I made myself a solemn promise that I would not leave Houston until I posted. So here it is- short & sweet, but it gives you a comprehensive overview of what God has done with me (God, doctors, therapists and my wonderful Caregiver friends)during this miraculous time. I promise further to add more detail as I come across it in my musings- I won't try for length but for facts and frequency- I have been chided from San Antonio to Paris!
I'm headed home tomorrow, Friday, January 21, 2011- I think Steve figured it has been 52 days since transplant, and I am fully ambulatory, no oxygen needed except room air since January 9, no coughing whatsoever, and as of the first month report which has come back, no sign of rejection whatsoever. I can shower, wash my hair, dress including sox & shoes, and the only thing missing are about 40 pounds, but I can afford to leave some of them behind. At 118, however, I look pretty sad, so I need to get some more nutrition as well as re-build muscle mass. Also, my posture is TERRIBLE: like the other old ladies who are 25 years older than I am. I call myself the turtle-bird, because my head looks just like a turtle poking his head out of his shell, and my completely scrawny body looks like the proverbial bird's. PT will, I hope, clear this up. The reason I got so stooped (I am now called scoliotic) is that for one full year, I wore oxygen around my neck, and several times a day, my cable would get stepped on by either Bo Peep, Steve, or me. Being pulled up short like that meant that I instinctively ducked my head as a defensive move, and pretty soon it just "grew that way" as my grandmother would say! Every day I keep meaning to bring my blog up to date, and every night I am still busy at 1:00 answering email, etc. and doing my assigned exercises. Preparing for my 4 medication sessions takes at least 30 minutes, and that is a big improvement from when I started when it was over an hour. I will have Home Health 5 days per week when I get home. That is good, because in addition to the meds, I have to test my blood sugar & vital signs 4 times per day. (I've never been diabetic, but the anti-rejection meds interact with the normal body metabolism in such a way that virtually everyone's blood sugar shoots up and insulin must then be given via self-injection on a sliding scale based on the latest reading.) I have several gadgets that I use daily in taking readings of pulmonary function. I will be getting my blood drawn locally in Beaumont next Tuesday and the results sent to Methodist Transplant. On February 1 I will be right back here, and I think I will see the team every 2 weeks for a month, then every 3 weeks, etc., slowly getting farther apart so long as there are no problems. There is still a rather large issue with my nutrition- I will reserve that for a later post as it is sort of complex. When I do get home tomorrow, it will be to all new floors and carpets- we invested a bundle in our new house in order to make it safe for me to recover in- the problems were an old A/C & Furnace and ratty old carpets where Bea's diabetic lab had peed everywhere. Under that, little did we know but should have guessed, was mildew. Under the linoleum (being replaced by hardwood-appearing laminate), the slab was wet- thanks to a bad sprinkler installation about 15 years ago. I was so thrilled to get a sprinkler system for the first time in my life- only to have it cost us more than it did originally to make right. Fortunately the man who installed it is an old friend of Steve's from Little League- Lone Star Irrigation his business- so he can give us a break if he will just admit his oversight. But for now it is fixed, and we also have a brand new filtration system, really heavy duty dude with 8" of insulation & filtration between outdoors and inside, a new Central A/C and central furnace. We got a nice tax credit for 2009 for buying the house when we did, and now we will get a credit this year for the purchase of the A/C, so that helps. Then the next project is new kitchen cabinets with the easy-to-reach pull-out trays, drawers, cans in the door, etc. Because all of this represents so much more to us than just getting a new house, we want to eventually ask Robert Besser, our Pastor, to have a House Blessing service, and I will send email or snail mail invitations. That's probably a year off- Steve has to get his new hip and I have to finish getting well first!!! If you have not read my post right after the surgery, please do- this is the culmination of what my good friend Patty has always called "A God Thing!"
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