Transplant days 53-54, insomnia, and Christmas carols

Photo Brian took while we were singing Christmas carols. Notice that when Patrick is tired he can't stop moving, hence all the pictures are motion blurred from this day.
Photo Brian took while we were singing Christmas carols. Notice that when Patrick is tired he can’t stop moving, hence all the pictures are motion blurred from this day.

Last night was a tough mix for us. Patrick slept the best he has in a week. Brian and I did not. As I put Patrick down, I noticed that there was some blood in his ostomy bag. An intestinal bleed could mean scary things for him.. But we also knew that it was Sunday night and not the most efficient time in the hospital. So we decided to wait and watch. And within an hour and a half the bleeding had stopped.

But for me, that meant setting the alarm clock every 2 hours during the night to make sure it didn’t come back. If that weren’t enough of a loss of sleep, at 4 a.m. Brian got up to go to the bathroom. Patrick woke up and insisted someone needed to lay with him. As much as I love the sweet little boy cuddles, Patrick hogs the bed.

We did finally all get to sleep, but unfortunately, Patrick had labs due this morning so when the alarm went off, I could only snooze it a couple of times before having to wake us all up.

After labs, we left Brian in the room and Patrick and I went downstairs to get him his meds and make his formula. The formula especially is quite a production to make. This morning, though, more than usual. While I was still working on it, the front doorbell of the house rang. I was the only one downstairs, so when it rang a couple more times, I went to answer. Turns out the girl from the office had locked herself out with a couple of people bringing by donations.

Well, Patrick sometimes bebops over and lets people in if they wait long enough. So he went and let them in. It turned out to be a family from a montessori school coming by to drop off some donations. They were waiting for the rest of the class, though, so they came in to wait. Then the bell rang again and this time it was people coming to put that night’s dinner into crockpots.

So here I am, in the kitchen trying to mix up Patrick’s 2.5 gallons of crazy complicated formula with people buzzing all around me making dinner. (And me telling them where to find everything.) And I look up and notice that there’s a little boy Patrick’s age that came over with the Montessori group looking bored but trying to be good. So I grabbed Patrick and went over and introduced him and got them a game to play together.

Eventually, the rest of the Montessori class arrived and they took some pictures together (and with Patrick.) And then my phone rang and it was the transplant team returning my call. And when I came back, Patrick had somehow gotten them to give him one of the gift bags that they’d brought along. As it happens, it was filled with Sesame Street themed things that we now find invaluable.. an Elmo bread crust cutter-offer and a couple of dry erase number and shape writing workbooks. (These happen to be the two fine motor practice things that i didn’t have in dry erase form.)

P.S. the doctors said that the apparent blood in the output was likely an anomaly and not to worry about it unless it came back.

We came back to the room to find Brian on a work call so I made a hurried effort to get Patrick his mommy-school readers printed for the week so we could get out of the way. We went downstairs and spent an hour doing mommy school. I could tell Patrick was tired then. He was happiest just snuggled up doing educational games on my computer.

And as the day wore on, he got more and more tired.

At dinner, we got to eat the chili that had smelled so amazing in the house all day. Then we tried going for a drive to look at Christmas lights. But I got us lost. And Patrick fell asleep. It was kind of a bust.

— picking up this post a couple of days later—

Patrick falling asleep wasn’t the greatest of things for him. He was still exhausted enough to be totally irrational. When he’s tired, the steroids kind of take over and all rational thought shuts off. We were all already tired, but nothing we could do would convince him to sleep. Brian and I went the rounds with him until 2 a.m. when Brian had him downstairs in time out for screaming in the middle of the night. I decided we needed to just find a way for the grown-ups to sleep so I drew up morning meds so we wouldn’t have to go out of the room for them. And then suggested we just turn on the TV for him.

Well, when Patrick saw the room, he decided he was ready to lay down again and went to sleep without much more fight. We slept till a little after 9 when giving morning meds was enough to wake Patrick.

