So we may not be going home as early as we thought. It may still be the end of the week, but it may be a little longer.
Not for any horrible reason, but basically John’s doctor just came in and had a heart-to-heart with him. He knows that John is at his breaking point with being here, so he wants to get him out soon, but he just put his foot down and told John that he was going to have to be more patient. Actually, his exact words were, “You sure are stubborn, aren’t you?” Finally I get a second opinion on that!! 🙂 There are a few loose ends that have to be tied up including tweaking his dialysis treatment, making sure his blood levels stay normal, and continue to watch the fluid around his lungs.
John has some fluid around his lungs and there are some “white things” showing up on the X-rays. His surgeon isn’t very concerned about it because he saw John’s lungs during surgery, and he said they were in really bad shape. He thinks it is just left over from that, plus John continues to look better and breathe better every day. However, the infectious disease doctors and radiologists are a little more concerned that there could be an infection or something. But if that were the case John wouldn’t be doing well and feeling well. So they need to watch it, and the two specialists came to an agreement to give him another Cat Scan tomorrow before doing something more embracive like a bronchoscopy.
John’s orders have been to eat, eat, eat! Eating is medicine as his doctor tells him. And he is still working on walking and getting stronger. John will have physical therapy at our house three times a week after we go home, and then he’ll go to a a rehabilitation center for physical therapy for some time after that.
John’s second biopsy yesterday showed 0 rejection (again on a scale of 0-3). This is awesome! Also, his right heart cath. showed that the right side of his heart is getting stronger. It is typical after transplant for the right side of the heart to not work as strong because when it was in the donor’s body it didn’t have to. But in John’s body, because he had more trouble breathing, etc., it has to work harder to keep up with his lungs and body.
As I’ve said before every day is different around here!! I will keep everyone updated on the Big Day of going home!!
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