I think highly about my donor and their family today as I celebrate seven months since my surgery, it is hard to believe that much time has passed already. Unfortunately, along with this exciting news I have some bad news. I received a phone call late last night from my transplant coordinator. I am CMV positive again. We just got my white blood cell count back in the normal range and now I have to start round two with the medication that drops it. I’m bummed it is back so soon but we are catching it early which is a good thing. To give you an idea, the normal range for the blood test is less then 100. The first time I was positive my results were up at a whopping 5,100, this time we caught it at 900.

I have had a good reminder the last few days that even though my lungs don’t have cystic fibrosis the rest of my body still does, especially my sinuses. Everyday I do a couple of sinus rinses, I deiced to try stopping the daily regimen to see what would happen. It didn’t turn out in my favor. The thick mucus that I used to have in my lungs still exists in my sinuses and I got severely plugged up. My nose has been so stuffed the last couple of nights while trying to sleep it has been keeping me awake. I was able to be squeezed in today to see my ENT (ear, nose & throat) doctor. They sucked out a bunch of junk and then sprayed it with an antibiotic. I know it sounds gross but it doesn’t hurt and it should make a big difference over the next couple of days. Allergies could be contributing to my sinus congestion too. I was told that even though the trees are not budding they are producing pollen and the allergy predictions are high for this spring. We also started an allergy nose spray. It would have been nice to remove the rinses from my routine but if there is an infection in my sinuses it can drain down to my lungs and possibly cause a lung infection. That is something I definitely don’t want! Sinus rinses commenced.