Making progress

Hello everyone. It has been about 16 days since the transplant. Things seem to be steadily improving. I got my last of the original chest tubes pulled yesterday morning. I still have the smaller one in my back that they placed to drain the clot they found. They will probably keep this in for awhile just to make sure any fluid doesn't accumulate there.

I am up and walking much easier and breathing very well. My chest X-rays have greatly improved as well, so despite a still slightly elevated white blood cell count the team is very happy.

My neuropathys I am suffering from continue to be distressing. My right arm remains very weak, swollen, numb fingers etc. But the biggest thing is my bicep is somehow completely deinervated. I have no ability to use that muscle. My left arm also has similar sensations and weakness but all the muscles work. Neurology is following me closely and wants to do a few more tests. They did nerve conduction studies yesterday and it was horrible. It took 5 hours of needles and shocking etc. Good news was they did not detect any chronic nerve issues, however they did confirm the bicep is dead. Dr. Haithcock feels my brachial plexus got compressed during the surgery and in time the bicep will come back. Let's hope. My arm is almost useless at times.

So, the big picture looks good. These lungs feel so much better inside me. It is a weird feeling, but I can just tell, just like from early on the first transplant I had the sense on my left side that things were not right. I have none of this now. Just the pain of the surgery and my sternum being broken and rewired. The plan is for me to continue to improve over the weekend and possibly be discharged early next week! Then rehab will start. It is much needed as I have basically been bed ridden for close to 4 weeks now at least and my body has been through a lot of trauma.

Thanks for following and I hope to have some more positive posts soon.

Mitch