Day 4 of Recovery

Well, I guess this is the end of Day 4 of recovery, although it seems much longer than that.

Alan's on the transplant floor. They put him in what they fondly refer to as the "storage closet". It has one of the better views. That means you get to see some sky and campus through the buildings, as opposed to looking out directly at a wall. It is very quiet since it's on the end of the hall. I wouldn't be surprised if they move him into a larger room tonight. It's a little difficult to maneuver in there.

His nurse, N. is fantastic. As Alan puts it she remembers the "care" part of what she's doing. Everyone has been great -- busy but great.

Progress: He smiled before I left. Of course, that could have been because I was leaving and he was going to watch the football game.

One of his three drains was removed. It's extremely interesting how much hose your body can hold inside of it. Two more to go. He may go home (back to the condo) with one of them in. I'll learn how to take care of it if that's the case.

He had solid food. Well, catfish, black beans, brown rice???? That would be where the line "Toto we're not in Kansas anymore" comes in. (Okay he had scrambled eggs this morning, but that's not quite as interesting as catfish.

He's been up and moving around. The most exciting part is that he actually walked around the hall block -- TWICE!

No major setbacks yet .. he's gotten two more units of blood and they are watching a little blood in the abdomen. Optimistim sets in here -- they do not think it's a weakening anywhere but a pooling and settling common after surgery. The ultrasounds will continue.

We had our first meeting with In-patient coordination and then Pharmacy. More will take place tomorrow. They basically tell you what they're going to tell you . . .tell you. . . ask you to tell them what they told you . . and then come back tomorrow for another round to see what we've retained and then to go a little bit further into it. Does that sound familiar to anyone??

Also, the nurse gives you your medicine one pill at a time, tells you what it is and why . . has you tell her what it is and why . . and that will continue.

Currently he's only going to be on 6-9 different medicines when he leaves. Three of the six will be permanent, and three others may be as needed. Three will be tapered 3 months and 6 months out. Of course, that will be subject to change based on the bloodwork. That's a lot better than I had anticipated. Of course the side effects of all of them combined could end up being quite a bit of a nightmare, but I'm sure not much worse than what he's gone through to this point.

Of course, I know that medicine is science, however, this is at a level that is unbelievable with the knowledge of these surgeons. As well, the pharmacist had an additional two years of training to be a pharmacist for transplant patients.

I'm still trying to perfect the southern walk. I'm still pegged as being from the north. The lesson today was you have to go really slow, AND make eye contact. People even stop talking on their cell phones to say hi to strangers in the hall.

I'm hoping my boss won't mind me wearing my Tar Heels t-shirt my first day back at work. It's really quite nice. I got Alan one today too. I still haven't figured out what a Tar Heel is. In the hospital yesterday Alan had a choice of wearing "Carolina Blue" or "Duke Blue". We opted for the Carolina Blue because we felt that might be safest.

That's it for now ...