Bronchoscopy @ the Clinic

Today was our first experience with Lee having a Bronchoscopy @ the clinic.  All his others have been at the hospital.  We were surprised that this was a better experience.  Lee's appointment was for 11:00 a.m. and he was taken back promptly @ 11:00.  (That was outstanding, considering we usually have to wait a very long time after the appointed hour for other clinic appointments!)  I was able to accompany him to the holding area and go over his drugs with the nurse.  We ran into some of Lee's colleagues (transplanters who were with Lee pre and post lung ) and were able to enjoy a brief visit with them.  They too, were having Bronchoscopies.

Shortly after the nurse finished her admission process, the anesthetist WALKED Lee back to the operative area.  I moved to the waiting room for what I assumed would be about a one and half hour wait.  To my surprise, my name was called in 30 minutes and I was taken to his recovery area.  Let me tell you, he was "snockered"!  Looked very drunk to me! 

During this time, the doctor who did the bronch came and talked to me and explained that all went well, no problems were encountered and the washings would be analyzed.  They did not do the usual biopsy since he had that done two weeks ago.  Whether or not he will get to discontinue the antibiotic  (please, for me some sleep!) or not will be determined by the washing analysis.  It was a good report.

Lee finally began to wake up about 45 minutes later.  He was given some grape juice to drink and was able to be discharged.  We arrived back at the condo around 1:45.  I hurridly fixed him some lunch, checked the blood sugar (which was over 200 because of the sweetened grape juice!), gave the insulin, started the long over-due I.V. antibiotic, prepared the rest of his meds .  Finally, he was eating his lunch by 2:00.  (yes, we really are that fast!)

By 3:00, we had both settled in for a nap.  Lee slept until 4:30.  I had too much coke to drink and the caffiene made for a short, restless nap.

Tomorrow promises to be a more restful day and on Sunday afternoon we have planned a shopping trip to the big Mall @ Southpointe with our friends Gloria and Jerry.  We will put masks on Lee and Jerry and park them in the Mall while Gloria and I have a good shopping day.  The problem with shopping is that we can not purchase many things because this apartment is SO small that there is no room for storage!  Good for the bank account!

More Later......................................Brenda