Post Transplant is not easy

We are 5 days past Randy’s double lung transplant, and we are so grateful for his life. It just doesn’t seem like reality, it is so hard to process everything we have gone through.  When he is awake it is difficult to know what he understands, and more difficult to understand what he wants.  He tries to communicate, but with the tube of the ventilator still in place, he cannot speak, and he becomes very frustrated.  My son and daughter have been somewhat taken aback by his attitude….but have begun to communicate with him as best they can.  I am still filled with the joy of having Randy alive  and getting well, but I confess, he has been a bit on the difficult side.  As I said, Wes calls him “tube dad” as opposed to the real dad.

My daughter is very sensitive, and I don’t think she realized that when he woke up after receiving his lungs, that he would be so ill.  I tell her we must think about what it might feel like for him:  he was unconscious for almost 2 weeks, unmoving, on many different pain killers and anesthetics, to wake up with so much pain, and to be so weak that he could barely lift his fingers.  He sometimes seems to be able to communicate what he wants, of course, business is the first thing he thought about and he was able to communicate what he wanted to Wes.  Business!  Ugh!  This is the man who, while I was in labor with Alexandra, who ‘shushed’ me because he was on a business call in the labor room!  Some things never change.  A dear friend, Lauri, who is a speech  pathologist, pointed out to me tonight that he thinks he is speaking….he opens his mouth and thinks he is talking, and so he is frustrated that we cannot understand him.  I really believe the tube will come out tomorrow.  He has been exercising his lungs by breathing on his own (initiating the breaths on the vent), and the doctor says he has done well today. We will all be happy to have that tube out and see him begin his physical therapy.  He may also need some speech therapy.

I took the day off today, Rex was up there, and Ally spent an emotional afternoon with him…he was in pain, and she was very upset that she didn’t feel she could help him.  I told her not to go for a couple of days.  He is in the best care possible at UT Southwestern’s cardio-pulmonary ICU, they can actually do more for him than any of us can.

I need to make an appointment with the transplant coordinator and learn everything I should be doing to prepare the house for him…I’ve put in all hardwood floors and removed some of our oriental rugs, sanitized the vents, and had the house checked for mold or any other allergen.  Dust is the enemy, and I have had our dogs trimmed down…instead of Goldens, they look like blonde labs.  I have 3 air purifiers, but I plan to buy more.  Ally has moved out and taken her cats (Randy cannot have cats in the house), Wes and Carisa are looking for a place in Austin and so their dog and cat will be out of the house by the time Ran gets home.  Our house will head in the direction of Zen….as little as possible out that could get dusty.  It will be quite a job.  I also need to get back to my work schedule, which I’ve made on Wednesdays and Thursdays, so I can get my seniors finished up.  I will not be taking any more students, at least for the next year or so.  I also cancelled my trip to Komodo in January…I was going to do a 2 week dive/research trip with the Marine Megafauna Foundation, but Komodo is so remote….I need to stay a bit closer at hand.  It was tough to cancel, though, it was a trip of a lifetime…but I know there will be another opportunity.

Tomorrow, I am supposed to be in court for the probate of my mother’s will….then I will go to the hospital and see if Ran can communicate better without the tube.  I’m sure it is very confusing.