It was kind of a rough morning. I don’t do well when I’m tired. I cry a lot.

But once we got past the morning, we were able to lay down and rest a little and that helped us reset. (Not sleep… just rest. We received several dozen.. maybe even 100.. homemade Christmas cards this week from a middle school, a primary, and Brian’s work so we sat down and read all of those.)

I called the team back one more time because Patrick’s output had been black looking during the night. They came back again and said his labs looked good and he didn’t seem to be feeling bad and that maybe it was the food he was eating. As in, the dyes in the food he was eating.. (That night instead of letting him have a cup of soup at dinner, I served him ham instead of soup. Sure enough, no funny colors.)

After dinner, though, we had something I’ve been looking forward to ever since I started playing the piano here. Our Christmas sing-along.  I spent the quiet moments in the day typing up and printing lyrics to several Christmas songs. We gathered up those of us in the house who’ll get together to do things like this. Plus, the sister missionaries came over. They had offered to come visit and that happened to be the only day that they could come.. and the best day for us to do the sing-along. I figured more voices could only help.

It was a lot of fun to gather around the piano and sing. Everyone was a great sport. We sang everything on my list, and then when we needed to fill some time before our next activity, we took requests. I hope everyone got to sing or hear their favorite.

Then everyone visited for a while and then went upstairs to work on a craft that one of the House employees had put together for us. Patrick and I really kind of enjoyed that while Brian drew up meds.

And then, Patrick laid down in bed and was asleep in about 10 minutes. I think I wasn’t far behind. Looking like we are going to need to explore a new phase in Patrick’s life. Giving up naps.

It is amazing to see how much this has made him grow up. Have I mentioned he also weaned himself from pacifiers? After 6 years and not knowing how he’d ever quit them… the hospital experience was enough to just make him not like them. I offered them back a few days after we got to the Ronald McDonald House. He tried them but didn’t like them. So I sat down and explained that kids grow up and then they are big kids and grownups and don’t like paci’s anymore. He thought about it and then said, “Me too, mom.” He was done. I told him that as soon as I get a chance, I’ll remove the pacifiers from his wubbanub friends and he’s great with that idea.

And that has nothing to do with anything except that I hadn’t told you. So that’s a summary of the hardest 2 days of the week. Next post, Christmas Eve.

 

Transplant Day 52 and I’m So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

I apologize for the long lapse in posts. It’s all for very, very good reason. Friday, Brian came back into town. And we have kept ourselves busy all weekend with family time.

I can’t put into words how good it is to have our family all back together. Even if we are all in a pretty small room together. Getting in the car to drive to the airport to pick up my husband and best friend made me more than a little emotional. It’s only been 2 weeks, but it was a long 2 weeks for all of us.

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Friday night’s dinner group went all out with a full Christmas dinner, decorations, bingo and prizes. It was not a bad welcome home party. Patrick had a hard time sleeping with the excitement of Daddy with him in he Ronald McDonald House the first time. (He doesn’t know Brian was here while he was in the hospital, so he kept trying to give Daddy the tour.) And it was also the first day with a change in Patrick’s feed schedule so I botched the feeding pump programming and schedule so it alarmed a few times during the night and none of us got a great night’s sleep.

Yesterday, we got up and Brian dived right in helping with Patrick’s medications. We’re used to a lot of medications and a lot of care but there are a lot of little intricacies that it takes time to get used to. Still, we got through all of it so much faster with extra hands working on it.

That was great, as we wanted to go to the store and Patrick is safest if we shop in the mornings while stores are uncrowded. We went to Target and picked up a few things we needed. Then, we got in the car to go. Only, it wouldn’t start because we’d accidentally left the lights on and the battery was dead.

