10 Weeks at home.....together

I know, that sounds like the start of a terrible horror movie. And believe me, I almost thought it would be horrible. But it turns out we like each other a lot more than I thought. 

These 10 weeks at home together with Anthony after his transplant have been such a blessing to our little family. We have enjoyed more time just being together than we ever have before. Anthony got to enjoy plenty of quality time with each of the kids, not just the 2 hours he sees them after work and before bed. What a difference that makes. To him, and to them. Anthony and Aspen really bonded, and he got to learn even more about Lincoln's amazing personality. They truly are amazing little people.

The best part of this has been Anthony's new appreciation for me...the stay at home mom. Before he would come home and look around the house in it's messy, and usual, state and make off-handed comments like, "What did you do all day?" These ten weeks have truly opened his eyes to the amount of things that we do on a daily basis, me and the kids. Moms aren't just moms. We are teachers, doctors, nurses, mediators, referees, short-order cooks, maids, playmates, wives, women, and mommies. There is no free time to sit down. We don't just spend the day lounging in our PJs in front of the TV. Ok, many days are spent in our PJs but that's just because they're comfy! We're definitely not in front of the TV, ever! No time for that!

Anthony now comes home and is more appreciative of me, and what I give to, and for, the children. He says thank you more often for the meals I cook. He understands how tired I really am after a long, hard day of screaming children and he offers to bring home dinner so I don't have to do one.more.thing. He calls at lunch to check up on me to make sure the morning is going smoothly, or offer condolences when it's not. Then he rushes home to love on the kids so I can get a break. Nothing will heal, help, and support your marriage than when your husband appreciates all the little things you do, day after day. It's amazing what just this time at home as done for our family. We're nicer to each other, we respect each other just a little more, and we have a greater understanding of what it's like to spend quality time together. 

We did tons of fun stuff while Anthony was home with us. Here is a VERY short, and VERY abbreviated list:

We went to Christmas parades.

We saw Santa!

We went to Boone.

We went to Gatlinburg, TN with the kids for the first time.

We had a beautiful Christmas together.

WE WENT TO DISNEY WORLD!!!

We made cardboard cars.

And so much other stuff I can't even remember. So much of that time was spent just being together. We took lunch trips to the mall, just because we could. We had movie night in our PJs, because it's fun. We ate lots of Sweet Frog...no explanation needed. And we loved each other.

I am so thankful for this time our family has enjoyed. We have been truly blessed. God has taken care of Anthony, and of our every need and I am thankful every day.

Anthony went back to work on January 22, 2014. He's doing great and feeling wonderful. He's traveling to Baptist Hospital's Transplant Clinic every week or every-other week for blood work and testing. They're always checking his blood for the level of medicines and creatanine, the yucky stuff that your kidneys filter out. Nurses call back every week to tell him how to adjust his medicines to keep everything on the right levels and even. So it's just a process. Slow and steady, right? Hopefully soon he will be able to only travel to Winston once a month to get checked, but they're still keeping a really close eye on him right now. I am so thankful that we have such a great team of doctors taking care of him. Our family sure does need him.

Biopsy

Today we sit here at the hospital again. But thankfully it's our last time!! Today is Anthony's one month check-up and his biopsy on the new kidney. It's a routine check up procedure performed on every transplanted kidney patient. Just checking to make sure the kidney is working properly and is showing no signs of dying tissue or rejection. 

We were admitted around 8:30 this morning and sat doing practically nothing until they came to get him at 11:40. The procedure is quite easy: they use ultrasound to see exactly where they want the needle to puncture. Using a spring-loading needle they insert the needle into the kidney and take a small sample. The whole procedure lasted only about 2 1/2 hours from when they took him away from me and brought him back to his room. He's only got a bandaid to show he had anything done. He's not in any pain, the nurses still have him hopped on some good pain meds. 

