Monday, February 15, 2016

HOME and stuff!!!

It's been FANTASTIC to be home!!! Appreciating a SHOWER, kitties, sleeping the hours I want to sleep, watering my plants, wearing clothes other than pajamas, and being home with Chris! The removal of the PICC line went fine, much better than 8 years ago when I had my last one removed. Back then it burned like crap when they pulled it out.... maybe it was pulled out too fast! This time was WAY better. Still of the opinion that tattoos are way less painful than needles and PICC line insertions :-)



On Sat my sister and Pierre chilled with us in the evening, and we had boerewors rolls. It was amazing. The kitties took a while to adapt..... Peppie (the black one) was soooo happy to see me, he has been by my side almost the whole time, just showing love. Such a lover-boy. He is lying by my side as I'm typing right now!


Patchy (the skittish one) ran away. She only came back a few hours later, and ALMOST let me touch her before disappearing again. Weird one.


Pumpy (the ginger) couldn't care less. He was pissed off.... then I fed him, and he was less pissed off. Just doesn't give a damn pretty much! Although last night when we had a thunderstorm he did come and lie with me. But only until the thunder stopped.



The oxygen concentrator was delivered on Sat afternoon.... Back in 2006 (10 years ago EXACTLY almost to the month) when I got oxygen for the first time I HATED it. It was the devil. I didn't want to use it and at one point I made Vital Aire take it back. Needless to say it wasn't gone for long... However this time I'm appreciating it a LOT. Sleeping on it makes me wake up so much more refreshed and with a normal heart rate. Wearing it when exercising means I can do so much more. Wearing it when I feel exhausted makes me recover a lot faster. Maybe it's because I'm older and wiser but this time around it's my friend. And as you can see from below pic.... if I like it Peppie likes it :-p


Yesterday my wonderful mom brought us some food, and Andrew came around for coffee and cake. I ventured out to Woolies with Chris and it was tiring. But did a lot of walking around during the day and doing stairs compared to being in hosp so it was to be expected.

Today I woke up early with Chris getting up for work. Fed the kitties and had breakfast with Chris, before going back to bed and sleeping til 9am! Took my time getting dressed, taking meds, attempting to nebulise with the O2 machine (still waiting for e-flow nebuliser to be approved so that I can do nebs properly) and then drove for the first time in almost 4 weeks! Felt rather strange. Went to the pharmacy to sort out the Colistin that I need to nebulise with. Was there for almost an hour, you need special permission to use it, and need to get it approved under chronic meds etc etc. Afterwards I bought a plastic container to put all the new meds in. The result was feeling EXHAUSTED. Came home and had the oxygen on to recover. Made follow up lung dr appointment too, seeing him again on the 29th. So all in all a productive day,


While sorting through all the stuff I brought back from the hospital yesterday I came across this x-ray. I'm no expert, but I've seen my fair share of lung x-rays before. This one is by far the worst one I've ever seen of myself. It was on the 23rd when I was taken to ICU with lungs collapsed on both sides before the drains were inserted. Quite a scary picture! My guardian angels were out in full force that day! I'm a very lucky girl! With very amazing drs and nurses and physio that was there. So grateful.


6 comments:

Unknown said...

Another eye opener for me, and a reminder how we take for granted everything we do in a day. All our small little freedoms. Get better soon Alice.

Unknown said...

Thanks for this update, Alice. It helps me to know how to pray for you more specifically.

Alice said...

Thanks Dawn and Sherry!

Unknown said...

Praying for a speedy return to health!

Unknown said...

Praying for a speedy return to health!

René Vosloo said...

Thank you for your prayers!
René
(Alice's mom)