Home at Last!

On October 30th Randy was finally discharged and came home!  After 3 months, 3 very long,  often traumatic, and dramatic months, it is incredible to see him back in his own home.  However, there were a few bumps on the way, mainly to do with me.  I thought that he would come home only when he could walk.  My interpretation of “walking” is very different from Zale Lipshy’s idea of “walking”.  Randy can use a walker and go about 20 feet, but the issue is getting up and down.  He has a belt around his waist to assist with “standing up”, and there is getting in and out of the car…and into bed, and lifting the wheelchair, and by 4p on October 30th I had to call Wesley, our son who now lives in Austin, to come to Dallas and help. My back has been in bad shape for several reasons, but adding the assistance Randy needs will push my spine over the edge.  We do not want that…it will do no one any good for me to end up down on my back. So Wes has been here, and I cannot begin to tell you how much it means to us to have him here, caring for his daddy.  He has been a trooper, cool, calm, and collected.  And compassionate, my boy has always been a sweetheart, and he still is.

Randy arrived home on Wednesday, and the next morning we got up early and went to St Paul’s University Hospital at UT for a chest xray, bloodwork, and “clinic”.  Clinic orders the tests they want to see, and involves checking in with the doctor and his lung transplant coordinator.  We were there for quite a while, but it was his first visit.  Dr. Kaza, who has been with us since day one at UT Southwestern, was in Clinic on Thursday.  It was so wonderful to see her…she was the one I always looked at to see how things were going.  She said to me, “It is good to see you here.  We had a few tough conversations, didn’t we?”.  Oh, yes, we did.  Dr. Vaidehi Kaza has to be one of the kindest, most compassionate doctors I have ever known.  She truly glows with an inner light, and has a very healing presence.  I will never be able to express my gratitude to her, and to the entire Transplant Team at UT.

Breathing treatments at home were ordered, a liver sonogram, and a CT scan has been ordered for Monday.  Having a Lung Transplant, and being so ill for so long, becomes a full time job.  His dose of steroid is being lowered which should help with his facial swelling and appetite.  For Randy it has been frustrating in many ways, but the one issue he has the most trouble with is food.  Randy’s motto was always, “can’t be too rich, can’t be too skinny, can’t have too much sour cream, you can never have enough cheese”.  I’m trying to take it a little easy on him by doing bread with only 3g of fiber instead of 5g, but even that drives him crazy.  He wants soft white bread.  And Mr. Everything-needs-more-Salt is having a problem with not salting everything.  He wants cheese.  Fine, but you can’t have too much, so you can’t have 4 slices of cheese on a grilled cheese sandwich.  That pissed him off.  We ended up compromising with tuna salad and tomato soup.  Tonight I have slow cooked a Cajun pork stew.  He’s eating right now…I’m sure there is something he will find wrong with it.  My theory is that since he is so hungry, he will acclimate quickly, and hopefully we won’t have this as a running battle.

I am tired.  Even with Wes here, I am tired.  All day we have blood pressure checks, temp checks, insulin shots, sugar sticks, pills….he is on a boatload of pills.  Anti rejection, anti viral, blood pressure, antibiotic, breathing treatments, and everything must be meticulously logged.  The log book goes into Clinic weekly.  Randy has Clinic and Pulmonary Therapy most of the day Monday.  Wes is going to take him and give me a breather.  I am hoping to get into a routine soon, and Randy is getting stronger every day.  When he can get up and down without help, Wes will be able to head back to his job hunting in Austin, and I’m sure Carisa will be happy to have him back.  I will try to go to yoga tomorrow….I really need it.

The kids were nervous about pain I am having, it’s muscle spasms from sitting in hospital rooms and moving things around, and not getting massages or yoga like I need to.  Anyway, I went to the doctor this morning to make them relax, and yes, it is STRESS.  I’m the luckiest mom in the world to have Ally and Wes, they are deeply caring and compassionate (among other traits which I will not elaborate on here).  I also realize how incredible it is that Randy is watching television in front of the fire at our home right now.  We have been truly blessed.

PS:  Randy liked the stew!  He liked it!  Mikey!