He has to lay still for 2 hours and then have another blood panel drawn. Once those results come back and are good we're free to go. Hopefully it won't be too late before we get home. I hate leaving the babies for so long so often. They love spending time with Grammy and Dadaw, and the grandparents love to have them, but I hate that we're not spending the time together. If I was going to spend this much time away from them I'd sure rather be doing something fun, not just sitting at the hospital all day. But we'll all make it through.

Since he's a month post-transplant I guess it would be nice to just give a general update. Last week he had his PD catheter, stint, and staples removed. He left the hospital a free man! That was our last overnight stay here...and we're glad of that! 

Overall Anthony is doing well. He's had a lot more good days than bad. Sometimes he still has pain and it really gets him down, physically and emotionally. One of his biggest problems has been that his hemoglobin is running low. This makes him tired and exhausts him easily. He's been trying to work up his endurance by walking with the kids up and down the development. He is definitely able to do more around the house like helping to cook, or helping do the dishes. He's playing with the babies more and even changing diapers again!! He still can't pick up anything more than 10 pounds. That makes it difficult on me because it means I have to lift everything, especially Aspen. I have to put her to bed, get her out of bed, put her on the changing table, get her in and out of the high chair. I won't let him carry two gallons of milk, and he's only allowed to take out the trash if it's light enough. 

He's only taking Tylenol for pain now, and that's really more discomfort than anything. He's not sleeping well..having trouble getting comfortable still. We still go back to the doctor twice a week...but since today is his one month mark he's now going to once a week. What a difference that will make! Less time away from the kids, less time driving, less gas. Hooray!

Home

Well today has been like a roller coaster. And not one of the good ones that you want to ride over and over...but one that you NEVER want to ride again. Ever. Our day started out fabulous with wonderful reports from the surgical team. All his blood work looked good, his creatanine was continuing to drop, his urine was a nice color of yellow, the doctor removed his foley this morning, and his central line very soon after that. He got to take a shower!!! A real shower! He was feeling mighty fine. The word discharge had already been thrown around and he was sitting pretty. 

Then the big drop...he couldn't pee. At least not enough. He had to pee three times followed by a bladder scan to measure how much urine was left in his bladder. The acceptable number is 100 mL. The first time he went Nurse Debbie measured 173mL. Ok, not too bad. The second time he peed 500 mL and we expected his bladder to be empty. It showed 123 mL. Also, not a bad reading and coming down. The third time he went and the scan was done his number was up to the 200's. Then into the 400's and the 300's. By 4:00 pm Anthony was sure he was going to be stuck in the hospital again. He faded very quickly and began another pity party. He didn't want to eat, didn't want to drink, didn't want to talk. He just wanted to pout, he was so disappointed. Debbie was fabulous and gave us enough information to know what was going on, and encouragement to keep our heads up. She tried paging the doctor several times but no answer or call back. At 6 Anthony tried to get me to come home to the babies. He was sure he was spending another night in Winston. The docs were on shift change and his numbers for his bladder scan were way too high. Even Debbie was resigned to the fact that she thought he was going to need to spend another night there, probably having another catheter of some kind to empty his bladder.

And then.....he peed. 500 mL. It made Debbie happy and she called the docs back to report that his numbers looked good, his output was voluminous, and the color was appropriate. She got the discharge papers ready. Earlier today she went over his meds with me and we put them into his pill container. I'll take a picture of that beautiful thing tomorrow. We were set. Finally, around 6:30pm, good and wonderful news. The doctor on call agreed with Debbie and we were released!! Hooray!!! Within 15 minutes he was wheeled to the parking lot and deposited into my car!

Phew...get me off this ride! I'm ready for a break. I have a feeling that's not going to happen. For quite some time. The babies finally got to see him tonight for the first time in nearly a week...oh how sweet they were. Lincoln is very astute and knows just what was happening and that daddy was getting a new "part." He demanded to see his boo-boo tonight. I told Anthony he might as well. It's not scary or gross and Lincoln sincerely wants to know what's going on. He's also been asking about Amy. Last night when I talked to him on the phone he wanted to know how she was doing, where she was, and how her "part" was. Was she resting? Did she feel OK? Could he see her? That precious boy...God sure has something fabulous in store for him. Great things.