So, deciding that we needed nice backup plan for me when I’m alone anyway, Brian went into the store and bought a car battery jumpstarter. We got the car started and then went for a nice long drive to charge the battery.
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When we got back, we grabbed some lunch. Patrick has surprised us these last few days. He has gone from casually grazing on food to eating voraciously. Ok, well.. almost eating. He still spits out much more food than he swallows. Except soup. He’ll eat a cup of soup pretty easily. He is always asking if he can eat and asking for more at the end of a meal. I’m kind of excited to get him started in feeding therapy and see if we can get him the skills he needs to swallow his food. Because he sure does enjoy it right now.

Afternoon nap was much harder work than it should have been. Patrick is always tired but having a hard time sleeping here. When he did make it to sleep, though, he slept the next 2 hours.

We ended up waking him because we needed to get him ready for the evening’s plans.

Last week, a little before our anniversary, I talked to a friend from church and asked her if she’d consider making arrangements for someone to babysit Patrick here at the house so Brian and I could go on a date. She volunteered. I asked her if she could suggest any restaurants. She ended up going above and beyond. Not only did she give me the names of a few places, she e-mailed the nicest steakhouse in town and asked them if they had any coupons that might make them affordable.
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Their reply was one of those humblingly generous things that we are having a hard time getting used to. Hearing our story, 801 Chophouse offered to give us a $100 gift card that would cover the cost of our entrees. I’ve eaten at a lot of very nice restaurants. This one definitely had the high-end feel down, though. I felt a bit young and naive as the waiter went through the menu options.
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The meal was delicious, though. New York Strip in a bone marrow butter bath, aged cheddar hash brown potatoes, lobster macaroni and cheese, and some of the yummiest green beans I’ve ever seen with bacon that was as impressive as the steak.
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They gave us extra special treatment because we were there celebrating an anniversary. The menus even had “Happy Anniversary” printed at the top.

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And the amazingly decadent chocolate souffle with chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla cream sauces on the side.. well they gave that to us as an anniversary gift.
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After dinner, Brian and I went for a walk around the area known as “Old Market.” There were Christmas lights lining a sort of park/waterway with bridges and pathways. A perfect atmosphere, if more than a little bit cold.

When we got back to the house, we found Patrick happily dining on ham and mashed potatoes. We said goodbye to my friend and her friend who’d come to help and then sat down to do crafts.

Today’s been a mostly quiet Sabbath. I got to go to church while Brian and Patrick stayed back at the house and played and did some work. Once I got back, we went back to the Mormon Trail Center to see the gingerbread houses together. Patrick was calmer this time. (Medication right? Previous experience visiting?) Anyway – this made it much easier to admire the gingerbread houses this time around. And when we got upstairs, he headed right for his favorite kid-friendly activities like dress ups.
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Patrick is eating up daddy time. I kind of feel bad because that’s about all Brian has had a chance to do. They cuddle together and watch TV or play on their cell phones. Meanwhile, I got to play the piano and make frosting for gingerbread houses.

Patrick didn’t last long at that activity tonight, but he had fun doing it and I’m glad that Wendy went to the trouble to get all the ingredients and put things together. I think everyone is enjoying it.

We’re just about to eat dinner. Last night’s dinner group saw me preparing leftovers from a turkey carcass to be turned into soup.. So they made homemade egg noodles and turned their leftovers into soup for us today instead. That’s what we’ll be eating. Then we’re hoping that not giving Patrick a nap has made him tired enough to go to bed on time.

Transplant Day 49 and Clinic again

I am trying a short post from my cell phone again. That will explain the crazy words in wrong places.

Patrick was angry with me today. I think he wanted more attention. And I think he wasn’t ready to skip his nap two days in a row. But we made it through.

One of our friends here for to go home yesterday. More of that will happen as families had home for Christmas. That made it so morning med prep wasn’t as quiet and lonely.  A few people were there to say goodbye.

We spent some time today trying to get ready for Brian to come back. He comes in tomorrow. So we cleaned and we shopped.

We had a follow up visit with the transplant team today. I bought Patrick a bag of BBQ potato chips at the store and he are these through the whole appointment.. Spitting them out in a bag while we talked and no one batted an eye.

