Made it home!

Mom and I survived our little overnight adventure (and I got a new toothbrush out of the deal) but Tuesday didn't go exactly as planned. We did make it home late Tuesday evening, but not without a little suspense. The doctors said that the bronchoscopy went “well” but my lungs must not have agreed because after the procedure, my oxygen levels were in the low 80's! I guess the fluid they used to “lavage” my lungs interfered with the oxygen exchange and I wasn't able to clear it out as well as others. So I spent 4-5 hours on oxygen waiting for my sats to improve. At about 4:30, the resident was in the room, saw 91% on the monitor for a couple minutes and said “good enough” and let me go home. I'm not real sure that the numbers would have stayed there if we had left the monitor on for much longer, but I was ready to go home so wasn't complaining. This morning, when I got to work, my O2 sats were back in the upper 80's-low 90's but by this afternoon, I was feeling better and they were solidly in the mid-90's! The early results of the specimens they collected looked “good” - no signs of fungal or viral infection so they're presuming that the shortness of breath I've been experiencing is due to a flare of GVHD. (The treatment for that is to stay on all the meds I'm currently taking, plus increasing the steroids) They won't have final results for a week or more so the waiting continues. I'll go back to Omaha in 2 weeks and this time we'll probably pack an overnight bag – just in case!