The Ups and Downs

I had a rocky start this morning.

I knew I needed to be up early in order to take Lee to his clinical down in the city. But my bed was warm and I slept right on through my designated shower time.

I rushed to get myself dressed, Lee up and moving, and the dogs out for their morning bathroom break. The cold weather just made me long even more to go back to sleep and forget about all my responsibilities. Instead I wrestled the dogs back inside, grabbed some sort of breakfast-to-go, and we made our way into the city.

At least the rush hour traffic wasn't too awful bad.

We arrived in the parking garage, and one look at the clock told me we were already 10 minutes late. In my haste I began to power walk towards the hospital entrance, while Lee reminded me (for the 100th time) that he could NOT move that fast and I needed to slow down a.s.a.p. So a leisurely stroll from the parking garage to the hospital entrance, and on down to the basement level transplant clinic it was for Lee and I.

We arrived behind schedule and were welcomed with a full house of other transplantees waiting to have bloodwork and doctors visits themselves. On top of that were the group of first time transplant people waiting to have orientation.

When you are first put on a transplant list you have to sit through a meeting that discusses what will be taking place in the coming years. I could see a range of emotions across their faces, and boy oh boy did I know each one well.

His appointment went on as well as could be expected. He had these removed:

We weren't sure if staple removal hurt or not, and folks, yes it does hurt! He said some were worse than others, but it did indeed feel rather unpleasant to have them out. On the brighter side of things he can sit more comfortably now that they are gone.

And I thought that would be that. I thought we would head on home to our puppies, make some lunch, and watch 'The Price is Right.' We can't miss 'The Price is Right' or someone gets upset.

(that someone is not me by the way)

At the end of one of the games (the woman won a pretty nice looking new jacuzzi/shower set) the phone rings. Lee's transplant coordinator was on the phone.

"Come back to the hospital," he says. "Straight to the E.R."

I'm left at guessing what the problem is because I can't hear everything being said on the other end. Lee hangs up and begins to put together his "going to the hospital" gear, which consists of his blackberry, nintendo ds, pills for the day, and a small snack. I'm thankful to report the problem is not with the new kidney, rather a potassium imbalance in his body that needs to be under control immediately. He chose to go back in by himself, and of course I'm sitting at home regretting let him do that!

I guess this is just par for the course in weeks after a major transplant.

I'm off to knit him a hat now after he requested a replica of the one I made for my little brother. Here's hoping it will put a smile on his face whenever he comes home.