Gotta Do What You Gotta Do

     The verdicts are in and I'm heading back to the 'hotel'.  I am going for two reasons:  the gallbladder surgery and to have another tunneled catheter placed for IV antibiotics, but the two need to be more than one week apart.  I was given the option to make it one long hospital stay, but anyone who knows me knows how fast I shot that idea down!  Instead I'm going to have two separate admissions, each for a few days.

     The first admission will be on Monday.  I will be sedated for the IV placement and then go up to my 'suite' to begin the admission process.  They will monitor me for a few days while I start the antibiotics and then I will continue them at home.  Usually the IV meds make me feel pretty crummy in the beginning, but since I don't feel terrible I'm hopeful that it won't be so bad this time around.  The CT scan that I had a few weeks ago happened to show some worsening in my lower right lobe, my cough has been steadily increasing, and my PFTs haven't budged from last week, so there is definitely room for improvement.  My fingers are crossed for a smooth tunnel placement like the last one.

     As far as my gallbladder goes, my GI doc said that I should undoubtedly remove my gallbladder because "...it is diseased, and once it's diseased it will only become more of a problem."  An additional reason for removing my gallbladder is that if the day ever comes when I would need a lung transplant, they would require I have my gallbladder removed before allowing me on the transplant list because of my gallstones.  It's smarter for me to do this now while I'm in better health than to wait for something bigger to go wrong down the road.  Once my gallbladder is removed the plan is to wait and see what happens with my pancreas and go from there.  While I am still waiting for the date to be confirmed, the surgery has been tentatively scheduled for two weeks from now.  The reason they want me to get readmitted is to keep a close eye on my lungs post-anesthesia and to carefully restart my blood thinners.

     I'm not going to lie, the thought of leaving Myles twice in two weeks makes my eyes water, but I know this is something that needs to be done and should make for a better summer with my loves.  Fortunately, something magical happened last night and we were lucky enough to capture it on video.  I was rocking Myles at his bedtime, singing "You Are My Sunshine" like I often do, except this time (for the first time) he started singing along.  Something so small ended up being one of those 'special moments' that truly make me feel alive and you can bet I will watch this video each and every night I'm in the 'hotel'.  It was a moment that I will cherish forever and is too cute not to share...