Emily M. DeArdo

View Original

Yearly Transplant Appointment Recap!

A little petit déjeuner after the first part of the day!

The Yearly Transplant Appointment Day is a LONG day, so it’s always a good idea to have some treats sprinkled in. :)

The first part of the day is testing, and the second is my doctor appointment. The first part looks like this:

—CT scan, just to see how things are going inside.

—Pulmonary Function Tests (PFTs). I do “regular” PFTs, called spirometry, every three months. These measure my lung capacity, among other things. But annually we do what’s called “full” PFTs, which means there are two other tests added on to spirometry.

—A six minute walk; this test measures stamina and how your pulse and oxygen saturation do while being active. You pick your own speed and walk along a pre-set track (usually a hallway) for six minutes.

—Blood work (also done every month).

So after the first part was done, Dad and I (dad is a good sport who came with me) had a little French snack before a trip to the yarn store for therapeutic yarn shopping, and lunch at 11:30 at a local restaurant.

Dad’s very cute strawberry basil lemonade at lunch.

Finally we headed over to the hospital, where my appointment is, and waited…and waited….and waited….

BUT I was finally seen. Doctor is pleased with all things!

My PFTs went up four points which is really amazing, because my PFTs don’t generally go up—go my workout program, go (more on this in the next post) ! My six minute walk results were also right smack in the normal range. There’s a “low normal” and a “high normal” and I was right in the middle, which is great (this is for everyone, by the way—it’s not a special transplant range. It’s normal person range.). Labs also look very normal.

So all in all, a good appointment with good results! Yay!