Bluniers

We where blessed to have a busy weekend with family and friends visiting. Mom, dad Zimmerman & Rachel where here Saturday and Sunday and our potluck group came on Sunday. It was great having familiar faces around and laughing all weekend. This morning we went to the lung transplant clinic and everything went great. We had an lung function, x-ray, blood draw and EKG test. The lung functions where up which means I am moving more and more air with my new lungs. We knew this test would be up because we have a hand held version of this test that I have to do every day. Since I have been out of the hospital the first time I have been increasing my numbers of my lung function. My x-ray showed that the fluid pocket on my side was very much gone and draining less from my chest tube each day. The EKG was just a double check that my heart is still in regular rhythm. Blood test have yet to come back. Dr Dilling was pleased with what he saw and will wait on the blood test to adjust medication l...

Well...the good news is here. We are going to be discharged by noon today...Lord Willing. We will be going back to the hotel for now. He is feeling pretty good. His legs are swollen, he doesn't have too much pain if any and his lungs are ready to go so it's going to be hard to hold him back!! For all of our visitors coming this weekend we will be at the hotel! Hope everyone has a blessed weekend! Our thoughts and prayers are with Alyssa Burns family...my heart just aches for them, the kids she went to school with and her boyfriend. I lost one of by good friends in High school (Ashley Jackobson) and it's not an easy thing to go through!

Good morning! Brent's night went well. The computer didn't show any episodes of his heart acting up last night, so it looks like the procedure yesterday worked well! He still has the small chest tube in him that is draining more than 100 and they want it under 100 before they pull that tube. The Dr's are telling us that we need to stick around up here for another 2 weeks or so. They say that the typical protical is 6 weeks post transplant that we stay close-first time we heard that, but if that's what's best then we shall do it! We may or may not be home for 4th of July weekend-that's about the 6 week mark that weekend, so we shall see. If not then we shall see the fireworks from Chi town! We are looking forward to all of our visitors coming up this weekend. We are also both so thankful to have his parents up here for the good part of the week with us. It's been nice to have them here for the support. The Dr on the floor was in to visit but nothing real new...

Well I didn't have my computer with me during the surgery so this update is slightly later than what it would have been. We thought we would be waiting up in his room but the nurses recommended that we wait do by where they were doing the procedure. So we stayed down stairs. The first procedure that they did was at 9ish. They went in with a tube that has a camera on the end of it to look at his heart to check for blood clots. This is like an echo but it gets better pictures & they didn't see any blood clots. So it was ok to go ahead with the electophysiology. They started that surgery at about 10:30 and he got out at about 3 or a little after. It went really well-as well as it could have gone,per the Dr! So this is great! They found the spot that was trying to take charge and that got is cauterized(burnt). So his heart is in normal rythem. They will keep a close eye on his heart for the next 24 hours to make sure they got the only spot that was causing his problems. They do...

Well the heart team was in here. They say that heart is still doing the high pulses but they just don't jump as high as they were...so the medication has lowered the heart rate but the cell in the heart that is trying to take charge is still activating. So tomorrow they want to go in and do an electrophysiology test & cauterize the cell if they can find it. They want to do this procedure tomorrow morning at 10. This is normally an outpatient procedure, so as far as the heart team is concerned he won't have to stay here in the hospital past Thursday. It will be mainly up to the lung transplant team as to if they let us leave to come home or just leave to go to the hotel. This will be a 3-4 hr surgery with an 80% chance of the procedure fixing this problem in his heart. If they don't find the problem & can't fix it then they will continue to regulate the pulsing by medication. Please continue to pray that God will just help these Dr's to figure out what is goi...

