WAHOOOOOOOO!

I can't tell you how great it is to sit here and have a somewhat normal conversation with my husband.  Yesterday, Saturday, he was slowly coming around, making small jokes (especially about the size of some of his body parts) and able to look at you for a long period of time.  He's been so doped up with Morphine that all he could do was muster up a few sentences and stare at the walls.  He was telling me that it wasn't until Thursday or Friday that he actually started watching what was on the TV (and this is soooo not Graham).  His pain is still ever present, but he's weaning himself (yes himself) off the drug because he's not a big fan of the side effects.  He's still occasionally taking the drug and a form of Vicodin, but going longer periods of time.
Yesterday morning he also got to say Good-Bye to another chest tube!  It hurt all day yesterday, but he's loving the freedom of no tubes coming out of his left side.  The right side is still draining a lot...they put it back on suction, hope to pull the suction back off of it tomorrow and get the LAST tube pulled by the end of the week AND SEND HIM HOME!!!  I'm so excited.  I'm not getting my hopes up, but cannot wait for him to be healthy enough to come home (and would really love for it to be by next week).
By this morning, he was in full Graham swing!  Sending pics of himself to my brother and his good friend (trying to gross them out), jacking around with the IV Services nurses and giving the poor woman hell about her liking Clint Eastwood (her partner joined in, poor woman), laughing (!!!!!!!), and taking my phone so he could play his beloved Solitaire.  He has been seen by all of his doctors, and they have nothing but good things to say about him.  I even rode down in the elevator with Dr. Rosenblatt, and he still had great things to say - no worries, just smiles.  When his Infectious Diseases Doctor came in, Dr. Hailey, we got a little insight on just how great he was doing.  From the very beginning, they all new this was going to be a very risky surgery with great complications...but it was better than the alternative, die not trying.  He has this bacteria (I think just in his lungs) called Achromobacter that is resistant to most if not all drugs.  This lovely bacteria could (and still can) cause Graham's new lungs to be rejected.  They actually prepared for Graham to already have rejected his lungs.  But he didn't, and they are slowly taking away all the drugs that are to suppress this Achromobater and he still hasn't rejected.  Now they are still watching very closely, but Dr. Hailey is predicting that his new lungs will eventually kick this bacteria out and he will no longer have this problem looming over him.  All the doctors are just still amazed at how Graham is doing.  Dr. Hailey briefly talked about how they were all really nervous, especially his post care doctor (can't spell his name, but he is awesome!), right after surgery when all his numbers and blood pressure were out of whack.
He's off all those horrible laxatives, he's eating well, walking a lot, and able to get in and out of bed better.  He still has a lot of swelling, and he keeps being told "everyone's different."  Well, that's just an answer for, "We have no clue why you're so big, but it's not an issue."  And it goes up and down everyday, but hopefully all this walking and exercising he's doing helps.