It's hard to distinguish what counts as "home" lately. When you are in the hospital and out on a day pass /get out of jail free card, going "home" means going back to your hospital room. Downtown this summer my "home" is my apartment, but for now--in my limbo days between IV and no IV--"home" is back at our family home.

Today, quite quickly, I was discharged from the hospital. Last night, when I got back to my hospital home after spending the day at our family home (see how confusing this gets?) for a nice bbq, I was informed that Dr. S was looking for me and there was word of being discharged. So, around 11 pm I phoned Dr. S to see what was up and she said she had a really sick patient that needed a bed and that I was closest to discharge. Of course, I didn't really have a problem relocating to another version of home, since I've been on the other side--so sick, waiting for a bed--and it's just not fun at all. Plus, quite frankly, since I have improved immensely over the past week, I didn't want to stick around in a place where I could pick up something and start the cycle all over again.

You'll have to excuse my lack of updates over the past week, but I've been keeping quite busy. On Monday I had my PICC line insertion, which went the same as usual, as in it took two attempts. So far 1 out of 4 have gone in on the first try... my odds are going down. For this reason, I'm leaving this baby in for another two weeks to ensure I do not require IVs any longer!

A little side note: Unlike the PICC in the link above, mine is actually closer to my armpit... maybe a little too close this time. I also learned during this procedure that apparently veins just collapse and disappear... they tried going through the same vein that I had used last year, but it just didn't continue... it was permenantly gone? duh duh duh

The rest of the week kind of went by like a blur, I started the exercise bike and physio every afternoon and I was hooked up (what seemed like) most of the day. When I was free at night I went out for dinner and a walk. Walking and cycling got easier halfway through the week, which is great progress. The first day on the bike I was dyinggg, pouring with sweat, panting like a dog and my heartrate was climbing quickly. By the third day I was able to cycle comfortably and even turn up the resistance and my heartrate behaved normally for once. I don't mean to bore you with the details, but this all means very quick improvement. When I was admitted I needed 02 for just getting up a walking a few steps, and now I don't need it at all (except exercise still).

They wanted to stop my IVs today (day 10) before I did pfts and then follow up in a month...but of course I refused that--I had a knot in my stomach and I didn't really think that was OK. For starters, I haven't done a mere 10 days of IVs since I was... um 9 years old? 7? I can't even think that far back! Additionally, I don't feel comfortable ending IVs without knowing my pfts. Apparently a 6% drop is not a big deal... which I odd because I was under the impression dropping from 28% (.80 L) to 22% (.65 L) was a big deal... so I guess we'll see what tomorrow brings! But I will fight for that 6%, because it means the world to someone with low lung function even if I'm doing amazing clinically.

Sometimes CF is just confusing!

To be continued...