← Return to I have Interstitial lung disease. Coughing and S.O.B upon exertion.

Discussion
Comment receiving replies
Profile picture for sidney073 @sidney073

I have been truly blessed during this entire journey. I did some pre-prep so that when the call came I had done what I could to set the Mayo Team up for success. This sped up the pre-surgery prep which got me in to Surgery quicker. I was told my surgery went very well, due to my recovery from the anesthesia, and high pain threshold, I was only in the ICU for a day and a half. I was able to begin walking very quickly, and my incision healed very quickly.I have always been blessed with healing from cuts. I followed the medical teams instructions completely, and documented it on the White Board in my room. I honestly didn’t have much pain, which surprised the Surgeon, Doctors, and Nurses. I have been blessed that my natural lung has maintained, while my new lung has expanded to fill my chest cavity faster than the team expected. I had also done Pre-Physical Therapy prior to getting the call for my transplant which helped immensely. An example would be I had done “Sit to Stand” exercises in Pre-Hab and when The Physical Therapist did a timed 10 repetition test I did 2 of them and matched the record for this exercise. Hope this helps.

Jump to this post


Replies to "I have been truly blessed during this entire journey. I did some pre-prep so that when..."

Thanks. Yes this info is helpful. I had read horror stories about lung transplants requiring weeks in a medically-induced coma followed by months of very light strength building.
I am recently getting over 55 days in hospital, followed by 24 days in physical rehab after a severe flare of my ILD.
I am now in a pulmonary rehab program which I feel is helping me a lot. Besides muscle strength building I am now able to walk a mile or close to it each day. That's not without breaks. I do have to stop for rests, but still, I am happy with my progress so far.
When I see the respirologist in a couple of weeks we will discuss my having a transplant. I am more in favor of it now, knowing that the procedure and the recovery process is not as long as I had feared.
I was in good health before the ILD flare and apart from my lungs I think I am in not bad health now so the recovery that you have described doesn't scare me off.
Thanks again.