Things still look really good this week. His output was a bit high yesterday which worried me, but they said it was still very good. The changes today were minor. They are adding a lipid to his formula in the morning to help make sure he doesn’t get a fatty avid deficiency. Also, he has been too dry, so they are adding some extra fluid. Mostly just a recipe change. Well, plus a volume change, but that is still easy so long at his gut is OK absorbing it.

The concern is still making sure his lungs stay clear so no elecare formula for a few more weeks.

After clinic, we dropped off some spare parts (a line repair kit and g tube button) to a family we meet inpatient. Their little girl just got a line and started TPN. So we wanted to give her the makings of a special doll.

The rest of the day included boys clues, a craft, soup for dinner that Patrick ate well, and playing the piano. This was made sweeter as I fit some audience tonight.. The grandparents of the boy who passed away. Turned out grandpa is a  baptist patriot. They came just to listen to the music.

I just crashed helping Patrick sleep
so this is a quick update.  More tomorrow. I have high hopes Brian can fix my internet

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Transplant Day 48 and some Christmas Cheer

It’s been a busy couple of days. Without labs in the morning, I’ve been trying to work on a little bit of a better sleep schedule.  I don’t know that we’re getting more sleep, but at least we haven’t been up till midnight.

Yesterday we didn’t have labs and Patrick actually slept till 8 a.m. Then we took our sweet time getting ready and out of the room, which is always nice. It usually means I get some cleaning done.

Because Patrick had slept so late, I decided to try out skipping nap.  That meant I needed to keep him entertained for the day instead. I stole a little bit of internet time in the morning while he played in the playroom and I downloaded the new homeschool curriculum I want to use for “mommy school.” (I’m using Reading the Alphabet, if you are curious.) Then we came upstairs and I printed out a little reader to practice with and a reader.

Patrick was so excited to do mommy school. I think he’s feeling as bored and stir crazy as I am. He mastered his book in about 5 minutes. The series I’m using is a sight words preprimer series.. So pretty basic stuff. Just sight words mixed with pictures that he should be able to decipher. This is what he was using in school before transplant so it seemed like a good place to pick up. It’s probably a slower paced curriculum than he’d be getting in a typical classroom, but i figure that anything is better than 3 or less hours a week and the pace seems to match his learning style. Once he had mastered his book, we did a little bit of writing practice with the word of the week, (“a”) and the letter of the week (“Tt”).. and then we took his book to practice reading to other people. Both he and they love this method of practicing reading. I have the feeling that taking his books to the office staff to practice is going to be pretty par for the course.

After a little bit of resting/cleaning time in our room, we got ready for the evening’s excitement. Last night was the hospital’s annual pediatrics Christmas party. A company called Renaissance financials hosts this every year for the inpatient and outpatient pediatric patients. That means that you don’t have to be in the hospital to be invited. They know there are a lot of us here who’ve traveled quite some way and will be here long-term.

The party started with a magician. It’s amazing to me to see Patrick old enough to appreciate these things. He laughed and was awed by the tricks. He really wanted to be a helper, but didn’t raise his hand to say so.

After the magic show, we found our tables and worked on making jingle bell necklaces, marshmellow snowmen, and gingerbread houses made out of graham crackers and take out boxes. We were joined there by one of the employees helping to host the party.

That kind of made this the perfect blend of holiday party for me. It had all of the kid-friendly elements that I’m used to from a school or church party. But there were employees and their wives there for their annual company Christmas party, too.. All dressed up. It kind of helped soothe the part of me that is really missing corporate Christmas dinners.

We had a dinner of pizza and breadsticks. Patrick enjoyed some crust and declared the julienned carrots from my salad “perfect.”

And then, they made us all sing Christmas carols. They top this off with a tradition where each of the 12 dinner tables has to make up and action to do to their assigned day of the 12 Days of Christmas. I hope our 5 golden rings had enough flair.

