I am done in the exercise room. End of scene, completo, fin.

Can you believe it? After 10 months, I am no longer required to go to the hospital three times a week. I am now only required to return every two measly weeks for bloodwork (to measure my medication levels) and PFTs (to measure my lung function), which is the longest vacation I've had from a hospital in over a year!

Last week I had my 'graduation' as I like to refer to my three month assessment. I had three days of hefty testing:

Day 1 was the monotonous (in a good way) clinic visit, x-ray, CT scan and PFTs. My lung function (if I have failed to brag already) is now at 71% (2.01 L), and hopefully it will continue to go up in the next few months. My bloodwork also behaved: WBC (white blood cells) are now back to normal, and my x-ray looked stunning (OK, not their exact words, they said good...). There was a slight 'cloudy' area in my CT scan of my lungs, but the Doctor didn't seem too concerned about it -- if it was anything it would show up in my Bronchoscopy.

Day 2 of testing simply involved eating a radioactive egg. Now, I was a little concerned about the taste element of this one, but then I found out radioactive seasoning had NO taste (which is good for me, bad for scheming murderous villains) and I actually LIKE and ENJOY egg white. In fact, growing up I would cut around the yoke of my sunnyside up egg -- with surgical precision I might add -- and swap it for my sister's discarded egg whites, a perfect example of trash becomes treasure.  Back to the test, I ate the radioactive egg (and toast) in the alloted 10 minutes then proceeded to get screened every hour until four hours had passed. Easy peasy. And for those who are curious, this test will show how well my stomach is emptying/working post-transplant.

Day 3 was the most difficult test: the Bronchoscopy. Admittedly, I usually doze off for most of the procedure so it's really not that bad, but man was I hungry. This isn't new news, but I am not a happy faster,  ask me to without food for anything and my stomach thinks the world is ending. So after 14 hours of fasting had passed, I headed straight to Fran's Restaurant and treated it like an all-you-can-eat buffet. I even took a slice of chocolate cake home. P.S. In a related side note, since I've hit three months post I've developed a MANLY appetite. I even fascinate myself.

Anywho, now that that's all done with I'm enjoying my first week of 'vacation'. Nothing this week has involved a hospital (OK, I lied, I ordered prescriptions... hardly counts!), I got my hair done today (discovered I lost a lot of hair after transplant, but it seems to be growing in now), and tomorrow I hope to wax off my cyclosporin-enhanced mustache, until next Movember anyway. Milestones people, it's all about milestones.