Well, it's back to San Francisco for a check-up appointment tomorrow. I think we are just going to make a long day trip of it.

Life here has been very mellow, which is exactly what we need. Ron has been feeling a little better everyday and we are slowly able to do more and more. I know Ron's recovery isn't as quick as he would like but he is still very positive.

Our fab friend Pari has come over the last two nights and cooked dinner with us. It's been great for our tummys and even better for our social interaction and in turn our sanity. We absolutley love Pari and having her over just makes our night so much better.

Wish us luck tomorrow, it's going to be a long day.

Home Sweet Home

Ah... we are home at last.

Being home is just how I expected it to be. The comfort and joy of being back home with Abby is unmatched. Relaxing at home is another matter all together. Fortunately Ron has been able to truly kick back and enjoy his recovery... well enjoy might be the wrong word, but he seems happy and he although I can still see he is in physical pain, it seems like it is dissipating everyday. And his mental state is like he just walked through the curtain. SHABAM! Welcome Home Ron.

Abby hasn't missed a beat, I think she missed us but it's hard to tell haha. She is such a great dog, her sitters said she was awesome. Except for a driver's licence fatality she was just Miss Abby. I'll see if my cousin will send me a photo of her licence. It's unfortunately quite funny.

She might have some slight separation anxiety... it's hard to tell. She was always pretty good when one of us left the house. She would just go see who else was home and within minutes she would be up on the couch or on our bed... depending on how mischievous she is feeling. I know this because I have a chronic condition of stufiousforgetitus. I can never seem to leave the house without having to run back in because I forgot something. And there Abby would be on the couch and if not would I hear her jump off the bed and run down stairs.

I say it's a little hard to tell if she is more effected by our departures because when I have to run back inside she seems more determined to convince me to stay than she used to. As I type Abby is curled up under the desk with her head on my foot. I love this dog.

Ron is on a very heavy antibiotic for the sinus infection he developed. It really makes him feel icky. He is already taking so many pills as it is and I was so thankful that he didn't seem to have to many of the warned sideeffcts. Beside some difficulty swallowing, and a funny taste in his mouth. (insert joke here)...(sorry Grandma) But once they added the double dose antibiotic to the mix, his drug cocktails put him in a daze. Fortunately is just a ten day dose... so it should be over soon.

I try to sit down when I can. But I have pretty much been going non-stop since we got home Thursday night. Doing my best to mark off everything on my check lists so I can relax too. I don't know what I would have done if not for my wonderful roommate, and cousin keeping the house picked up and my mom, stepdaddy and amazing friend Michele coming over to clean. I still spent most of yesterday perfecting an already very clean house haha. Damn dog hair. It was a daily battle before the transplant. I had to beg and plead with Ron to let a dog his is pristine abode. And once he "caved" I knew I had to make sure he could never say "I told you so" because that is MY LINE J/K.

It's been a while since I really had to move. When I moved in with Ron is was pretty gradual. He made room in his closet for me, then cleared out one side of his dresser and eventually there was no denying it we lived together, lol. Although we only had our clothes and some other random stuff to bring home. I had a real hard time fitting all of it into just one car. My Mom and StepDaddy brought us up our first set of things... clothes and food goods. Then on a single day run home I packed up a bunch more stuff, I knew we didn't need all our clothes, but I was in such a time crunch I really just threw a ton of stuff in the car. Then when Dean came up Ron had another list of things he "needed"... I joke but he did use most of it. Why he "needed" a shredder was beyond me, I personally thought I would just be easier to keep the documents and shred them when we got home. But I wasn't going to burst his bubble. He wasn't in the best spirits at the time.

Needless to say there was a lot of stuff. Ron wanted to just throw away all the food. But that is where I drew the line.
Number One: people donated money to us so that we could buy that food.
B: I have a real problem with throwing away that much GOOD food. It hurt my soul to even think about
And Tres: That's three in Spanish.
Plus we would just end up buying it all again when we got home. It just seemed silly.
So I made a compromise. I knew I wouldn't even be able to fit an ice chest in the car even if we did have one... which we didn't. So I packed up the non-perishables up, and gave the perishable items to the family living on our floor. I had passed them going down the stairs one rainy day and they were all so sweet and charming with there adorable English accents. "Ello!" "Ow do you do?" so cute.

And I say tata for now. I really must get back to my list.
Love Love Kiss Kiss

Everything is Right as Rain.

Where did that expression come from? I don't even know what it literally means, but it seems fitting, considering we are back at the apartment, and on schedule for a tomorrow departure. That and it's raining.

A long busy hospital day tomorrow means a lot of work at the apartment today, so that when they discharge us we will be ready to leave. Maybe not a lot just laundry and packing up the car with everything we don't need for tomorrow.

