Home Again...

Hubby came home from the hospital again on Saturday afternoon. He's been feeling much better this time around.

Could be that new recliner.

The first time Hubby was in the hospital and we would walk the halls, albeit slowly, as he got closer to his room he'd start looking in each one. I finally figured out why although I never said much. He told the kids when we got home and confirmed my suspicions.

The kids brought their dad this balloon when they came to visit on Tuesday the 16th. It was tied to the chair in Hubby's room, and when he was looking in the rooms he was looking for the balloon.

That's how he knew which room was his.

New & News

News: Hubby is still in the hospital for another night. His transplant doctor happens to be on the floor for another complex case even though he's not on call for the holiday weekend. He pretty much gets to call the shots, and he told the other members of the transplant team that he wanted Hubby to stay for another night. I think he just wants to make sure his white count and liver numbers continue to go down (they were a little elevated when we were in the ER) and that his tummy really is okay and awake for good. It's no fun when they have to come back in again.

New: I mentioned Hubby wasn't sleeping good at home. Part of it was habit from waking up every couple of hours in the hospital for vitals to be checked. More of it was that he didn't have a recliner to sleep in a reclined position. Although our bed is fantastic, it's not possible to get it like a reclined hospital bed, and the couch is big and comfy but also not the same. We haven't had recliners since 2000. We gave our fantastic ones to my sister because we didn't have room for them in our house.

Today on the way home from the hospital I went to the furniture store and purchased a recliner. The boys and I went tonight and picked it up at the warehouse so it would be here when Hubby gets home, hopefully tomorrow.

It literally took me a minute to pick it out. After I did, I found out it was on sale as one of the Black Friday specials. Yay! Then I found out it was a Lazy Boy just like our old ones we loved. It looks almost just like them, maybe identical, just a different color. It felt just like sitting in our old chairs when I tested it. That must have been why I loved it so much!

So now Hubby can have a chair to rest and recline and sleep in when he comes home. He still has a long recovery ahead of him, and now he can be more comfortable.

News: Heather might go home tomorrow. Wouldn't that be funny if she and Hubby left on the same day, even if it was his second time!

Twists

Hubby is back in the hospital. We spent about eight hours Wednesday night/Thursday morning in the emergency room. He finally got to a room around 8:00 a.m. Thanksgiving morning. His Thanksgiving meal consisted of beef broth, jello, and Italian ice.

I'll just go ahead and give you the entire scoop. If you get queasy, stop reading.

Wednesday night Hubby had a couple of violent episodes of projectile vomiting. After the second one we called the transplant number and they said we should come and have him checked. Hubby had blood drawn and an x-ray of his abdomen.

He was diagnosed with ileus. Basically, a portion of the intestine went back to sleep. This is completely typical following most abdominal surgeries, for the intestines to have to wake back up. What was unusual was that his were functioning normally and then a spot of them decided to go back to sleep. He did not have a blockage, but the food he was eating and digesting in his stomach could not pass that point in the intestines.

This morning in his room he was already starting to feel a little better. His stomach was not hard to the touch anymore and the doctor thought it might have resolved itself, which is what it needs to do. The alternatives aren't pretty, or comfortable. He had liquid lunch and dinner with a little solids for dinner too.

Hubby's white count was a little high when they checked his blood, so they'll be making sure it goes down tomorrow before they make a decision on whether he can come home. Hopefully it was just from the intestinal issue. He doesn't have fever or any other symptoms and is hardly taking any pain medication. He's really healing quite well. There has not been anything abnormal or unexpected happen along the way in his healing and recovery process.

He is having a flare-up of his gout though, so maybe that's making his white count high. It's tricky to walk the halls like you're supposed to when you feel like you have shards of glass in the big toe joint!

We had a friend come stay with the kids last night and then she took them to her parents' house today for Thanksgiving (Mr. Churchmember and his family from this story). I ate in the cafeteria while Hubby ate his broth.

As the kids said, "This is a Thanksgiving we'll always remember." We have a lot for which to be thankful!

Home

Hubby came home in the middle of Saturday afternoon. This is one of the souvenirs we brought home with us.

Every morning I get to give him one shot for seven days. It's in the stomach kind of by the belly button and not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

Although we do have to make sure Caboose isn't around or someone is running block for us. If you don't know much about him, there's a little about him and needles here.

Hubby is getting around much better than we thought he would. He's having to be careful not to overdo it since he's restless. Every day has been a little better until yesterday. It was a little blah and icky, but today seems better already.

This is what's going on at our house right now:

1. He started getting hyper-sensitive to smells on Sunday night in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep. Unfortunately one of the things I'd made had onion in it. He could smell it when he walked into the bedroom because I'm a mouth-breather. Now that's hyper-sensitive!
2. He also started struggling with a little nausea at the same time. I think it went along with the whole smell thing.
3. ESPN, hunting, or nature shows have been on our tv practically 24/7.
4. The first couple of days Hubby struggled to stay warm. I'd see what he needed and then go to the second floor. I'm always cold if that gives you any indication of just how hot it was on the first floor. I thought I was entering menopause.
5. We're very thankful the cat hasn't jumped on his stomach.

He's moving a little slower than he'd like, but probably very well for how soon it is after surgery. Hubby realized that the ideal thing would be if he'd had a recliner. We don't have one and haven't for years. Sleeping has been a little tricky for him. It's amazing to think that one week ago he had such a major surgery.

