Al's Blog-o-Sphere

Al’s been out of the hospital for one week now. To the casual observer, you’d never know he’d had a lung transplant. He’s feeling good, has energy to walk around and go places and the stiffness and soreness is less and less each day.

We’ve met a few people staying at the Family House who have had lung transplants and are back for check-ups. They’ve been supportive and almost always surprised by how well Al is doing.

There is always need for caution after any transplant. Rejection can appear suddenly. Infection can also happen and appear quickly. Both need to be addressed with immediate diagnosis and treatment. That’s why they are keeping him here for so long. He’s got a contact person who is only a phone call away and can advise him on any aspect of his recovery. Plus, he’s only blocks from the hospital, should there be need for any test or exam. Continue Reading…

I’ve sent emails to a couple of people who asked, but in case anyone else needs to send something our way, here’s the address for the next month or so: Continue Reading…

I feel like this is a Twitter post – short and sweet about where I am and what I’m doing. But there isn’t much more than that to report.

Today is Al’s first scheduled visit back to the hospital since he was discharged. He’s got labwork and an X-Ray, plus a visit to the clinic that oversees his condition.

So, we rose early this morning after watching the Bills lose last night, and rode the shuttle bus to the hospital. Al is off doing what he has to do. I went to the cafeteria for breakfast. I’ve been eating cereal at the house, but some hot food seemed like a good change. So I had a western omelet. Continue Reading…

Well, we went walking around this part of Pittsburgh again today.

We went for lunch to Lulu’s Noodles, a Thai noodle place that Al had been to before. It was pretty good, a lot like Chineese food, at least what I had, a Teryaki Chicken dish. Al had some Beef and Noodle concotion that looked really good. He couldn’t finish it all, so will enjoy it twice, later.

After that, we walked down Forbes Avenue, a bit different route than we had taken before, and made what seems to be becoming a daily trip to the Rite Aid. Al needed to pick up a replacement prescription – they had given him insulin syringes for his nebulizer medicine. They were way too small to work. So he got the right ones today. I can’t believe the quantity of things he’s got from the drug store recently. If they had given it to him all at once, it would have been too much to carry.

We went over to the hospital and went up to the Presbyterian cafeteria. We had already eaten, but I just wanted to sit down and use the computer for a while. Thanks to wi-fi, I’m posting this.

We’re getting bored. There isn’t much to do right yet. We haven’t wanted to drive the car because parking is so difficult to get at Family House. It’s been good exercise for both of us, though. Al’s stamina is getting better and it won’t be long before I’ll be having trouble keeping up with him.

We have nothing scheduled for the weekend, medical-wise. His next visit to the hospital for anything is Tuesday. So we’re free have nothing to do. Later, as he’s up to more extended travel, we’ll branch out and have more to do.

We are considering the Carnegie Museums. We walked past them today. There is a museum of Art as well as one for Natural History. They might make a good way to occupy a day sometime soon.

Once, we leave here, we’ll head back to the Family House and probably end up watching TV. That’s about all there is to do there.