good. LOL.
 
Got a sling for Gigi and she loves it, now I just pack her around like a purse and she loves it. Amazon has everything you can imagine BTW.

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Today I'm just working. But my wife's son (he's about 35) is getting some new lungs today. Almost two years ago he got a bad case of pneumonia. He was real bad and had to be hospitalized. The next day they transferred him to a different hospital better equipped to handle cases like his (he needed an ECMO machine). He actually died for about 15 minutes a few days later, but they were able to get his heart going again. He spent almost 5 months in the hospital (most of that in a medical coma) and then another month or so in a nursing facility. Since then he's recovered pretty well, but the pneumonia ruined his lungs and he's permanently on oxygen. Due to that, it's an effort for him just going from his bedroom to the living room.

Last night he finally got the call that a set of lungs are available for him. So they took off to Seattle (it seems that they can't do that here in Portland). The surgery is at 1 and is expected to go 7-10 hours.

It's both exciting and ghoulish at the same time. They didn't 3D prints these things which means someone out there had to die for him to get this opportunity. And while I know very little, I'm sure it was someone happily living life a few days ago with their whole life ahead of them.

So today is just a waiting game. Fortunately he's healthy other than the lungs. He beat the odds when he died. He beat the odds with the ECMO thing (most people that bad don't recover). He beat the odds getting out of the hospital. So hopefully this next step goes well.

Assuming the surgery is a success, he'll be spending about the next three months in Seattle while he heals. So there's still a long way to go and lots of things that could go horribly wrong. But this is a pretty major step.
 
MEJHarrison said:
Today I'm just working. But my wife's son (he's about 35) is getting some new lungs today. Almost two years ago he got a bad case of pneumonia. He was real bad and had to be hospitalized. The next day they transferred him to a different hospital better equipped to handle cases like his (he needed an ECMO machine). He actually died for about 15 minutes a few days later, but they were able to get his heart going again. He spent almost 5 months in the hospital (most of that in a medical coma) and then another month or so in a nursing facility. Since then he's recovered pretty well, but the pneumonia ruined his lungs and he's permanently on oxygen. Due to that, it's an effort for him just going from his bedroom to the living room.

Last night he finally got the call that a set of lungs are available for him. So they took off to Seattle (it seems that they can't do that here in Portland). The surgery is at 1 and is expected to go 7-10 hours.

It's both exciting and ghoulish at the same time. They didn't 3D prints these things which means someone out there had to die for him to get this opportunity. And while I know very little, I'm sure it was someone happily living life a few days ago with their whole life ahead of them.

So today is just a waiting game. Fortunately he's healthy other than the lungs. He beat the odds when he died. He beat the odds with the ECMO thing (most people that bad don't recover). He beat the odds getting out of the hospital. So hopefully this next step goes well.

Assuming the surgery is a success, he'll be spending about the next three months in Seattle while he heals. So there's still a long way to go and lots of things that could go horribly wrong. But this is a pretty major step.
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Sending all the positive energy I can muster that today's operation goes smoothly. Please keep us posted.
 
Things are still good this morning. He'll be kept under for a few days. I'm not sure when he'll get to take his first breath on his own, but I'm sure that will be exciting. Also, he's expected to be in the hospital for 3 weeks. Then he needs to live in Seattle for 3 months. Various family members will take turns going up there to take care of him while he recovers.
 
He's breathing on his own now and was able to speak yesterday. Now it's a matter of healing up and getting back on his feet. He's done really well the last year recovering from his original hospital stay. But being short of breath kept him from really getting back to 100%. Now he should be able to get back to the person he was a couple years ago.
 
I finally got an update. He's in some pain, but doing all the things he needs to be doing like a champ. I hear "He's not having a good time of it, but he's doing it. Nurses say he's doing phenomenal." And "Physical rehab nurse was so thrilled with how strong Josh is. He said it'll make recovery tons easier". He stood for a while. He marched in place for a while. I hear they're getting him a walker to get him up and moving.

She also talked to the nurse and found out that the doctor passed on several pairs of lungs for him. Since Josh is so young and healthy otherwise, he wanted to get him the best lungs he could lay his hands on. I think he is trying to maximize the use he'll get from them. So it sounds like he got a really good pair with lots of milage left on them. That sounds a little gruesome, but... 🤷‍♂️
 
MEJHarrison said:
I finally got an update. He's in some pain, but doing all the things he needs to be doing like a champ. I hear "He's not having a good time of it, but he's doing it. Nurses say he's doing phenomenal." And "Physical rehab nurse was so thrilled with how strong Josh is. He said it'll make recovery tons easier". He stood for a while. He marched in place for a while. I hear they're getting him a walker to get him up and moving.

She also talked to the nurse and found out that the doctor passed on several pairs of lungs for him. Since Josh is so young and healthy otherwise, he wanted to get him the best lungs he could lay his hands on. I think he is trying to maximize the use he'll get from them. So it sounds like he got a really good pair with lots of milage left on them. That sounds a little gruesome, but... 🤷‍♂️
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Appreciate the story and all the updates, keep them coming. Sounds like he's doing pretty well all considering and we'll keep our fingers crossed for a smooth recovery.
 
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