Ooh two blogs this weekend, check me out! A brief look back at the last few weeks…in true drama queen style, I have gone from being in intensive care with a slim chance of surviving the next 24 hours, to 21 days later, sitting at my gorgeous friends wedding, in a luscious dress with a fascinator (yes that is its real name and yes I do love that word) in my hair. And those 21 days have not been very straightforward either, I have been completely bewildered as to where I am now, so if you have managed to follow my progress and understand it all big giant smartie award to you!

So, where am I now exactly? (I don’t mean location wise, as by looking around my room even I can deduce that I am still in hospital, I mean health-wise.) This is a rather hard question to answer. Following previous pnuemothoraces, I have had operations to remove the damaged part of the lung which has popped, and then to stick the rest to the lining to try and prevent further collapses. However this time I was not well enough, therefore the cyst is still there. However the good news is, having a chest drain in makes the lung lining all angry and inflamed, which in turn causes the lung to stick a bit anyway, so half of the procedure has sort of been done. Kind of as if I have had it stuck, but done by some cowboy in a slapdash fashion, instead of by a surgeon.

Because no new drain was put in, I still have a nice big patch of air in front of the top of my lung. This poses two potential problems, one that pressure might increase causing it to come down again, and two that it reduces my lung capacity as my lung is still partially collapsed. However the drain has been out for over 48 hours now suggesting that further collapse from Monday’s episode is very unlikely, yay! Plus, the good news about it being the top of my lung which is all deflatey is that it was pretty much useless in the first place, so I wont really miss it that much as it was merely lounging around on a sofa eating crisps instead of doing any work even before it collapsed. The patch of air sitting on top of my lung should slowly resolve itself anyway, this would probably take several weeks, and there is a chance it won’t do so, we shall just have to wait and see.

The surgeon came round this morning and listened to my chest, and was pleased with what she heard. She said that my left and right bases now sound the same, meaning my right base must be pretty much fully inflated and we already know from the CT scan that it is well stuck. This is fantabulous news, as it is my bases which are the healthy(est) bits of lung, so if I was going to specify a bit of lung I wanted to be safe, it would be the base lobe. So hurrah for that!

Due to large patch of air remaining and frankly a huge fear on my part, integration back home will be a steady and strongly supported one. I am heading back to Foulis later today as I still have the strength of a sparrow – yesterday was a bit of an eye-opener, as when I arrived at my parents, I really struggled stepping onto the tiny step they have at their front door – plus cannot talk for nearly as long as I would like, a travesty I am sure you would all agree. I want to start working my way towards returning home, perhaps for the odd day at first, then overnight, and so on. Oh and of course, getting my walking back on track so I can at least walk some of the track on September 3rd! Essentially it is a matter of taking it one day at a time, and focusing on the good and not the bad, the hopeful and not the what-ifs, but then again, that’s what life is all about.