Good morning! Brent had a good night last night. The switched his heparin drip to heparin shots every 8 hours. They also are giving him his cardizem (heart medication) every 6 hours and that has brought his heart rate down to no higher than 120's-which is good. They were in to do an echo of his heart and we won't get those results for another two hours. There has also not been a dr in yet. So I will try and keep you all posted as we hear more. We were blessed to have Mark & Lisa Schmidgall come visit us again yesterday before they headed home and also to have Jeff & Lisa Banwart in the evening. We truly appreciated their company! Thanks to all of you for coming by and visiting! Trudy

Well the conclusion the dr's have come to is that his heart has too many cells in control!!! There is one cell that is suppose to make the heart beat and fire the electrodes, well there are 2 cells that are sending signals to fire the electrodes so the heart is confused. This causes his heart to beat irregularly and to go into tachycardia at times as well. They have him on cardizem 60mg by mouth-they just started this oraly, it was IV. The still have him on a heparin drip to prevent blood cloting because he is going into tachycardia. He is feeling pretty good. He is tired...I think it's just from catching up. We have our room at the hotel for another 2 weeks-hopefully we won't need it for that long but we have it just incase we do. We welcome visitors-as long as you don't feel sick & you call us first! Again we appreciate all the prayers we are thankful for each of you. You are all our support-We are SO blessed!

Good morning! Brent is doing better this morning. His pulse only got up to 103 during the night, so the meds the have him on are working. Praise God!! He slept better last night than he has in the last few. No Dr.'s have been in yet this morning, they probable won't be in until late because they have clinic this morning. So don't be concerned if you don't hear anything new before 5. I will try to post something before 5 when everyone gets off work. He is going in for a broncoscopy this morning which is routine for post transplant and it was already scheduled before he was admitted. Hope everyone stays cool down home...it's suppose to be super HOT! Trudy

Yep...we are back in the hospital. Brent woke me up this morning at 4AM with his heart speeding up and slowing down. He wasn't having too many symptoms other than it speeding up. He did have some light headiness but mostly nausea and slight dizziness. Looking at all of his meds they all have side effects of heart racing and slowing. So we weren't real shocked considering all the meds he was put on since surgery. We went back to bed and got up this morning listened to morning church from Goodfield and he was still having the symptoms so we thought we should probable give the Dr on call for lung transplant a call. Roger, Teresa, Merle & Bowdrie came up at about 11 to be with us for the day. Once they had been here for a few hours we called the Dr on call. Of course they told us to come in to the ER. So we got here at the ER at about 2. He was treated & looked at by a Dr. by 3....FAST! Compared to Eureka ER...not a very good comparison though! When he got here to the ER...

Good morning! Brent's chest cavity really didn't drain too much fluid over night-which is good, but once he gets up and walks around it will get that fluid moving so it will probable drain then. Other than that there is really nothing new going on. I do have a pray request which is my main reason for posting this morning. Yesterday while waiting for our car at valet there was a young man in a wheel chair with oxygen and he was very thin. His mom was there with him and I just couldn't stop my self from asking her what he had. He looked so much like someone with CF! She told me that he is in rejection from having a double lung transplant 3 years ago...my heart just ached!!! His mom stated that he did have CF. When he went off to college, he probable over did himself physically & He caught some sort of virus while he was away at school that caused him to go into rejection. Please Please Please keep this young man & his family in your prayers. I didn't get a name or...

Well it's so far been a good day and it's getting better! My sister Rachel is coming up for a couple days! We are looking forward to it. Brent truly enjoys her company!! But the only problem is that it seems everytime she comes Brent has some kind of pain somewhere-so that's the joke when she comes. So this time the pain is this new spagetti noodle size tube that was placed today. It's not bothering him as far as pain but if he flexes the wrong muscle it's very painful! So far since they put the tube in his lung cavity it has drained 16 oz. The tube is,like I said, the size of a spagetti noodle going in his chest and then he has a small catheter bag on the end, so it's pretty easy to cover up & it's not too bulky. We ran to the grocery store and drove through a park that is close. We found out that the park is having a free summer concert in the park. It's "Big Band" music & starts at 7. We might not go but it would be something fun to ...

Well I am sitting here on the internet waiting to hear from the nurse or someone to see how things are going with Brent's tube insert. He went in at 10:10 and they said it shouldn't take long...probable compared to the lung transplant. We kind of planned about 1-2 hours or so but we haven't really been told from anyone here at the hospital how long this procedure is. Thanks so much again for all the prayers! We were blessed to have our friend Jeremy Zobrist come up and visit us last night. We truly enjoyed our time together! He is such a super neat guy-Thanks so much for coming up Jeremy! Blessing to you all! Trudy PS Just talked to the receptionist and they are finishing up on the procedure! Yeah! We SHOULD be going home after this...Home to the hotel! 11:45-Brent's out and is doing good-we should be leaving the hospital soon. I am thankful once more for a small surgery that went well. Praising God!!!

