Milestones

Today I passed a milestone of sorts on my recovery: I went back to work. Hard to image that it's only been 6+ weeks since transplant.

Of course, the week can't start out without a trip to the transplant center for labs and clinic. So my day started early to deal with EVERYONE in the Washington area going back to school and work. Anne went over the list of work restrictions, things like not lifting over 30 pounds, but unfortunately the list didn't restrict me from having to deal with jerks and idiots. I suggested to the Deloitte HR folks that they add it to the return-to-work form, they laughed and said not a bad idea.

But it was good to be back in the office. I had only 698 emails on the internal client email system to start working through. Spent half the day in meetings, the afternoon trying to plow through the message traffic. Lots of stuff has happened since I left, and since the project that I'm working is related to the Dec. 25th Detroit news event, there is a new urgency to get a solution out the door. I've got to get back to speed quickly.

Anne called in the afternoon and said my lab results continue to look good, they dropped a couple of drugs I was taking, and started weaning me off another. Now it's fine tuning on the immuno drugs. My kidney function was exactly the same as last time, so that's really good.

Jen went back to work last week (how could we tell, since she sits in front of a computer and television in her apartment, talking on the phone?) She said she was working. I think that Michelle was glad that we're both now busy again, she can get the house back to herself, gets control over the TV remote and can paint all she wants. Today, though, she had to take 2 new paintings down to the Vienna art centers where they are having a special one-month show just for the winners of the Art show last month.

Next up is the planning for Jen and Steve's wedding, now only 40 days away. Then we're off to Antigua in early March for vacation. (not that the last 6 weeks haven't been restful, but not recommended as a vacation you want to repeat, regardless of the great outcome).

gc

Progress update

It's been two days short of a month now that I received the transplant, and it already seems like a distant event. Both Jen and I are recovering on schedule, if a bit ahead of schedule. Today was labs and clinic again at the transplant center for me.

Jen finished two weeks ago with her follow-up meetings with the transplant team, got cleared to drive and go back to work when she feels ready. She's still sore, but was hoping to get back to the gym this week. Saturday, it snowed here, and Sunday was bright and sunny, so we went out for a walk. The road was icy and Jen hit a bit of an icy spot, she slipped, didn't go down, but realized in the recovery that not all the muscles were recovered yet, so she's postponing the return to the gym for a week.

I'm recovering as well, just a bit more slowly than Jen (given that I have to adapt to a new kidney). My vitals continue to be stable, with no sign of rejection. My labs are good, my creatinine is stable and meds are working. My appetite is back, I stopped losing weight and have now stabilized, and even added a couple back. Anne has been tweaking my meds so that they are just enough, not too much. Today, she released me to drive again! And I don't have to do morning-and-night monitoring of temp, BP, weight, liquids in and out any more, just track every other day or so. In other good news areas, my headaches that were almost a daily event have stopped. That apparently was related to the toxins in my blood, because with few exceptions, I'm on the same meds as I was on before the transplant.

And in another mildly interesting factoid, it seems that not only do our bodies have a circadian rhythm, but individual organs also have them. So that, according to Anne, why my I'm still getting up in the middle to the night to go to the bathroom. She said that over time that they will get back in sync, but it will take some time.

My next clinic/labs appointment is in 2 weeks, as they ramp back the monitoring. (However, after the labs on the 21st, I get to go upstairs at the transplant center and get my stent removed. A "minor" procedure, they say. Right.)

Today, we also went wine shopping for Jen's wedding at Total Wine in Chantilly. Its right across the street from my regular nephrologist, Dr. Assefi, so I walked over and set a check-up with then for February. That's when my care from the transplant center transitions back to him. Porche, his nurse, was glad to see me and they were surprised that I was already up and about.

Anne and I also talked about when I can go back to work. Right now, she has it set for the 28th of Dec. As we go through the holidays, we'll see if that stands. Since the government is pretty much shut down from the middle of this month till the new year, likely that we'll postpone that until the new year.

As for this blog, I'll keep occasional posts as there is news.

