The Big Day

7:15am: So today's the big day! I should be blowing into that PFT machine about 3 hours from now. The last PFT's I blew were an FVC of 65% and an FEV1 of 51%. They were lowest PFT's ever when being released from the hospital. They were lower by quite a bit in fact. To be honest with you, I'm not expecting to blow the lid off of the machine today. Don't get me wrong, it'd be nice, but I want to be realistic about this. I've only been out of the Big House for about a month, and although I've been working hard, I know that sometimes the lungs take a while to respond. I also know that whether I have a good or bad test today, I need to work even harder over the next month to continue to improve my lung function.

I woke up with a little bit of a headache this morning. I forgot to wear my o2 last night, but I don't think that was entirely it. I went to bed with a slight headache that I think came from all of the activity yesterday. I was running around like a mad man with the little cousins and I only ate lunch until late last night. So I'm hoping that the dull head pain was from all of that and not a lack of oxygen.

The walk went well this morning. I was moving quite a bit up and almost all of it was clear. At the very beginning, I felt my late dinner (two bowls of frosted mini wheats) coming up and I had to take a quick break to make sure it stayed down in my tummy. After my stomach settled, I was on my way. My lungs felt pretty good, but my legs and feet were sore from all of the running around yesterday. I couldn't believe how sore the lower half of my body was when I woke up. Luckily, I was able to work out most of the pain on my walk. Alright, now I need to get something for breakfast and prepare for these lung tests!

Total Distance: 2.1 miles Time: 36'45"

7:30pm: I finally made it to the gym tonight after my busy day with clinic and family. Mandi and I thought about going out to celebrate the new numbers, but decided to get our lift on instead. Actually, I told Mandi that we couldn't do any celebrating cause I'm no where near where I want to be. I said that we can celebrate when I get up to running a mile straight, but I haven't figured out when to celebrate about my lung functions. It's hard to know exactly where my ceiling is. I just know that wherever it is, is where I want to be. Maybe I'll have a little mini celebration if (when) I get to my old baseline of 80/70. I really think with the numbers from today that I can go above and beyond that though. I'm really excited about what the future holds in regards to my lung function and I just need to make sure that I keep this up! Current Weight: 189 lbs

Total Distance Walked for Day: 2.1 miles