Good morning...or is it! We didn't get much news yesterday...actually none. Mom & Dad Blunier came up yesterday and spent the night here at the same hotel as us. Mom & I went to find a Trader Joe's (which is a unique grocery store up here..everything is natural) and then to find a target. It was quite interesting! I knew which roads to take but we kept missing them...we finally found the places but we took the scenic routes! t was funny! They do have great breakfasts here at the hotel...I usually just go down get eggs for myself (Brent doesn't like eggs for Breakfast ) and then come back up and join Brent. We do have a small kitchen here so we have been making all of our own meals here at the hotel-not too bad & it's kinda nice to get use to cooking before we get home. We have been waiting to hear from the Dr's weather we can go home or not today-we wanted to go yesterday day but the Dr's hadn't discussed Brent's case yet (because they w...

We just got back to the hotel from our first clinic visit. We had a chest x-ray done right before we went to the clinic. Dr Dilling looked at the x-ray and there was fluid accumulation on the right side between the lung and the ribs. He was not worried about it but did ordered a CT scan to get a better look at it. He is also going to talk to Dr. Love , the surgeon, to discuss the best course of action. We also have blood tests and a cardiogram tomorrow morning. The doctors need to look at these test and decide what they are going to do, therefor we need to stay till Wednesday before they can tell us that we can go home. We also did my first lung function test. This test measures air going in and out of the lungs when I breath in and blown out. Just to give you and idea of how much has change, here are some numbers to think about. My predicted total volume, for someone my age and height, is about 5.87 L (liters....got to love the metric system). My new lungs right now are able to move 2...

Here are some pictures of the last few hours! We truly enjoyed their company!! (& our Starbucks...right Ang!) We Miss you guys already! Thanks so much for coming up and spending the night with us!! We had FUN!!! Also thanks to our family that also come up...I enjoyed the lunch out at the "Al Capone- like " restaurant!;) We enjoyed your visit also SO much & listening to Larry the Lisper!!! This is Brent's first dip in the pool...he couldn't stand it much longer!!! It was great to see you all! Hopefully we will be home soon to see the rest of you...Lord willing!!

Last night was MUCH better! He was able to sleep all night and his blood sugar didn't bottom out on him. So not taking the 5 units of long lasting insulin worked! Praise God! We are enjoying our time with our friends up here-Jared & Angie Schieber & Jason Schick! We see Brent's transplant Dr tomorrow morning and we will know for sure if we can come home on tuesday or if they want us to stay up here longer! Hope everyone has a blessed Sunday!! Trudy

Good morning! It was a long night here for both of us...or should I say short night. We went to bed at like 11 and Brent woke up at 12 with his blood sugar super low! It was down to 26!!!!! The lab tests say that it shouldn't be under like 80...but everyone is different. The past week he has been waking up at like 4:30 in the morning with dizziness,sweats and metalic feeling on his tongue and the sugars has been 43 at the lowest. So when he woke up last night with chills & sweating profusly he ate a bunch of food with sugars in it. But then he developed bad stomach cramping. So we called the lung transplant Dr on call and he said that if the cramping didn't get better then he should come to the ER in the morning. He has also been taking 5units of insulin at night before he goes to bed-which we figured was causing all of this but the dr's haven't changed it. So when discussing this with the Dr. last night he told us to not take the insulin shot at night before he go...

Well mom I now know how you feel! Our internet was down most of the day yesterday-at least whenever we wanted to get on here at the hotel. Things are still going great. It's actually sunny here today-it rained all morning yesterday. Brent had an x-ray & labs yesterday morning at the hospital so we went there and then we went to an indoor mall and walked before they opened for the day. But we weren't able to do that real long because his feet swelled up so much it hurt for him to walk. We were back here to the hotel around noon ate lunch and then both of us fell a sleep all afternoon. Got up at 6 and made supper and went back to bed...I know a bunch of bums! Today we are going to the grocery store for our daily outing! We are glad the sun is shining! We are looking forward to some friends coming up this weekend along with Bob & Char Schumacher and Gr. Blunier! The nurse called us back yesterday and his x-ray looked good and they didn't tell us anything on the labs. T...

