Just Keep Swimming…

We have some answers about Anna. She has both acute and chronic rejection. Acute rejection is usually treatable. Anna has had this before. A few days of intense IV steroids have stopped it every time. Chronic rejection sometimes stops but the damage is irreversible. It causes scar tissue in the lungs. Lungs and scar-tissue don’t go very well together because scar tissue doesn’t expand like healthy lung tissue. As a result of the scarring, Anna’s lung functions have dropped to 62%.
Today, she started an IV treatment called rATG. It’s supposed to stop the acute rejection. I’m a bit confused about how or if this will help the chronic rejection. The rATG has some bad side-effects. Some people tolerate it just fine. Some end up with intense flu-like symptoms. Some have blood pressure issues and end up in the ICU. Some get PTLD. If you have followed Anna, you might recognize those four letters as the type of cancer she got. Side effects or complications are not one size fits all. Anna might be totally fine. At the moment she is in a Benadryl induced nap.
So here we are again staying in the here and now. I’m mad about the lost lung functions. I’m mad about the chronic rejection. I’m also sad about both. I stop there. I have to. I feel this heaviness in the center of my chest. It’s a ball of tears that just want to come pouring out. They will. I will let them, just not now. Right now Anna is staying upbeat and positive. She joked about how the last time she had Benadryl, she thought her hospital room was the portal to heaven and she called her brother and cousin to tell them they needed to get to her room or they would be left behind. So far, she’s not having that kind of fun!
I hear Dory sweetly reminding me, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…” So that’s what we will do. Breathe and make the best of now. It’s New Year’s Eve. We must celebrate!