Ok well back to work...Love Love Kiss Kiss

I am so proud of Ron.

All day yesterday Ron had a creeping headache. Just after dinner it began to get much much worse and by 11pm he was officially miserable. Then the poor guy threw-up. I had been asking Ron if he wanted to go back to the ER but he was steadfast that he just wanted to sleep it off. Once he threw-up I put my foot down and said we where going. He put his foot down and said no. And I harshly told him he didn't have a choice this time. He still said no, until I started tearing up and he put his jacket on.

After a few more hours they seemed to have the nausea, and headache under control. They took him for scans, x-rayed his chest and CT'd his head. They didn't find anything wrong, but just to be save they asked him if they could do a lumbar puncture (spinal-tap) to look for a possible infection... he said no, I said yes, then he said yes. It turned out to be so much less painful than he expected. I was so relieved.

They didn't find anything conclusive from the puncture but it can take up to 24hours to finish all the cultures, so the admitted him for the night, just to be safe. In the morning they told him that they found he had a sinus infection. It didn't have all the usual symptoms because of all the medications he is on. They then told him that they would like to keep him another night, not because the infection was serious but because they wanted to keep him on the heavy IV antibiotics as long as possible so they can kick the infection as fast as possible.

Then they gave us the GOOD news. He was still on schedule to be sent home this weekend! Yay!

Anyway, I said I was so proud of Ron. I AM so proud of Ron. This last week has been especially hard on him. Being copped up in this tiny apartment, unable to move without pain was starting to really weigh on him. I was afraid that this set back was going to really upset him. I couldn't have been more wrong. He was down right positive today. Telling "that's what she said" jokes with his nurse and smiling more than I've seen him smile all week. I am so proud of Ron.

Feb 24th

Here we are again, a few more days have gone by and we are still here... still kicking. Soon,Ron and I will be able to go home where we can truly relax. Ron had a nice nap today... which was huge. Lack of sleep really messes with your head. We are both doing all we can to just get by and brush off as much stress as possible... it's not as easy these days as it usually is for us, but we are both two people who bounce back and I know soon we will be able to to just that... getting home will do wonders for both of us. I keep trying to remind him not to stress over things we can't do anything about right now... "just focus on this moment and make it the best we can."

I needed someone to tell me that today and yesterday. I allowed something (fyi-completely unrelated to what is going on here)I knew was out of my control, and more than I can handle on a good day, sneak in and drowned me. My dad accepted my very frantic phone call, listened to me cry and vent then eventually changed the subject and then in my dad's perfect way he made me laugh. I am honestly ashamed that finally I broke down on Ron today. It was unrelated, poor timing and so unfair to him. I did my best to run into the next room and sob in my pillow but I know I upset him. He is already dealing with so much, having to watch me cry was the last thing he needed. It was more than a lesson learned, more than just for this situation but all future trying times in our lives... one thing at a time... US FIRST.

Ron got the rest of his staples out today, it looked like it hurt this time more than the last. His incision still needs a lot of healing so they patched and bandaged him up. We need to keep a close eye on it over the weekend but I think he is grateful the staples are gone. I took a couple pictures and will try to add them later. Ron's numbers still look great! We couldn't be more thrilled about it. It's just a countdown now until we get to go home. Abby here we come!

Oh look Babe, it's sunny!

So last week Ron was asked to participate in a immune study for CPMC. So this early morning when we went to the lab for Ron's blood work they took an additional 12-14 vials! When he came back and told me I was stunned, with his usual 4-5 they took near 20 vials of blood from him. The sweet nurse brought him juice and told him to drink it while she drew the blood, because he has to fast after midnight the night before for clean blood work. She was concerned my superman would get woozy.

After blood work we came "home" for a couple hours. I made him pancakes and sausages (Ron hasnt been able to eat full meals yet because he gets so full so quickly, but he did his best to stuff himself)... then we went to clinic. Clinic is where they usually go over how his blood looks, adjust meds, and answer any questions we have. This Clinic they took half of Ron's staples out (now he is left with 24). It looked painful, especially the ones that had some skin overgrowth... I could see the skin break and it looked like little bee stings. ouch. I took a picture. Unfortuanatly, getting a few of the staples out was not the relief Ron was hoping for. He forgot to take in account the multiple layers of internal stitches. (along with Rons liver replancement they also had to replace the hipatic artery, lots of ducts, viens and arterys to attach. I can't explain to you how that feels in his belly... I imagine it's odd to say the least. Perhaps soon he will be able to write a bit about it himself.)

