Today was a busy day, and tomorrow will be busier! John is in great spirits and continues to get stronger!
I got back to my hotel room at 10:00 tonight. John saw almost every specialty doctor there is (well, not really, but it feels like that). He now has the all of these doctors rounding on him each day: transplant team, heart surgeon, kidney doctors, gastro doctors, infectious disease doctors (because of the infection he had two weeks ago), physical therapists, occupational therapists, small wound doctors (or something like that because of the wounds he has for all the procedures he’s had). I think that’s all. People think you get a lot of rest in the hospital – actually you get very little.
His latest bloodwork showed that he has lost a significant amount of blood over the last day. It has leveled off, but it is still less than it was yesterday. There are several things that may have caused this, but we don’t know the reason yet. The GI doctors are now evaluating him to see if there’s been some bleeding internally. He is receiving a blood transfusion today to compensate for the loss. Tomorrow he will have a procedure to try to find the reason he lost some blood.
John’s kidneys still are not recovered, and so tomorrow he will receive a semi-permanent catheter so that they can do dialysis whenever needed. The kidneys may be recovered by the time he goes home, but if not he’ll have to come back for dialysis when he needs it. They expect him to have a full recovery with his kidneys, but they cannot predict how long that will take. It is common for heart transplant recipients to eventually develop kidney problems sometime down the line – now and even in 10-15 years.
John is up for the challenge the busyness tomorrow will bring, and is ready to start really moving forward. Today he said, “I have to start getting myself in shape!” He sees all the other patients walking by his room and is ready to start racing them!
I am so, so proud of him!! Since he took such a big hit before surgery, he is doing a phenomenal job! I don’t think he’s ecstatic about his new heart yet because it’s taking him a little longer to enjoy its benefits, but that will come in time and hopefully soon as he gets stronger!!
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