After 16 days in lock up I am home.  It was a long 16 days.  The first 10 or so days of my stay I was sick enough that I didn’t care that I was there.  Yes of course I wanted to be with my family at home but I knew I needed to be there to get better.  On day 7 I had a bronch which was followed by days of a lot of pain and major tightness and wheezing in my airways.  So needless to say my asthma went crazy and I had to put up with it and it was NO fun!  It took upping prednisone to 80mg per day (40mg in the AM and 40mg in the PM) to get the tightness and wheezing to lessen to a tolerable state.  

The plan for me now that I am home is to continue the IV antibiotics for 6 more days to make it a total of 21 days of the IV Colistin.  I am continuing the IV Zosyn as well even though I have already been on it for 21 days if for nothing more than keeping the cocktail going until the main antibiotic 21 day course is complete.  The IV Colistin is every 12 hours and the IV Zosyn is every 6 hours.

I am continuing my  regular breathing treatments.  I take DuoNeb (Ipratropium Bormide and Albuterol Sulfate) which is a bronchodilator to keep my airways/lungs open 3-4 times a day.  DuoNeb contains 2 medicines.  Albuterol which is short acting (open my lungs up now) and Atrovent which is long acting (supposed to hang around and keep my lungs open longer).  Pulmicort (Budesonide) is a steroid that is for the inflammation in my airways which is taken twice a day.  Finally there is Pulmozyme twice a day.  Pulmozyme is a CF inhaled medicine that is supposed to thin thick sticky mucus in my lungs and make it easier to cough out.  You can’t forget the lovely vest that I do 2-4 times a day.

I brought a new friend home with me today….oxygen!  I have been needing supplemental oxygen throughout the day and at times at night since I went into the hospital, especially since the bronch and my asthma going haywire.  I felt better knowing I would have oxygen at home for when I needed help catching my breath.  I have been having a hard time catching my breath for the last month or more in general.  I like having the safety net available.  I walked laps around the unit last night with my oxygen monitor on to see how my sats did in motion.  I dropped to 86 at one point during my laps and was able to get it to sit at 90 with controlling my breathing as best I could.  My heart rate also went up to 153 bpm but came down somewhat quick once I calmed my breathing.  That was enough for me to decide I wanted to have oxygen at home on the “just in case” bases.  They also did a night time reading of my sats and heart rate.  They changed the alarm parameters so that it didn’t keep me awake with the beeping all night.  I’m not sure on what the night time reading showed.  The doctor said that he was fine with anything 88 and over.  I disagreed with him.  haha  I told him, that was good for him but not for me.  I’m not a fan of feeling like I can’t catch my breath and can’t breath in deep enough to inflate my lungs well enough.

I think that covers all of the news of me getting paroled.  I am happy to be home with all of my guys, the 2 human ones and the 2 furry ones.  There might be nothing better than an unsolicited hug from your teenager because they missed you.  I just have to say how thankful I am for my husband keeping things going while I am out of commission.  His plate is so full as it is with his duties at work, finishing his maters degree, husband duties, dad duties and keeping the house running.  I am beyond blessed to have this man in my life.  There seriously are no words right now with how much I love him and how thankful I am for him.

I’ll update when I have something to update about.  I have a CF clinic appointment on the 25th for followup (in 13 days).  The only thing on my “to do” list is to rest, regain strength and regain lung power.

Until next time…