A THANK YOU to all the blood donors out there too! I went to exercise yesterday and got through it, but it was very exhausting. I had to stop on the bike every 2 minutes because I was SO dizzy. I put this down to 'I'm only two weeks out of surgery' but my physiotherapist, knowing how driven I am, wrote a note in my chart and insisted I tell the doctors.

Turns out my hemoglobin has been in the 70-71 range for a few days and they were hoping it would climb up by itself (and with iron supplements), however with my symptoms they decided it was best I go ahead with a blood transfusion. I must admit, I was a little icked out by the thought of it at first, and was prepared to say 'nah, I'm good, I'll just sleep until my body makes enough red blood cells again'. But when the surgeon said it would make my lungs happier and speed up the healing process I couldn't refuse! I will do anything to keep these beautiful pink lungs happy!

The transfusion took a while to go though, and I went for a walk right after. I did FIVE laps around the floor with NO stops (lately I've been doing three laps with several rests) and my heartrate only went up to 120! Opposed to jumping to 140. Also my resting HR finally went back down to the 80's, which is what it was before transplant, I was happy with this result. So THANK YOU blood donors for getting me up and out of bed.

In other news, this Vancomycin seems to be doing the trick. My WBC finally dropped from 20 to 13 (under 11 is normal)... this means I'm closer to home, and closer to using these lungs at FULL capacity--cannot wait!

On the healing side, I had half of my staples removed yesterday and the count was... drum roll please... 26! The TOTAL amount of staples I have is 53. I think my scar looks pretty.

That's all for now!
- Lindsay