It was nice to have a return to our pre-transplant routine: I was awakened at home this morning by a call from my husband, on his cell phone from the hospital! He is still in the ICU, but hears that he may be moving out today! Of course it will be nicer to return to the pre-hospital routine, but that will be a bit longer.....he has been in a hospital every night now since Jan. 11, except for 1 night Jan. 18. Wow.
He is feeling less pain and even took a third walk yesterday evening after I left. Guess I have to camp out in his room round the clock to get in on the walking. He started a new book last night, and once he's in a regular room I'll leave the laptop for him so he can do his own communicating once again.
Now we have to settle down after all the initial excitement and celebration, and focus on our new life and new habits to be learned: Tuesday morning he will have the first biopsy of the new heart, which is how they know if his body is thinking of rejecting that new organ. Tuesday afternoon will be time for "school": we will meet with the transplant coordinator to go over all the things we need to do differently, to avoid exposing Bob to infections and illnesses now that his immune system is being suppressed (again, so it doesn't automatically reject the new heart and kidney). Then we get to meet with the pharmacist to go over all his very essential new drugs, and when and how they need to be taken.
The other thing we've known about but now need to figure out, is once he leaves the hospital ( in a week or two), we need to live within a few miles of the hospital for the very frequent biopsies and tests that will take place the first 6 weeks he's out. I've had a list of apartments and residential hotels for years, actually, that the social worker provided. But it's no longer hypothetical - time to start apartment-hunting this weekend! Should be interesting.
Time to do my (hopefully) speedy home chores before heading back to SF....a few visitors are already scheduled for today, so let me know if anyone else is thinking of dropping in and we'll make a plan!
Cheryl, You are an amazing woman to keep up with all of this. And Robert is indeed a hero. I am so proud and happy for you both. Keep on, keeping on! And look forward to a less complicated life in the near future.
ReplyDeleteStill in our thoughts and prayers as always, and really happy to know they are working!