Alexandra, the water baby

It has not been the best week ever. About 10 days ago, I noticed that I had some extra fluid around my belly so I mostly said to myself "Huh. Look at that." and kind of increased one of my diuretics as I saw fit.  Belly got bigger (at this point, Charlotte thought it fitting to call it Alexandra -- I looked 6 months pregnant -- a round, hard water baby belly) and I felt increasingly fatigued. I finally made an appointment to see Dr. Ralph, my PH specialist at UW, for Wednesday.  He prescribed another (this makes three) diuretic for me to take for 4 days to see if we could get rid of the water baby -- we were looking for at least a 5lb drop off.  

I took that Metolazone for 4 days and am down at least 10 lbs. now and am happy to report that Alexandra is gone.  I feel a little...funky...still, but no more pain of  carrying around all that extra weight.

My doctor also prescribed oxygen for me at night so now I'll sleep next to a big ol' concentrator and have that cannula hooked on my face at night.  Also, Dr. Ralph spoke to Dr. Edelman (my transplant pulmonologist) about looking at my test results in different way and submitting that to UNOS so we still haven't given up hope that I'll get an exception and move higher on the list.

Scot and I are getting ready to head into Seattle to see Rent at the 5th Avenue Theater then he leaves for a business trip to Cupertino and my mom arrives on Tuesday to stay with us.  And all this is following a wonderful visit this weekend from friend Shannon (she of the fellow Obama Inauguration attendee), who went crazy, organizing Charlotte's closet and our pantry.  We can walk into both of those areas now, it's amazing!