Maren woke up first this morning.  I listened to Brad tell her that we would have to wait for Greta to wake up.  I stirred and asked her if Santa came. “Yes!” she beamed. I dragged my gympie self out of bed to the bathroom and Maren slithered into my warm spot. I came back: fresh, ready for Christmas.  Maren, still in our bed,...

Before my 1pm x-ray, Nurse Rozzer (who had shown up to try to bring me home at 9:30am) and I had a long conversation with the charge nurse.  Charge is awesome; a great nurse and advocate.  We broke the scenario down into Best Case Scenario, Worst Case Scenario, Best Worst Case Scenario, Worst Worst Case Scenario, Everything Sucks Scenario.  As you can see, once we...

Grrrrrr. This morning’s x-ray showed that the pneumothorax (air inside the chest cavity) has gotten slightly larger, which means that the right lung is still leaking air. So, instead of signing my discharge papers, the team has ordered a new x-ray at 1pm. If the x-ray shows “no change” from the previous x-ray, I get to go home. If the x-ray shows...

Today’s chest x-ray: largely unchanged from yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before that. So, the good news about this is that my lung is stable.  It’s not really improving, but it’s also not deteriorating further.  Today, stable is great news.  Stable means that the doctor ordered my chest tube removed!  Hallelujah!!! In case anyone...

I know, I know, you’re all dying to hear what the big news is from hospital today, right? Here’s the newest update:  I need a haircut. It’s both the real update and the facetious update.  My brand new pulmonary team seems play in the “watch and wait” realm–not where I am used to setting up camp.  Each morning I have a chest X-ray,...