Then, the night was topped off with a visit from Santa Claus himself. They came and called the kids up for their turns one by one so there was no line or crush. Each kid got some personal time with Santa. Patrick took his to open the present that Santa had brought him.. A big noisy 3-wheeled motorcycle that races across the room when you push a button.

Patrick’s attention was gone pretty quickly after his visit with Santa. We snuck out as things started to wind down and ran to the store to get a few things to make some little gifts for the many people we have gotten to know here. (I’m making angel ornaments out of ribbon, a paperclip, and a bead.) Patrick thinks Michaels is the best store ever.. specially since they had little shopping baskets with a handle he could pull like a rolling suitcase.

And then we came back to the house where all the kids were playing with the toys Santa brought. It reminded me of Christmas morning… which makes me really look forward to Christmas. We have lived with these kids for a couple of weeks now and they are getting to be friends. It was fun to see them sharing toys with each other.. racing around shooting each other with nerf guns and taking turns with the remote control car.

It was especially needed last night as one of the families staying in the house lost their son last night. It is hard to put into words the way that a loss like that hurts in a community like this. We understand more deeply than anyone can the pain of that loss and just want to take it away.

Today has been a pretty low-key kind of day. I got Patrick to sleep last night by 10, but that meant he was wide awake and happy at 6:30. He chose to play on his bed for an hour, though, and when he was ready to go was pretty good downstairs.

The grandparents of the boy who passed away stayed here last night and Patrick has been particularly attached to them all day.. Cuddling up with both of them and playing charmer. He really has a way of knowing what people need sometimes.

Then, when he did leave them, Patrick went to visit his friends in the office. He has made this a bit of a morning tradition. I don’t think they mind much. House rules say they are supposed to give us our space.. but if we go visit them, that is ok. Patrick likes to go visit.

Over lunch, Tyson, the 18 year old transplant recipient, took Patrick downstairs to play in the playroom while I showed his mom how to make homemade frosting and how to roll out and cut sugar cookies. (It’s funny how this is something I have just taken for granted knowing how to do. After a lifetime of baking with mom and grandma, going to church activities, doing crafts, and learning other homemaking skills.. I guess I kind of assume that most people have some experience with these things. But they have been wowed by my skills here and it’s kind of a strange feeling. The things you discover when you leave the Mormon belt.)

I got a call this afternoon from hospital social work asking me to come pick up Christmas gifts. While we were still inpatient, they came and asked if one of the hospital departments could adopt us for Christmas.. given how far we are from home and knowing what our co-pays were going to be. We tried to decline and offer this to someone else, but they insisted that we fit the bill to help. So, we made a simple list for them.

What I picked up today was not simple. My trunk is full. And there was a gift card included too that kind of blew me away.

Anyway – once we finished that outing, Patrick asked to try to play at a park. We went, but he got too cold too fast again. So we came back to the house and let him play in the playroom while I paid some bills and then pulled out my new Christmas music books and played on the piano. This is another thing that I kind of have taken for granted in the past. People who play the piano are limited back home, but there’s a few of us in every neighborhood at least. Here, though.. some of the staff say they have never seen this piano used to play actual music. I am so excited to try a sing along.

Next was dinner. One of the drawbacks of the Ronald McDonald House at Christmas time is that all the dinner groups very well-meaningly try to bring in a festive holiday meal. You don’t want to know how many hams have been served here this week. Patrick is loving it, though. Ham and potatoes is one of his favorite meals and he will happily eat it over and over again. It just makes me smile and remember my missionary days when we’d be fed at member houses and we’d see food seasons. I wonder what food season comes after Christmas.

Then, I ended up letting Patrick stay up just a bit late because we decorated cookies tonight. It was so much fun and I was really grateful for Wendy, a mom and friend in the house, and all of the resources and work she put into getting Christmas cookies into the house.  The kids had a great time. Patrick loved it and, yes, I let him splurge and have some frosting tonight. (He’s supposed to be on a no concentrated sugar diet at least until things get a little more stable.)