Well it's true and it really did happen! They let us out! We got to our hotel yesterday afternoon about 6, but not before Brent got his haircut! It was driving him crazy so that was our first stop. It was his first time to ever get his hair done in a true salon...I think he kinda enjoyed it...more so just because he didn't feel so shaggy afterwards. Guys don't care about where they get there hair done...mostly just us girls!!! Anyway-he is doing great. He has been sleeping all afternoon...which is much needed. Its kinda weird to hear him snore...he never did that before but it's probable because he couldn't get a deep sleep at night! It's a joy! I went to the store last night once we got settled into our room. Brent was glad to have real food again..as was I...but I don't have a thing to complain about! The home health nurse was here this morning to just double check on things and make sure everything is going like it should. I have been on the computer all...

Look out Residence Inn...because HERE WE COME!!! I have to put a big thank you out there to the management and employees at residence inn. They have had our room cleaned and ready for us for over a week now-because we didn't know when we would be getting released from here. We are both pretty excited to be getting out of here. But at the same time we're kinda nervous too. We will be staying up here until probable next Tuesday or Wednesday before we go home home. So from here on out I would send cards to our home address and as family comes up they can bring us our mail! We have been getting a TON of cards up here we appreciate all the encouragement and prayers that are going up for us! We just know that that's how we have gotten through everything and continue. Uncle Willis & Aunt Lois are up here. A. Lois had some minor surgery so while they are up here U. Willis came in and visited us a while this morning-we enjoyed his visit. I stopped in to see A. Lois this morning ...

YEAH!!!! Brent is officially tubeless!!!! Now we just pray he doesn't have to get any put back in!!! His fluids were the highest that they have been yet the out put was 400 this morning in the last 24 hours-which i a LOT...considering that they want it to be 150 in 24 hours! We were doing our walking in the halls and we met the nurse that pulls out his tubes. She said she talked to Dr. Love (lung transplant sugeon) and he said to pull the tube, because he could be producing more fluid in his chest, because the tube is irritating the lining which is causing the body to produce more fluid! So he is pretty excited to not have anything to carry around while he is walking-he is a free man! He has also been taking insulin shots at meals along with a long reacting insulin at night time. This has been going on since he got his transplant. Because of all the meds he is on and the prednisone it increases his blood sugar. So it's concidered medication induced diabetes. The Diabetes Dr was...

Well...we didn't post yesterday because there was nothing to post. His chest cavity is still draining quite a bit of fluid so once that stops draining so much then they will pull that chest tube. So we aren't getting our hopes up about getting out of here anytime soon-even though it's hard not too! Clark and his girlfriend came to visit us on Saturday for the day and Rachel came Saturday evening to be with us also. Rachel stayed until last night. We also had some cousins come up to visit us yesterday for the day. It was a lot of fun to have them all up here...we really enjoyed all of our time that we had together with them!!! Thanks so much to all of you for coming up and Gloria for surprising us!!! We love you all!!!

Well, the doctors have been in and all is good except that too much fluid is draining from my chest tube. This is the only thing keeping me in the hospital right now. They clamped it yesterday to mimic the tube being out, then x-rayed it. The air in the chest cavity got slightly bigger (indicating a air leak) which is one thing they look at, the other thing is volume of fluid draining which is still just a little too high. Both of these problems are common and will heal with time. So, we will remain in the 5tower high rise suite 5908 until everything is OK. I feel very good and ready to see something different besides these same four walls. I take alot of walks around the unit to pass the time and get exercise. Well, thats most of what I know. More updates as they develop. Lets us know via email of any news you have from back home, I would love to hear it.

Yesterday we had a great time with Brent's family and cousins! Here are some Pictures: Good morning! Yesterday was a great day...for the most part. They came in and clamped the chest tube that Brent has in and took an x-ray 4 hrs later. I think to see home much fluid would be collecting him his chest cavity if they pulled the tube out today. After the x-ray they unclamped it. So we will see what the Dr's think when they see the x-ray and let us know. The Dr's haven't been in yet this morning,but it's still early. Hope everyone has a great day!

