Walking the fish

While waiting for the transplant call to come, one of Shirley’s objectives is to build up as much muscle mass as possible. This is to help counteract a side effect of prednisone (an anti-rejection steroid) which eats away at muscle.

To help accomplish this, we’ve joined a 24 Hour Fitness center and Shirley is working with a personal trainer in the weight room. She is also swimming at their pool three to five times a week. Given that Shirley is currently on oxygen, this presents an interesting challenge: how does one swim laps while carting around a small portable oxygen tank? The answer is to bring along an assistant to walk beside the pool, or what our kids affectionately refer to as “walking the fish.”

While Michael Phelps and his Olympic colleagues have nothing to fear in terms of pure speed, Shirley has endurance. She needs to pause at the end of each lap to catch her breath, but she’s up to 800 yards (over half a mile) while one of the family members walks beside the pool to keep the oxygen tank close enough to reach her.

I want to throw out a big thank you to Jess, Chloe and Souang, who have all taken turns walking the fish.