99% is an A+ !

I have been home for four days in a row. It hasn't been hard to adjust.

Little by little, I am returning to real life. I sleep on a regular schedule, get up with the kids, go to all my appointments, work a little, taxi the kids around, do chores and make dinner. Mostly. And I nap a lot.

I am so lucky to have had my dad here to help me.  Well, sort of.  Up until this point, he hasn't actually been helping, he's been doing.  I've been the one helping him.  I know he wants to and enjoys time with his grandkids, but being a dad when you're really a grandpa looks exhausting.

My removed stent

I have my stent removed today.  It was placed inside my transplanted ureter at transplant to keep it open, but its no longer necessary.  The procedure only takes a few minutes and is uncomfortable but not really painful.  (I think I've built up an almost impenetrable strength/resistance to this kind of stuff.) The doctor advises me to be wary for excessive bleeding, but all day long, there's been none.

 

 After stent removal, I have my first post-hospital-release outpatient clinic appointment.  I'm feeling a little paranoid that anything could go wrong given my history, but everything falls in place.  My blood work looks great and I get back the best results I've gotten yet!

Dr Wali had previously explained to me that my CD3 level measures the amount of rejection cells present in my transplanted organs.  This test takes two days to culture. Upon admission, my CD3 was an acutely high 41%. (I'm not sure that I understand this completely, but logic says that leaves only 59% for the healthy organ cells...Ugh!) Dangerous and a little scary, he told me the safe zone for CD3 is less than 10%, so we are shooting for 90% healthy cells.  I am hoping for a trending down number, like the 20%'s or so. My post-hospital-release CD3 test comes back today with rejection cells at less than 1%!!

"This means the Thymoglobulin worked," Dr Wali says, but I'm really not paying attention at this point, just in awe and excited. Less than 1%?
 

"YAY!" My typical business-like approach to clinic appointments takes a back seat to my ear-to-ear grin of astonishment.

He goes on to tell me that he wont need me to return to the clinic for four weeks...woah! But I will be doing weekly labs and conferring with my nurse for any medication adjustments or unplanned check ups.  I'm looking forward to the break in trips to the hospital but a little nervous about being given such a long leash.  I remind myself that the only thing the doctor goes by in our clinic appointments and at the hospital is the lab work anyway; I can live with this.

What am I going to do with all my new free time and energy? I confirm with my nurse that I am allowed to do normal activities.  I can spend time in a kindergarten classroom, clean bathrooms, teach classes, go to the gym, eat at a pot luck?  Yes. "Live your life. Love your kids," Linda tells me. "You need to build up your resistance - just take it slow and use common sense."

My mind wanders and I imagine myself in my real life, busy again, really working and taxi-ing and changing diapers and paying bills and going to the gym and...I realize I wont be living MY real life anymore.  MY real life will be different than I have ever experienced. I don't know life without dialysis and diabetes, without taking the time to check my blood sugar and run the machine and all the other preventative and reactive measures I never seemed to have enough time for. 

Dr Wali interrupts my inner monologue and we say goodbye, shaking hands like old friends. I almost want to hug him. 

I smile and tell him I hope to not see him anytime soon.