Recovery

Quick update on Natalia's recovery. Natalia is making big strides everyday and getting better each day. Some days are still very tough with setbacks, some big some small, but overall her recovery is moving in the right direction for sure. She struggles physically and emotionally with the scope of the recovery, but the most important part is that the lungs are working great. She breathes the way she hasn't been able to in a very very long time. Physically she lost a huge amount of weight through all this and now is starting to gain that wait back and this will help with getting back on her feet. She does a number of physio sessions a day which include exercises in the bed and also walking around the 7th floor transplant unit with the help of a walker. Each day is better especially when you look at the progress a week at a time.

One of my highschool friends who is a transplant surgeon in the UK describes having a lung transplant as "being hit by a bus", if you survive and the lungs work, all the other parts that were hit to need to recover as well. Emotionally this has been incredibly hard on Natalia. She knew her CF incredibly well, understood how to battle against it, even though it was a battle she couldn't win. This is all new, new medications, new problems, new drug side-effects and getting a handle on all of it will take her some time, but I have no doubt that she will get through it.

For me, this is literally the first time in a very long time where I am not worried about her immediate survival, I can see the lungs working, her not struggling for each and every breath and that is simply incredible.