Our word of the day was “angels”. We read about how angels appeared to sing about Christ’s birth. And then for good measure, I pulled out my YouTube video and watched this awesome video… a record breaker for multitudes of angels in a live Nativity, and heart-touching to boot.

And now Patrick’s finally made it to sleep. I’m thrilled he is asleep before 11 again.. But every night I have grand intentions of getting up and getting to work once he is asleep. I have a couple of presents to wrap and the room needs cleaning and the laundry needs put away. Especially since we have labs tomorrow. But I can barely keep my eyes open. So I’ll be settling on finishing up this post, hunting down an internet connection so I can post it.. and then going off to bed.

 

Transplant Day 46 and Physical Therapy

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Today was a busy day. I knew we’d need to be up early to start out with labs, but last night was another night where Patrick didn’t make it to sleep till midnight. So when he snuggled up next to me and fell back asleep this morning, I didn’t really have the heart to wake him.

At 8, as my alarm was going off after the 3rd snooze, I decided we were going to have to bite the bullet and get up. I could tell that sometime during the night Patrick’s ostomy bag had come loose. Thank goodness I’ve got a good drain system set up so it didn’t make a mess that woke us earlier. But it did mean that we had to start off with a bag change right away.

Patrick wasn’t so sure of me when I put him in the tub without waterproofing his bag.. But it actually worked very well to make it come off quite easily and changing the bag went very smoothly. But we were really pressed for time so when the phone rang to tell me they were showing his nurse up, he was still quite naked and wrapped in bath towels.

We hurried to get a diaper on and wrapped him up in a blanket and the nurse was able to draw his labs. Meanwhile, my phone rang and it was the pharmacy. It’s been one week since discharge. Time for a new shipment of supplies.

When we got through all of that, it was already 9 a.m. I begged Patrick to stay on the bed and watch Blues Clues and let me run downstairs for his medicines alone so it could be faster. He agreed and we were able to get all of his medicines given on time. But in the meantime, he was a lot happier in the room watching TV than he usually is trying to entertain himself while I do up meds in the morning. In fact, he happily stayed and played and watched TV for another hour and a half.

That gave me time to clean up the room a bit and to set up the printer that my mom and dad bought me for my birthday. (I knew I’d want to do Mommy School here so that was one of my first wishes.)

Finally, I was hungry and he needed formula made so it would have time to chill before starting the new batch running and we had to give in and leave the room. Besides, Patrick needed me to buy him new socks. So we went downstairs and got ready and went to Target.

Let me tell you about why Patrick needed new socks as it brings you to the next part of our day. If you are new to our story, you may not know that Patrick has an anoxic brain injury and cerebral palsy. When he was 8 months old, his heart stopped because of an infection and some medication they were using to treat it. It took over 15 minutes of CPR to revive him. The result is that the ends of all of the blood vessels in his brain were deprived of some oxygen. That accounts for a lot of his behaviors and most of his developmental delays and learning disabilities.

When you hear the phrase “cerebral palsy” you probably imagine someone with a very severe case whose body is contorted with muscle spasms: someone who can’t eat, can’t talk, can’t walk, etc. That is what you imagine because that is the presentation that you can’t ignore so you ask about it. But what cerebral palsy really means is that at birth or shortly thereafter, the brain was starved for oxygen, leaving the patient with a “palsy” or lack of control of the muscles of the arms or legs or more. The signal from the brain to these limbs gets confused or altered somewhere along the way causing unexpected movements, often causing the muscles to spasm.

Well, over the past week, I have seen Patrick’s hip and foot of his right foot turning inward. He is becoming more clumsy and having  a harder time controlling those muscles. I started making him wear his walking brace for half to all of the day. (Enter the need for new, longer socks that would prevent rubbing from the brace against his leg.) We’ve been doing stretching, too, and those muscles are much tighter than they have been in years.