Heather was expected to be in the hospital about a week longer than Hubby, so she's still there. They finally got room on his floor and she moved there the day before he was released. We went to see her on the way out on Saturday. Her mom might leave a comment with a more detailed update.

Thanks for praying!

Recovery

I've been with Hubby since he got to his room Monday night. The transplant floor is sort of it's own special type of ICU but without one-on-one nursing care, although it is a better ratio than if he were on a typical floor. There are only private rooms and a pull-out chair, but the man at the front desk offered me a roll-away bed the first night. It's very nice and has a typical twin mattress on it.

Hubby asked me to stay again on Tuesday night, and Keith and Lori kept the kids another night. They've had them since Sunday night. Lori brought them up last night to see their dad for a little bit.

I know you're all probably curious how he is doing. You know how when you start a new brutal exercise program and the next day you feel bad and the day after that is even worse. It's kind of like that on a much grander scale. Hubby can have a tendency towards getting motion sickness, so some of the meds are making him feel dizzy and nauseous.

He's gotten very little real sleep. He has a central line that is very uncomfortable and he cannot wait to have removed, but they are providing TPN (liquid nutrition) through that line and cannot do that through a standard IV line. They have removed the other IVs and just have the central line in the neck now.

When you lose part of your liver, your own bilirubin goes up. He has a scratch on his eye from surgery. He'd love to take a shower. But he's not complaining and is trying to be agreeable. I told him he needs to get into that runner's mode now, the one I totally don't get, because running and me don't get along.

Even though we talked about what to expect to as much of a degree as possible based on the two C-sections I'd had, it still wasn't enough to prepare him for this. Yet even if he'd known, it wouldn't change his choice. This was a leading by God for both of us, and it really wasn't our choice at all. The glory all belongs to HIM.

Thanks for continuing to pray. I think Hubby would be happy with the six weeks recovery time now!

Today's The Day — Updated

Hubby has gone in for surgery. I got a call and they made the incision at 8:20. I'll get updates about every two hours as long as he is in the operating room. Thank you for praying for his safety and recovery as well as Heather's.

Laurie at Bargain Hunting and Chatting with Laurie has been kind enough to offer to forward cards for anyone who would like to send one. You just need to send it to Robert, c/o Laurie, P.O. Box 443, Blytheville, AR 72316.

UPDATE:

At about 3:30 the doctor came in to talk to me following the surgery (Heather started after him and will finish after him). I should be able to see Hubby by 5:00. Everything went well with his surgery. Please pray specifically for a quick (four instead of six weeks) and complete recovery, good liver regeneration, and minimal pain. Hubby has never had major surgery.

Becoming a Living Organ Donor

About 16 1/2 years ago, I took Chatty to Arkansas Children's Hospital. Hubby was still in Virginia. The girls had been born at 27 weeks gestation. They got out of the hospital the day they turned three months old, and about six weeks later after I'd nagged and nagged the pediatrician, we knew something was seriously wrong with Chatty's liver (it's a lengthy post, but includes links to the girls' birth stories and the explanation of Chatty's surgeries - just don't forget to come back and finish reading this one because you don't want to miss it either).

For the better part of a day we thought she had biliary atresia, a non-correctable liver disease where the bile ducts constrict and don't go back to normal. It would require a liver transplant. At the time she was 6 1/2 pounds, 4 1/2 months old, although they adjusted her age to 1 1/2 months due to prematurity.

After an ultrasound later in the day, everyone was doing the happy dance. They found a cyst in her bile duct. Surgery, although lengthy and some cutting and pasting would be required, would correct her problem.

We know that all the places we've been God has placed us. We can see His hand in it. So now to tie everything together...

Mari was one of my first blogging friends. I've since met her now that I live in Michigan too. Of course we met at Ikea! Goody for me that I live closer to it!

Well, last year around the holidays I realized that one of Mari's other blogging friends, Cathy, lived close to me. We exchanged a few casual emails. I told her where my church was located and she said she didn't live too far from it. I was in the car shooting the emails back and forth on my blackberry. I even mentioned it to Hubby casually while he was driving. I started following Cathy's blog.

In June of this year, just one day before our 25th anniversary, Cathy posted of the need for a liver transplant for her daughter, Heather. They were looking for someone with the same blood type, O+. That's what Hubby's is.

I asked him how he felt about being a live liver donor (I think I might have told him it was local and for an only child), he said to find out what he needed to do, and that's pretty much the beginning and end of it.

On November 15, my husband and Heather will both be having separate surgeries with separate doctors in the same hospital at the same time, which of course is local because we all live right here. Who had that all planned out?

Hubby's recovery will be 4-6 weeks. He'll be in the hospital about a week. They will be taking out the larger, front lobe of the liver (65 percent) and leaving 35 percent. It will regenerate to the normal size in six weeks.

My husband is a nice guy. He's pretty laid-back. He also has a great sense of humor. It's hard sometimes to show complete personalities on a forum like this. You can see his silly picture with Caboose and Mr. Excitement at a monster truck show on my sidebar. That's him. But sometimes it's a little more subtle. For example, I had him go pick up an ice cream cake at Dairy Queen on Father's Day for himself. Well, for all of us to share. This is what we ended up with:

I'm sure he had the lady at DQ laughing with that request!