Well the word this morning is that they are not going to pull his last tube today. Which is ok because we don't want it to come out too soon. But we are both starting to get kind of antsy to get out of here...probable more me than Brent. His pain is pretty well controlled so far today which we are thankful for! We are glad to have mom and dad Blunier here for a day or two. We are also looking forward to some of the family coming up this afternoon! We are also glad to have Blake Knapp come visit for the evening on Wends.-we enjoyed him coming! It's beautiful out today, sun is shining and the temperature is perfect! Not really much else going on other than waiting for his chest tubes to quit draining so much and then we are free to go...God's working on that patience things again with us! Love to all back home-Trudy & Brent

Well the Dr's were in EARLY this afternoon. Not really much new they are still just waiting for that chest tube to quit draining so much. They are thinking they will pull it tomorrow at this time, so that would mean we would be discharged here on Saturday, be seen Monday and possible come home home on Tuesday or Wendsday. We will see. He is feeling pretty good walking like crazy. We played yatzee today...his favorite game for those of you that didn't know that! He just came back from having a dopplar done of his legs to check for blood clots-this is a general thing that they do before patients leave. We were both able to sleep about an hour and half this afternoon. Sorry there isn't anything real exciting just waiting at this time! Hope everyone is having a good week. Trudy

Good Morning. Not much news this early in the day. He has been down to x-ray already this morning,ate breakfast and now he is filling out his menu for tomorrow. See...not much exciting going on here! My main reason for posting this morning is because there is a young girl I have been following on caringbridge. She had her double lung transplant a year ago and she just found out she is in rejection. The Dr's are not sure if they can turn it around for her. Please visit her web page and especially keep her and her family in your prayers. They are having a rough time of it being faced with what's to come. Her page is http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jordanulrich Hope everyone has a blessed day! The sun is shining bright up here!! Trudy

What a glorious day! The sun is shining, we had a surprise and Brent has one less chest tube!! It's so good to see the sun shining since the last few days it's been raining and storming ! I haven't been out in it but it does help to make the room not so gloomy! Dad & Brent out for a stroll...this is the hospital...not a hotel...even though it looks that way!! Our surprise was my Dad and Grandpa & Grandma Schmidgall ! It was great to have them here for the mid day! We had a wonderful time! Thanks so much Dad for the fun surprise ! We all enjoyed it! Brent got one of his tubes pulled today at noon! YEAH!!!...it didn't exactly feel yeah at the time for him but now that it's been a few hours it's better. Thankfully he didn't shake any walls he was really tough and did really well through it! He did better than I think I would have done! I am very proud of him! Pretty much they go one...two...three and they pull out the tube!...it sounds as painful as it...

This afternoon at 2:00 I went in to do my first of many bronchoscopies ( a look down into the lung). It went well because I don't remember any of it. The doctors will tells us what they saw tomorrow after they talk it over with the surgeons and other docs. other than that the day has been uneventful. I finally got to eat supper at 7:00, the first food I had since last night because of the bronchoscopies. Hopefully the night will go fast and be restful. Tomorrow we look forward to getting the third chest tube out. maybe the next day the last one will come out. see you all here tomorrow. Thanks.

Hello everyone. This is Brent. I know Trudy has been keeping you updated but I thought I would post a short note here. First, our God is a awesome God. May He be glorified for all that He has allowed to come to pass. I have pray for transplant as all of you have but to have it happen is a humbling thing. I feel blessed beyond what I could imagine. It gives me courage also that my recovery is going so well. I see alot of comments on the blog although I have not had time to read them all yet. I know all of you are praying for Trudy and I and I want to say "Thank you" to all. It seems longer but it has only been one week since transplant. The realization of new lungs still has not hit me because I am still fighting pain and discomfort. I do feel a little stronger each day and the worst pain is under control for the most part. I still have a lot of healing to go through. My chest feels tight like there is a big rubber band is around it. I think the feeling of new lungs and deep f...

Good morning! Last night went ok. This morning he has been down for an x-ray already today and right now he is waiting to possibly go down for a bronchoscopy-where they put a scope down his lungs and they can take biopsies of them and look at them with a camera. So he hasn't been able to eat anything since 12 last night so we are waiting to here if they will do the test or not. Otherwise not much going on. I am going to head over to shower and eat breakfast...I will let you know more when I know more! Trudy