We shall see how the next few days go. I'm assuming Anthony is going to be overly tired and want to rest. He's not allowed to lift more than 10 pounds so he can't really help with the kids, or at least he can't pick them up or change Aspen's diaper, or put her to bed. Lincoln wants to be very close and Aspen is saying nothing but "Daddy!" I think they're going to have to spend lots of time at Grammy and Nana's house as Anthony gets his strength back so he will be able to rest, and I will too. 

VCUG

Today we drove to Charlotte to Levine Children's Hospital. Aspen was scheduled for her VCUG this morning at 9:00. Thankfully Lincoln spent the night with Nana so we didn't have to worry about getting him up and ready and out. No matter...we were late anyway. We never got very good directions so we just went by the GPS. Ugh...not always the best plan. Since I've been driving to Charlotte so often with Aspen's little helmet I could've gotten us to Morehead street a lot quicker and easier. Oh well. Once se got there we couldn't find parking...it was like a maze. Tons of buildings and lots of parking but so much of it was labeled as doctors only or staff only...

Once we got into Levine's I must say that our experience was amazing. From the front desk lady who checked us in and walked us all the way to our waiting area, to the sweetest nurse ever (except you, Tori :)) in the radiology department, everyone was so nice. We felt welcomed and taken care of. The nurse in radiology was cheery and talkative and really put us at ease as she talked us through the procedure. If you want to know more specific details about the VCUG go here. Basically they catheterized her to insert some contrast into her bladder. Then they wait and watch as she pees to see if there is any reflux out of her bladder back into her urethra and her kidneys. That could continually cause scar tissue and lead to renal failure...see past posts about Anthony. 

She screamed the whole time. The whole time. But I must admit that on the scale of Kyla.... I didn't even shed a tear. And I thought it was going to be awful! We laid her on the table, they did their thing and they put the x-ray machine over the top of her body. Anthony and I stood at the head of the table and cooed at her and loved on her and tried to soothe her. Nothing worked. But she didn't kick and wiggle and try to get away like I thought she would. She was very tame and just screamed. She actually peed very quickly and we were done very quickly. She was very ready for us to pick her up and she whimpered for a little while afterwards, but no lingering fussiness. She didn't seem to have any problems the rest of the day either. Our appointment was at 9 and even though we were just a tiny bit late we were walking out of the hospital by 9:45. We wouldn't even have gotten out that quickly if we had been at our doctor's office! Simply fabulous. 

Aspen slept all the way through the ride to Charlotte...waking her up at 7 am is definitely a far cry from her usual sleeping in until almost 9. She nursed before we left and then she actually snacked right before the procedure and we offered her milk cup during to see if it would calm her down. It didn't. On the ride home she just thoughtfully looked out the window until about Gastonia, then she knocked out again. Anthony had taken the morning off to go with us, thank goodness. Since we were finished and home so early we decided to have some lunch. So we grabbed Olive Garden as soon as they opened at 11. Hooray. 

All in all it wasn't nearly as scary as I had anticipated. I must say that I prayed all night last night while falling asleep, and when I woke up in the night to hear Aspen crying. Now we just wait until Tuesday for our follow up appointment for the results. Anthony said he watched the whole thing on the screen and didn't see any backflow. So we'll see what the doctor now has to say after they send him a report. We are praying that the test shows that all is absolutely normal and we can just get back to having two beautiful, happy, healthy kids. No more worrying about appointments and procedures. Well, except for the well checks in early April! 

Just a little photo to make you smile...

Sissy is learning to sit in a chair. In fact it's soo cute! She's learning to back up to sit down in your lap or to put her hiney in a chair. And she loves sitting in Lincoln's Thomas table like a big girl! 

She sat down with her book and just kicked her feet. It's precious!