Jillian still has three days in the hospital, but she's receiving a treatment developed in France (I think they have a higher incidence of cystic fibrosis in the northern European region than in the US, hence a higher level of research) that appears to be doing good things for her. it's not fighting the pneumonia all that faster than are the other drugs she's being given, but it appears to slow or prevent the damage to the lungs and airways that typically occurs with each case of pneumonia that a cystic fibrosis patient gets. Cystic fibrosis is sort of a cumulative thing - a patient typically loses a little ground and a little bit of their lung space to the invading bacteria each time they contract pneumonia. i believe it's known as colonization. The bacteria (for most CF patients it's more often than not a particular bacteria that invades; for Jillian, it seems to be pseudomonas, although she's undoubtedly had other forms somewhere along the lone) tend to gradually take over the lungs. that's the reason CF patients eventually need lung transplants.
As bas as the idea of a transplant sounds, this wouldn't be such a terrible thing except that lung transplants are probably the transplants that are the least likely to "take, or to be successful. There's a high incidence of rejection. The drugs a patient has to take to or even rejection of the new organ -- and lung transplant recipients need more than do the recipients of most donor organs) also lowr a patients resistance to everything else, so it's quite the vicious cycle.
So if Jillian can hold off the major damage each time she contracts pneumonia, and she's probably going to get it once or twice a year at least no matter what she does to prevent it, she's greatly postponing the day that she one day needs a lung transplant. this means that she might live to be a grandmother. Additionally, this new treatment is safe during pregnancy, so she can have less aggressive antibiotics and ones that are safer to a fetus during pregnancy, which is a huge deal to her.
Tomorrow Jillian will try to walk a few steps totally unassisted.
Classes have been a bit boring, mostly because I've had trouble paying attention. I've managed to focus during "The Physics of Fractures." I found out that at my three top choices of med schools, that's a 1st -year med school class, and with an A, they'll all accept it from my university. So far I'm still easily in the A range, so unless a disaster occurs, I should be good.
where most of the people in my prospective band live, which may be indicative of just how sophisticated the band is; at least they're not frat rats
This really grungy guy in "The Physics of Fractures" with me wants me to join his band as a keyboard player and fiddler. I don't know if I'm up to hanging out with the band and with the crowd that follows his band, and I don't think it would be a particularly impressive addition to my med school resume 9to the point that I won't list it, obviously) but I told him that once finals are past, I'll consider it, since all I'm doing is a daytime internship and a private violin to prep for the senior recital next year. Some things you just need to experience for the experience of it. as long as I don't drink anything with PCP in it, and I'll be very careful to carry my own sealed drinks everywhere, I'll probably be OK. I personally think I'll look a little stupid on stage with them, as I don't exactly look like a rocker chick, but that's really their problem, isn't it. I'm NOT dying my hair purple to fit in.
I hope everyone is prospering and is planning a lovely Memorial Day weekend. I'm kicking in my share of the money for flowers for the various dead relatives, but visiting cemeteries gives me the creeps, so I'm not doing the grave-cleaning and flower distribution work myself. If i get the opportunity, I will travel north to visit my older baby twin brothers' graves, though. my brother and i try to do it on or near their birthday and on Memorial Day weekend even though Memorial Day is reall about the military.I make the exception to my usual wimpiness and squeamishness in my brothers' case. for a few reasons, one of which is out of respect for my parents and out of empathy for the loss they suffered. Another reason is that I don't for sure know that my parents would have had Matthew and me had Nicholas and Christopher survived. My parents have never said, and we've never asked. If my parents would have stopped at two children, in a way Nicholas and Christopher involuntarily made the ultimate sacrifice for Matthew and for me.
To those of you who are less easily bothered, I offer my admiration. It's an unpleasant task, but cemeteries would turn into areas of disrespect for the departed if someone didn't take care of the graves.
As bas as the idea of a transplant sounds, this wouldn't be such a terrible thing except that lung transplants are probably the transplants that are the least likely to "take, or to be successful. There's a high incidence of rejection. The drugs a patient has to take to or even rejection of the new organ -- and lung transplant recipients need more than do the recipients of most donor organs) also lowr a patients resistance to everything else, so it's quite the vicious cycle.
So if Jillian can hold off the major damage each time she contracts pneumonia, and she's probably going to get it once or twice a year at least no matter what she does to prevent it, she's greatly postponing the day that she one day needs a lung transplant. this means that she might live to be a grandmother. Additionally, this new treatment is safe during pregnancy, so she can have less aggressive antibiotics and ones that are safer to a fetus during pregnancy, which is a huge deal to her.
Tomorrow Jillian will try to walk a few steps totally unassisted.
Classes have been a bit boring, mostly because I've had trouble paying attention. I've managed to focus during "The Physics of Fractures." I found out that at my three top choices of med schools, that's a 1st -year med school class, and with an A, they'll all accept it from my university. So far I'm still easily in the A range, so unless a disaster occurs, I should be good.
This really grungy guy in "The Physics of Fractures" with me wants me to join his band as a keyboard player and fiddler. I don't know if I'm up to hanging out with the band and with the crowd that follows his band, and I don't think it would be a particularly impressive addition to my med school resume 9to the point that I won't list it, obviously) but I told him that once finals are past, I'll consider it, since all I'm doing is a daytime internship and a private violin to prep for the senior recital next year. Some things you just need to experience for the experience of it. as long as I don't drink anything with PCP in it, and I'll be very careful to carry my own sealed drinks everywhere, I'll probably be OK. I personally think I'll look a little stupid on stage with them, as I don't exactly look like a rocker chick, but that's really their problem, isn't it. I'm NOT dying my hair purple to fit in.
I hope everyone is prospering and is planning a lovely Memorial Day weekend. I'm kicking in my share of the money for flowers for the various dead relatives, but visiting cemeteries gives me the creeps, so I'm not doing the grave-cleaning and flower distribution work myself. If i get the opportunity, I will travel north to visit my older baby twin brothers' graves, though. my brother and i try to do it on or near their birthday and on Memorial Day weekend even though Memorial Day is reall about the military.I make the exception to my usual wimpiness and squeamishness in my brothers' case. for a few reasons, one of which is out of respect for my parents and out of empathy for the loss they suffered. Another reason is that I don't for sure know that my parents would have had Matthew and me had Nicholas and Christopher survived. My parents have never said, and we've never asked. If my parents would have stopped at two children, in a way Nicholas and Christopher involuntarily made the ultimate sacrifice for Matthew and for me.
To those of you who are less easily bothered, I offer my admiration. It's an unpleasant task, but cemeteries would turn into areas of disrespect for the departed if someone didn't take care of the graves.