Today after shopping and a short nap, I took Patrick for a physical therapy evaluation in the hospital’s outpatient clinic. I wanted to evaluate his recovery and I was especially worried about this problem with his gait.

The news was good. First of all, Patrick is a “rockstar” from the physical therapy standpoint. His incision is better healed, his movement is better, his pain level is less, and his energy is more than most patients at this point. He is really doing remarkably well.

The therapist said that she thinks that the spasticity in his leg is likely a combination of problems: the trauma of transplant, the effect of new medications, the exhaustion of recovery. In other words, she said that it’s probably something that he’s feeling all over, we just are seeing it more in his leg because that is where he is weakest. She said that for every 1 day in the hospital, we should expect 2 days for his body to recover. Considering that he spent 39 days in the hospital, it will be a few months before he is back to full strength.

The prescription is simple. Keep doing all of the exercises we were working on at home for leg strengthening like climbing stairs, squatting and tiptoes, bike riding, jumping. But, for the next little while, have him wear his brace so that while his nerves and muscles are relearning and recovering, we are training his body to move the right way. Patrick is not amused by this prescription. He keeps asking me to let him take his boot off because he feels like it’s in his way.

The therapist said that she is seeing such progress in the area of gross motor skills that, given our insurance policy’s very limited therapy visits, that she feels like physical therapy would not be her focus right now. She recommended instead that we take advantage of the opportunity to work with an occupational therapist who specializes in feeding in kids post-transplant while we are here.

She also said to allow him lots of rest. And I think that I realized today that doing so may require a little more keeping him in our room. When we hit our room, all of the sensory overload caused by the rest of the house melts away. He is happy watching TV and doing crafts. Tonight it finally clicked for him that the tote in the corner is a toybox and that he is allowed to go get those toys out and play with them.

I don’t know for sure. We’ll need to find a balance so he gets social time, too. We both need it. But we both were much happier with some quiet, one-on-one free play time in the room.

We had another special treat tonight. One of the men from our church who helps bring the sacrament has talked for a while about inviting us over for dinner. Well, tonight, we got the chance. That was really such a treat! Patrick had a great time playing with their two little ones (ages 3 and almost 5). I spend some time with some other adults about my age whom I have a lot in common with. And just take a break from all of this medical stuff for a while. But also, without a ton of explanation. He has been visiting for a while now. He was also the anesthesiologist on Patrick’s case the night of transplant. So they know the story and some of the things they should expect. It was good to just be normal for a little while.

We were both sad to see the evening come to a close. But it was bedtime and we needed to unwind to go to sleep here, too. Setting up my printer meant I also set up a place my laptop can sit next to the TV, so we were able to turn on one of the new DVD’s that Brian’s parents sent him. We watched Curious George’s Christmas while I cleaned up the room, prepared feeds, drew up medications, and got Patrick into his pajamas.

He made it to sleep by 10:30 tonight which isn’t the greatest, but is better than midnight. He also is starting to prefer to go to sleep in his bed on his own. He won’t admit that. He would love for me to lay with him. But he has started to do his usual putting himself to sleep routine if I’ll just lay with him for a bit, then tell him it’s time for met o kiss him goodnight. I kiss him and go lay in my bed until he falls asleep. Then I get up and try to get done whatever was waiting for him to rest.

Tonight while I waited, I decided to poke around Pinterest for kindergarten homeschooling ideas as Patrick’s teacher was still sick today and an hour a week of school is certainly not getting him the education he needs or that his little mind is craving. I am thrilled to say that I stumbled across a curriculum that looks like it will pick up exactly where he left off at school and that really fits his learning style. It even has little printable readers. (I’m trying to decide if I print them or see if it’s possible to throw them into an e-reader format to save on printing). I’m excited to grab a little bit of playroom time tomorrow morning so I can get it downloaded and start working on it.