The Doctor was really excited that Ron's "numbers" we looking so great. He was probably the most reassuring Doctor we have meet from the Transplant Team. He was genuinely interested in Ron, his health and his wellness. He listened to Ron about his discomfort concerns and his mental state. Ron is getting a little down being cooped up in this tiny apartment as well as adjusting to a completely life changing event. Most of the doctors tell us, "oh, that's normal, you just went through major surgery." This Doctor sat next to him and talk to him one on one about how he was feeling and reassuring him that in time the emotional effects of the transplant experience will get better too.

When I meet Ron he was around 170 pounds. On surgery day he weighed less than 150 and after surgery he clock in at 141 lbs... he has been a steady 138 lbs for two weeks. He told us to begin to take photos of Ron because is three months we wont believe the transformation.

Ron was feeling well enough today to take a short walk down the street, but I think we underestimated how difficult coming back up the hill would be. Stupid hills. I do think it was really nice for him to get outside... even though it was painful.

Recap

Alright here goes...

Tuesday was pretty much an ordinary day for me and Ron. We got up, he went to work and I did my usual housework and Abby duties. Ron came home from work exhausted which seemed to be happening more and more in the last few months. His long days were beginning to take more of a toll on him every week, with that we were both seeing some more of the "future" symptoms of the cirrhotic liver. He went to bed very early, around 9pm, because he was so tired. Which turned out to be great for him in the up coming wee morning hours. I stayed up much later and finally crawled into bed around midnight and Abby was an unusual high demanding dog that night. She got me up multiple times to let her out for potty-time. I ended up finally getting to bed around 2am... At about 4:45 Ron's phone began to ring. By the time he realized what was going on the call ended. He noticed it was a (415) area code which to us means one thing.. California Pacific Medical Center. So he immediately tried to call back but the line was busy. At that moment he saw his work phone light up. He answered it and so began our adventure.

I watched him and did my very best to eavesdrop on the call. I could make out that they had a liver and it was match for him. The offer came to us, the liver was from young donor and in good condition. After he accepted the offer they came back to us with a condition... we had to wait while they attempt to contact another possible recipient to see who was higher on the list. I immediately got up, through some things of ours in a bag and jumped in the shower... miss optimistic huh? Ron remained in bed staring at both his phones, that he held one in each hand in each hand. When I got out of the shower he was in the same position... staring. It took about 20 minutes before they called back.. I don't think he blinked once during the wait. When they called back they told him it has been released to him and asked again if he wanted it... we said hell yes we want it! Ron got up threw on some clothes and within 5 minutes we were out the door. In our rushed excitement I forgot the bag a packed with our clothes/ect, duh.


Ron started the drive from the house and by the time we hit Atascadero, I made him pull over because he was driving to slow... lol. I told him "I am driving and if we get pulled over I'll take the ticket." I made up some time but we still hit traffic in San Jose and on, but we made it to the hospital in about 4hours, maybe 4.5, I lost track in my singlemindness of GET TO THE HOSPITAL. I drooped him off in the front of the hospital and drove around to park.

By the time I got to the lobby he had already been admitted and I went on, what some might call, a wild goose chase to find where they took him. When I finally made it back to him, they had him in a gown and were asking the usual round of questions. We ended up having to wait quite a while longer because the surgeons needed to finished a surgery before him. Once they got him ready they took both of us the the operation floor dressed us up in sterile wear and told us about all the horrific things that they don't think will happen during surgery.

I can safely say that it scared the shit out of both me and Ron. I had to leave tearful eyed and full of a swirling emotion hurricane of fear, hope, joy and loneliness. About 10 hours of waiting in the lobby, the surgeon came out to tell me the surgery went well (some minor details of the operation) and someone would come get me once they have him setup in the ICU. I waited about 15 more minutes until I escorted MYSELF up to the ICU floor. And paced about 15 more minutes before I picked up the phone that connected you to the nurses station. They buzzed me in and I sat with him for a couple more hours. He was sedated and had tubes everywhere, but the tubes weren't the worst of it. To simply state it, Ron doesn't do well under sedation. I don't know how else to describe it other than... he fights. He struggled in his sleep trying to pull out the ventilator and the central lines they had in major arteries in his neck and legs they ended up strapping him down so he couldn't tear them out.

The doctors and nurses had to devise a way to bring him out of sedation without harming him or themselves. They decided that they would remove the respirator and major artery catheter in his leg. They usually don't like to remove these things while the patient is under sedation because it is safer to do it while they are aware of what is happening. Unfortunately, that was not an option in his case. (Fast-forward to a few days later, Ron was complaining that the muscles in his right arm was very sore, later i realized it was because he was struggling against the restraints all night and day) Once they removed everything but the drainage tube from his abdomen and the central-line in his neck they began to slow the drip until he was awake. P.S. I have a great photo of the catheter they took out of his neck... it was huge.

That gets you up to date for the first three days. Whoa...