Finally, some pictures!! And a little vomiting story. ;)

Well, winding down from a rather long day. For the first time this morning my stomach decided it couldn't handle all of my new medications. At 9am I have to take about twenty different pills, a combination of anti-rejection and immunosuppression medications, plus a whole cocktail of vitamin and mineral supplements. The anti-rejection and immunosuppresants are really hard on your system, and they screw all around with your vitamin and mineral levels, so you have to take a bunch of supplements to replace what is being stripped from your system. I am also taking morphine, tylenol, and a muscle relaxant to manage my pain. And if that is not enough, I am also on an anti-fungal medication and several different antibiotics to help keep me clear of any infection while I recover from the surgery. One of the antibiotics I have to give intravenously through my PortaCath for three months. It is really strong nasty stuff, that the nurses in the hospital could only handle gloved and gowned, and now I get to inject straight into my blood stream. Kind of creepy.

Anyways, this toxic cocktail did not agree with me this morning. Even when I am super nauseous I take forever to actually throw up. So after two tortuous hours of hiccuping and gagging on the couch, I finally got to the point where things were ready to blow. I am a very loud and enthusiastic puker, and I prefer to be in the shower so that I can just let things fly and not worry about aiming for a bucket or the toilette bowl. So it was with great relief that I crawled into the shower and was able to relieve myself of a stomach full of undigested pills and my breakfast.

I always feel AMAZING after a good puke. Your system just feels relieved and cleansed of toxins, and there is something rather liberating about projectile vomiting across the shower. However, I do have one giant incision running from armpit to armpit right under my breast line and across my sternum (plus four rather large wounds, two on each side just below each breast where the chest tubes went in between my ribs) and my abs and intercostal muscles feel like they have been battered with a baseball bat, so as much as I wanted to throw up I new it had the potential to be VERY painful because all of those muscles, chest tube sites, and the giant incision would have to contract in order to vomit.

Fortunatly it proved to not be as paineful as it could. The benefit of throwing up in the shower is that you do not have to bend over, so I was able to stand upright hugging myself to brace and support my ribs.

Ahhhhh, sweet relief.

As good as it felt to get it all out upchucking all of those pills is not a good thing, because in fact I need them in my system to keep any rejection complications at bay. The Dr.'s expect you to hurl every now and then because it is an awful lot to dump into ones stomach, and then your body adapts over time, but it makes for an unpleasant transition period. 

After my shower I was able to get some chicken broth and saltines down, plus a pepsi to help settle things. The highlight of my day though was going to get my hair washed!!!! I got to take a shower once I was discharged from the hospital, but I can't lift my arms above my head so the prospect of washing, then blow drying and styling my hair proved to be daunting. To my great fortune my friend Ashley is in beauty school here in Seattle, and I was able to go in today and have her wash and blow dry my hair. Oh my God!!!! It was awesome!!! I had not washed my hair in over two weeks! I feel like a whole new person!!

After I got my hair done I was feeling well enough to go out to dinner, and was starving after eating virtually nothing all day. Peg, Nicky, and I went to an awesome little restaurant just around the corner from our condo, and happens to be managed by Ashley's husband Dani. Small world. It is called the 5-Spot, it was delicious, so if you ever find yourself in the Queen Anne district of Seattle, go check it out.

Anyways, now I am just sort of rambling. There was more than you probably ever wanted to know about Emily's adventures in puking, but this blog is full of all kinds of intimate details, so why stop now!!

I posted some pics of me with three of my main doctors, and a picture of my old lungs!!! Nicky found that picture of a healthy lung for comparison. As you can see my lungs were pretty far gone, and actually once they were out they proved that I was a lot sicker and in greater need of a transplant than most of us realized. Dr. Mulligan said that they had to drain off over a quart of pus from my lungs before they could even get started, and normally they don't have to do that. (A quart of puss?!! Ewwww!!!)

Enjoy the pics, I am putting together a slide show of sorts to show the entire hospital journey, so that should appear soon.

Love you all, hope I didn't gross you out too much!!!