Elissa Is In Rehab
 

We have been in Durham N.C. for 40 days while Elissa attends Duke Cardiopulmonary Rehab. The rehab is 2.5 hours a day walking miles on a indoor oval track while on bottled oxygen pushing a walker, Then weight training and exercise machines. Elissa is the youngest of her class with around 25 people in it. She said her Guy Friend in the class is a 75 year old gentleman who has black lung from working in a coal mine. After her workout we all attend several hours of classes on all the issues related to transplant.( rejection, medications, sanitation, wound care, daily living habits.....)
The Duke approach is totally different than what we saw in Dallas or Houston. Duke has everything listed for her and planned out. No other transplant center makes a potential patient go through 24 days of rehab and classes prior to being listed. Elissa will graduate next week and will have to continue rehab till transplant and then for life.
We stayed in a hotel for the first 3 weeks until we found an apartment and signed a 6 month lease. My wife is trying to make it a home for us much as possible as we will most likely be here for up to a year.
Post transplant Elissa will most likely be in the hospital for 10-21 days and then discharged with daily lab test and doctor visits for the first month then every other day lab work. After several months she will go to weekly visits then monthly visits. This process of monitoring her labs and anti-rejection drugs will eventually go to monthly lab visits.
We are still weeks away from being listed for transplant.
You can follow her on Facebook....Just Breath For Elissa


Cards and notes are always welcome


ELISSA HASE
2608 Erwin
APT 417
Durham N.C. 27705

Thanks for the update Gary. Will try to get something in the mail soon. My household is a beneficiary of Duke's great work too - albeit in a different area.

Great news. I took a look on the Facebook page the other day.