Today we celebrate John’s two month birthday since his transplant, and we honor John’s heart donor and his family for their priceless gift.
We had a very busy day today with doctor appointments at Duke. We got there at 7:30 a.m. and just got home! John had a chest X-ray, EKG, Echocardiogram, heart biopsy, right heart catheterization, and they took pictures of his arteries. This was the big appointment, and if all goes well he won’t have another heart cath. until his one year birthday. Now John will start having a heart biopsy once a month. If he continues to have zero rejection, he will start going every other month, then every six months, etc.
We haven’t gotten the results from the biopsy back yet, but everything else looks great! The only thing we’re going to have to get taken care of is the fluid that has backed up and formed swelling where he was connected to ECHMO. John will have to see a general surgeon to drain it. It shouldn’t be a big deal, though.
Today we went around and visited all of John’s nurses (and doctors) on the 3rd and 7th floor CCUs. John doesn’t remember most of them, but you should of seen their faces when they saw John! They couldn’t believe it! The nurse that was taking care of John when he went into V-Tach was there. This is the nurse that escorted him to the ECHMO surgery and had to give him CPR. You can imagine how much he appreciated seeing John now. And on the third floor two of the nurses who helped John when he was the most critical before transplant were there today too. It was so good for John to meet them and for them to see John. That’s their reward for helping to save his life and for fighting so hard for him (and me)!
Over the past two weeks John has really taken off! He is doing things that I’ve never known him to be able to do. He says that it has been so long (6 years) since he has felt like normal and now he finally feels like he has his life back. He is full of energy!
Here are a few of his accomplishments:
~ He mowed the lawn with a push mower! I’ve never known John to do this!
~ He carried the ladder upstairs to change the batteries in the smoke detector.
~ He traveled to GA last weekend for the first time.
~ He has been released to drive and is loving driving his truck without me so that he can play the music really loud!
~ I no longer drop him off at the front of the hospital. He now walks with me from the parking garage.
~ And he is going back to work on the 18th, which he is really looking forward to!
No, none of the above were a part of a “Honey-Do” list even though I do appreciate them so much! He did all of these things on his own!
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