Thanks for reading, and for your prayers, thoughts and support. It's worked.

gc

Lighter moments

There are some lighter moments in this whole transplant journey. Today both Jen and I had clinic and labs, so all three of us bundled up and hit the HOV lanes at 6:45 am on I66. They drew blood and we individually met with Anne, our post-tranplant nurse.
It was time for some of my staples to come out, so she took maybe 8 out, replacing them with glued-on steri-strips.
Then it was off to IHop for breakfast, then to Staples for some printer supplies, then off to Borders to add to my reading pile of books.
As I may have mentioned before, my GI tract has not completely adjusted to all the new meds, and it's been active, to say the least. And as I walked the isles at the bookstore, the pancake breakfast caught up with me and it was time for a beeline to the restroom.

It was at this point that I found out that Anne had perhaps used too much glue, or it hadn't dried yet when I pulled up my pants at the dr's.

My undershorts were glued on.

After the panic attack subsided, I managed to peel them off the incision, and go about my business. Laughing only hurt.
But it was funny all over again when I related to Michelle and Jen. She also hurt laughing.

gc

Words of Wisdom

Today, Michelle and I went down to the Vienna Art show to see it, and then pick up her award winning painting. It didn't sell (largely because she priced it not to sell), and she was happy about that because she wants to enter it into other shows.

We visited with one of the ladies there who was also exhibiting, and who had met Jen Friday night. Michelle introduced me as the other half of the operation.

The woman made an interesting comment that could be taken a couple of different ways, and I'm going to slightly rewrite what she said.

"Be nice to you kids. You never know when you might need one of their parts."

I couldn't agree more.
gc

Recovery is blowing me away,...

Thinking that yesterday was turning point for both Glenn and Jen, in this recovery process.
Jen went with me to the artist reception last night, she looked cute in her 60s mod dress and her new smokey eye shadow. We only stayed for an hour, by then she was pretty worn out. Haven't checked with her yet, but hoping she's not paying too high of penalty today for last night foray.

Glenn is moving very well this morning, good color, and standing straighter than he has, since receiving his 8 inch incision. He and his transplant coordinator, are still tweaking his meds, to regulate his lab numbers, but so far, things are looking good.

We are so fortunate, that everything is progressing this well.

Award winning

This time the news is about Michelle. This week she entered one of her most recent projects in the Vienna 40th Treasury of Art Show. This is a juried show, judged by Fredric Briggs, who has twice been named the top watercolorist in the U.S.

She was notified yesterday that not only was the piece accepted in the show, it received an Honorable Mention award!

Tonight, she and Jen, who is recovering quite well, got dolled up and went to the artist reception in Vienna, where she was supposed to get a one-on-one critique from Mr. Briggs, as well as rub elbows with other northern Va. art illuminati. She was really tickled with the award, particularly because she said that watercolor-expert judges are hardest judges on their own media. I wanted to go as well, feeling much better today, but we thought that rubbing elbows was just too much close contact for someone on immunospressive therapy right now.

So congratulations Michelle!

gc

Setting records

The last couple of days are starting to set into a rhythm, with recording status, going to clinic, taking meds and checking in with nurses. Jen and I are both still pretty sore, both still on painkillers, but trying to wean ourselves off. Jen has been having strange dreams with her Percocet, so called the nurse today for a different one.
I did labs on Monday, and the transplant nurse called back Tuesday with results. All my numbers are in range, and my renal function is now at 1.3, which is just exactly the same as Jen's before she went into the hospital. Coincidence?
Aetna's transplant nurse also called today to check in to see how we were doing. She was also calling to confirm that I checked out last Friday. After confirming, she said that she's been doing this job for 8 years, and she's never heard of another patient getting released by Dr's. to go home in three days.
I hope that we're not going to pay the price for that. So far, all our numbers are right on for where we should be in recovery. My biggest challenge is eating and drinking enough. The meds change the taste of food, don't have much of an appetite yet with the pain, still am kind of swollen in the abdomen, which only time will fix, so not lots of room for a full pizza. Plus I have to drink at least 2 liters of fluid a day, and that is somewhat a challenge as well.
Jen said today that she finally got up the nerve to look at her incisions. While she was under the impression that laproscopic surgery would only leave three small incisions, seems that one, about 4 inches long, doesn't fall into the "small category". We went for a walk today down the street, did about a couple of blocks, and I did a separate one this morning, so we are starting to get around better. It was slow going, and I was winded when I got back, but we made it. Jen even went out shoe shopping yesterday, so she's doing much better.

Tomorrow is another lab and clinic, so we'll see how we're progressing again.