Wednesday, August 11, 2010

(bi)weekly medical update

yesterday (tuesday), i saw my doctor for the first time in a month. he'd been on vacation in europe while i'd been on duty in rehab. hardly fair, but what are you gonna do. he had been following along and giving orders from abroad, though.

my lung function is no better or worse than it was 2 weeks ago. in a glass-half-full world, this is good news, because nothing is wrong and my lungs are already in better shape than they have been in 15 years. in my world, this is frustrating news, because i expect my lung function to improve beyond 46%, but it is constantly stagnating. dr. h. said the l-fn could improve for as long as 1 year before it levels off, or it could very well have already levelled off. the sound of his voice wasn't super-confident when he talked about my l-fn slowly increasing to 80%, but maybe i'm just projecting. anyway, only time will tell.

and apparently time is about the only medicine for my recent g.i. issues. i've been having some severe stomach pain in the evening, after dinner, for which there is nothing to be done but eat a little less and wait. that strategy made sense to me two months ago, but now it seems a little inadequate. i really thought i was done with the stomach issues, but they've resurfaced the past couple weeks.

there is good news, of course. news good enough that even i can't spin it negatively. blood sugars have been fine, so i am the rare case of a cf patient not developing diabetes post-transplant. rare as in less than 10%, as in only the second patient dr h has had in the past 5 years. so the plan is to still check it a few times a month, just so that i don't miss it developing at a later date (which could still happen), but otherwise i am free of that hassle for now.

dr h scheduled me for a bronch in two weeks (just to check everything out and be on the safe side). and otherwise just occasional blood work and less occasional chest xrays and office visits. so i'm just chillin in philly for the foreseeable future.

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