1. Dr. Khan visited me around 8:30 this morning and, having reviewed my blood work, my urine output, and evaluated my comfort level, he determined, in keeping with what I'd been told was a possibility, that today was my discharge day.
This was great news. Debbie and I both know, that at the same time the news is great, a lot of discipline and focused attention on my recovery gets underway at home. We not only need to follow a strict regimen of medicine, but I need to eat healthy meals, stay out of the sun, not have visitors (outside of family) for a while, and we need to be alert to any complications that might arise involving, especially, infection, illness, signs of rejection, and other things.
So, from my perspective, the hospital stay was the easier part of this process with professionals on hand to take care of the things we are responsible for now.
We will be reporting back to the transplant clinic, starting Thursday at 7:30 a.m., so I can have blood work done and we can have further education sessions and meetings and I can be further examined. The transplant team will determine on Thursday whether I need to return on Friday or if I'll be all right over the weekend and return early next week.
In other words, the next couple of weeks will be crucial to my overall recovery.
I have great faith that Debbie and I understand what is required of us, are ready to carry out all that we are told to do, and that we'll make this work.
I'm very happy that I'm able to have an active hand in the things we need to do.
I'm mobile, clear-minded, able to administer my meds to myself, and do other things that need to be done, with Debbie's help.
I came into this thinking I'd be totally dependent on Debbie for at home care.
I'm not.
We are both involved in the care I need and, again, I'm happy that I'm not feeling a bit helpless.
2. Ours was a day of education at the hospital. A parade of transplant team members came to talk with me, and later, Debbie. I talked with a transplant coordinator. The dietician. A financial person. A social worker. We had a longish session with the pharmacist. Maybe others came in!
Much of what these professional told us, we had heard before during appointments over the years leading up to the surgery itself, but, it was really good to go over these things again and to nail down just what is required for us to do in my post-transplant life.
3. We had an uneventful trip home. I'm not to remain still or seated or lying down for long stretches of time during the day, so, as instructed, we stopped at the Huetter Rest Area between Post Falls and Coeur d'Alene so I could get out and move around a bit.
Once home, we got settled in.
Debbie fixed me a superb vegetable scramble and I fixed myself a bowl of chopped apple and plain yogurt.
We began monitoring my liquid input and output. I took my Wednesday evening meds.
I was keyed up a bit and stayed up until after 11 and went to MyChart and read in more detail the doctors' and nurses' notes about my hospital stay.
I settled down, finally, and enjoyed a good night of sleep.
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