Hey Folks,

I will be having my surgery on Tuesday,August 14, 2007 at AnMed Main Hospital in Anderson at 1230hrs. I will be admitted at 1030hrs. The surgery is to be around two hours long, I will either go to intensive care or a regular room. Thank you for your concerns, thoughts and most of all your prayers for my family and myself.

God Bless You,

Lightning

Good Morning My Dear Family & Friends,

As I sit here this morning, watching the sun rise and God shine his glory on Possum Kingdom & me, I think of how fortunate I really am. It is sometime easy to whine and complain about how bad things are in our own life, then we can just stop and look around and find someone worst off than we are. I think of that when I am complaining about how I feel. I am truly thankful for what God has done for me and I know he is in control of the future.

I hope this don’t sound oxy-moron but let me tell you what is in front of me. I have to call AnMed main hospital after 1500hrs today and find out what time I must arrive there in the morning and during this phone call I will be informed of what time my surgery will be scheduled for on 8/14/2007. The surgery in case you have not been informed is called a (VATS) Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery with a biopsy and pleurodesis. The surgeon, Dr. Buice, has explained to me that he will put two or three incisions and be able to determine which method will be best. One procedure is using the talc powder, baby powder, but of course medical grade, by blowing it in the chest cavity. The other procedure is by scraping the walls this will causes an irritation, therefore causing the lung to stick also. He stated that he would probably use the powder. I am truly looking forward to this surgery, so this fluid will stop coming back in my lung area.

I had another 2300mls or 2.3liters drawn off my left lung on Friday and my breathing is short and laborious already again this morning. This fluid removal was more painful and the fluid was bloody this time. The doctor said that is was from the trauma from taping so often and that she probably hit a vessel with the tap. Nevertheless, this causes me to hang out in the recovery room for about three hours and get some heavy duty drugs on board and then a ride home from family members. My weekend has been uncomfortable but OK.

I am excited about a new adventure that is about to get underway. On August 21, 2007 a new class is starting at Greenville Tech and I am excited about being a part of it. I will be co-instructing in a class, Fire Investigations 1, on Tuesdays and ending in December, 2007.

I hope each of you has a great week and keep check on the blog as we will post updates as we can. I may only have dial-up while in the hospital, and we all know what that means.

God Bless You,
Lightning

Good Afternoon Folks,

Hello my dear family & friends I just wanted to give you a quick update. The doctor feels it is best to go ahead with the surgery to fix the fluid in my lung area. I have an appointment with the surgeon in the morning. I then have to go to the cardiologist and have an echocardiogram to make sure the fluid is not building up around my heart, he don’t think it is but want’s to be sure. The answer he has right now is that my body is identifying something is in there that ain’t suppose to be. My auto-immune system is sending out this fluid with inflammation to try to find what is the intruder, the anti-rejection meds are working, therefore it can’t find that my liver is new, so we won’t tell it. He said that the fluid was working more on a pressure theory than a volume theory, this is my words not his 6 cylinder words, therefore when they fix the area around my lung, once it reaches a set amount of pressure in my body it would quite making the fluid and should over time just go away. He said it would affect all my joints and organs that are in a sack, membrane.

Heck I guess he knows what he is talking about, he’s got letters before his name and after his name, so who am I to question? My feeling is bring on the knife and let’s get R dun!! I do wonder if when they put the talc powder, he said that was like baby powder, a medical grade, if when I sneeze I will blow a little puff of powder out, guess I would always have powder fresh breath.

Words Of Wisdom

If you ever enter a dark room, you know one with out lights, and you are not careful and leave the door open to long you will let all of the dark out.

God Bless You & Your Family,

Pel

Good Afternoon,

I hope all is well in your world. In my world, every thing is wonderful because God is in control.

I wanted to give you an update on what is happening with me and this (effusion) fluid issue; you know one of those bumps in the road. In earlier post I told you about the ultrasound guided thoracentesis on July 20, 2007. Well the fluid came back and I also noticed some swelling and pain in my abdomen and my left leg. Dr. Thompson wanted to conduct some additional test, so he ordered an ultrasound on my abdomen and some blood work. This was conducted at the AnMed main hospital. The fluid in my left lung had gotten to the point where just walking in the house would cause me to labor to breath, therefore Dr. Thompson also ordered another ultrasound guided thoracentesis to be conducted after the ultrasound on my abdomen. The ultrasound guided thoracentesis produced 2500mls or 2.5 liters. It all went very well; the folks taking care of me again were both professional and caring. Again I talk about how great some one was to me who I thanked for stabbing me in the back and arm with sharp instruments and the putting tubes in places that God did not leave a natural hole for. These procedures were virtually painless and most of all relieving, hence I can breath so much better now. I am so blessed with many family and friends taking care of me and praying for me. I am equally blessed to have the best medical team taking care of me. Dr. James Kopp, a great long time friend and my personal doctor and liver specialist here at home, Dr. Ira Wilner, my hepatologist and friend in Charleston, and Dr. Charles Thompson, my pulmonolotgist and friend in Anderson. I also must acknowledge their great staff, for they are the ones who first listen to my whining, but don’t seem to mind my whining. These great minds are in communication with each other to determine the cause of this (effusion) fluid and how is the best way to resolve this issue. The issue with the (pleural effusion) fluid in my lung comes from the fact that there is a substance in each of our bodies on the exterior of our lungs that causes our lung walls to stick to the chest wall, at some point my left lung has lost it’s sticky, therefore resulting in a pleural effusion, fluid pooling up in the area around my lung and chest wall. There is a procedure that will fix the problem, and after Dr. Thompson has discussed the possible treatments with Dr. Wilner, they concluded that Dr. Thompson will have a surgeon perform a video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) with biopsy and pleurodesis (putting in medicine, powder that will cause a chemical reaction, to cause the lung to stick to the chest wall and prevent recurrent accumulation). This will only be a 2 or 3 day hospital stay in Anderson. Dr. Wilner did tell Dr. Thompson that effusions of this type are not common after liver transplant. Dr Thompson had some other test conducted to determine the cause of the effusions, fluid generation. I have an appointment to see Dr. Thompson next week for the next step.

I hope each of you have a great weekend, stay cool.

WORDS OF WISDOM:

The more you stay out of the heat the cooler you will be!!

God Bless You,

Pel

FYI – My chest x-ray just after the ultrasound guided thoracentesis on 7-20-2007 that yeilded
3.6 liters.

Right Left