Improvement!!! & scars

I have spent a small part of this week stressing. Not a lot of stressing, but it has been something that has been in the back of my mind. My breathing is great, dont get me wrong on that one, but it didnt feel as good as it felt a few days ago. I think when you have had breathing problems, you are more aware of it for a while after, always on the watch out for problems to arise. But I didnt want to stress over it and so pushed it out of my mind, though I have been watching my peak flows a couple of times a day to see how they were doing.

For my age and size, I would expect to get a peak flow of about 450 L/min. Before my breathing took a turn for the worst last year, my peak flows were about 250 and once I got the trach, they dropped to about 150. This week, they have been jumping around between 200 and 250!! Now that is amazing, it means that I am back to how I was before I dropped. Major achievement and no wonder I have been breathing better for it. I just did 30 mins on my wii fit and my peak flows jumped to 300! 300 is amazing, I have not had a number so high in years.

It also means that it was just me stressing about being more breathless and the feeling was probably just an adjustment thing. When you think about it, I didnt do any stairs or steps for 4 weeks and now I do them a couple of times a day, so I guess at times I am bound to feel exhausted getting to the top.

That being said, I still feel exhausted all the time and yet again fell asleep on the couch this afternoon for a further two hours. Once I awoke, I went to sit in a neighbours house for an hour. When I got back, I said I would set the table for tea and again a wave of exhaustion just hit me like a ton of bricks. I really struggled finding the energy to get up. This is something, I hope eases soon. I have a GP appointment on Thursday so I may mention it then.

Speaking of my Wii, I put a few of my favourite Wii fit games on today and did just over 30 mins in one go. The good bit about this? First attempt at some of my favourite sections and I knocked all my old scores off the top. So although I feel unfit, my ability must be better if I am able to beat my old scores without practice. Things are looking up.

In other news, my trach has now fully closed over. The scar is still pretty ugly, but it will heal and such.
This is my trach scar on my neck now.

Ok, the image is a bit crap, but you can see the old inscsion, just on the bottom, from November and then this years along the top. The big long red bit in the middle is from the tube migratting upwards. My neck is still pretty swollen and an odd shape, but that will settle. There is also still some air escaping when I cough into the tissue, but it is a lot less than it was and hopefully it will continue to heal itself from outside in.

This is the scar from my rib cartilage

It is a lot smaller than I was expecting and it has healed so well in a short space of time. However, this is probably the most painful part of the surgery. It ached for a while and being big busted, meant that however I lay, there was a weight dragging on it. Whilst in the hospital, I lived wearing vest tops with built in support, however, since being home, I have gone back into underwired bras, with no problem at all. Lucky its in a place that dosnt rub. Hardly any pain from it now, just a little ache of a night when I first lie down.

The skin graft site is also healing well. Just a little red square at this point that fades some every day, no pain from it at all.

Speaking of pain, I have developed major tooth ache. Its absolutely agony. I think I am going to have to bite the bullet soon and go to a dentist. Surgery and inscsions and hospital stays dont bother me at all and I can face them with just a mild apprehension, however, mention dentists and I will turn into a quibbling mess in the corner. I know a lot of people have a fear of the dentist, but I dont have many fears so this one is hard for me.  Its strange as the dentist never used to bother me at. Then when I was a teenager, I got an infection in a toth and they had to take it out. It hurt so much getting it out and I could feel them pulling it. When I got home, I felt so rough I went to bed and awoke with myself and my pillow covered in blood. Probably wouldnt bother me now, but at the time it freaked me out pretty bad.

I got up the courage to go a few years back and they started talking about a root canal. Now I had no idea what it was, but I remembered them talking drills and such in Finding Nemo, so at  the point I panicked and didnt go back. Now the very same tooth is complaining. owie =[

Yesterday was a bad day, I was so tired I didnt even get dressed. So I think its time to start putting in some guidelines of my own once again to get myself back on track. The first one is that I am going to make sure I am at least washed, dressed and hair brushed every day even if I am not going out. I also think one for me to start working on is to get to bed earlier. I might do a couple of days where I force myself to bed by 1am, then move it to midnight. I may even set a lock on my computer to shut itself off at midnight.

I need to work on getting my weight down and work on my fitness, so I may try to bring in a few new goals next week.