One last bit of news, then I have to post this and get to bed. My eyes are drooping. Patrick’s transplant coordinator called this afternoon. The great news is that his prograf level is finally in range. Just barely, but it’s there. That’s the first time in a week. That means no medication adjustment. It also means that we get to switch to twice weekly labs. And THAT means that we can sleep in in the morning if we’re tired. At least till meds are due at 9.

However.. you probably wont’ get to read this until then because I am just plain too sleepy to go hunt down an internet connection until morning.

Transplant Day 45 and Gingerbread

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Well, it’s about 6 p.m. on a very quiet Sunday evening here in Omaha. Patrick is taking a little time in the playroom and I thought I’d throw out a quick update.

It’s been a simple day. We slept in a little bit because we were told no labs. I had Patrick in the bathtub when there was a knock at the door. It was his home nurse. She hadn’t gotten a change of orders. So while she called looking for those instructions, I got Patrick back out of the bath and dressed just in case. But she got it sorted out and went on her way.

That put us a little ahead of our expected schedule for the morning. We ate breakfast and got meds and then pulled out the Dora Candyland game they have here to play while waiting for our next plans.

I decided that maybe a Sunday morning outing would be a nice change of pace today. The Mormon Trail Center has a gingerbread house display every Christmas. I’d heard about it from more than one of the nurses. So I invited any of our friends at the house willing to be up and out earlier in the day to meet us at 10:30 to go over. (I am still hiding from crowds to protect Patrick from illness with his weakened immune system.)

We don’t have many early risers in the house right now, so only our friend Wendy joined us. Her son is 18 and had a transplant a year ago. So while he slept, she came with us.

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The gingerbread houses were fun and impressive. There were simple displays from scout troops and other kids groups. There were also very elaborate displays with sculpted candy and such. It inspired us to want to set up a gingerbread house making activity here at the house.

Then, we went upstairs in the visitors center and took a brief tour. I should maybe get tired of that, but I really don’t. I see so many parallels between the sacrifices that pioneers made crossing the plains to our life right now. Separated from husband and family. Small living quarters. Nebraska weather. And hard trials. I was really glad we got to go.

And they finished off the tour with this little video about the true and first gift of Christmas, Jesus Christ. I’ve been meaning to share it with you. Now seemed like the right time. I was talking to Brian last night. He’s doing all the grunt work of Christmas this year. Mailing cards, wrapping presents. Meanwhile, I’m here with my little nativity advent tree and only serving Patrick and the other people in the house as my jobs right now. It’s a different Christmas season and teaching me a lot.

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Anyway, we came back to the house and ate lunch, put in some laundry, visited with some of the other kids for a while. Patrick was sent a 12 days of Christmas gift countdown by our church youth group and today was the first day to open a present.

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Then the elders came with the sacrament. Our usual guy was busy this week and so this was a new father-son duo that came to visit. They got a bit lost on the way. It always seems so very brief when there are no meetings around the sacrament. I miss church horribly right now. I’m realizing that I had found a way to work scripture study and prayer into our hospital routine.. But this new Ronald McDonald House routine has been harder that way. Patrick can’t sleep in because of labs and that’s when I was reading before. And with his insomnia, he is up till almost 11. You think finding time to blog is hard? Try finding time for quiet study and meditation when you have a 6 year old who is desperately stir crazy with you in every waking moment.

But I can tell today that it needs to be a priority. Sundays are kind of a day to refill spiritually and I can tell that my lamp is running on empty and there are no meetings of any kind to refill me. That falls to me these days.

There’s no dinner in the house tonight so I probably had better go up and make us some dinner here sooner or later.  But I thought that while I had a quiet moment and an internet connection, it was worth checking in. Sorry about the typos in yesterday’s blog post. I wrote from my phone and I obviously didn’t do a good job proofreading.

Transplant Day 44 and Mexican Night

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Well as the week goes on, I feel bad for feeling so crazed and out of control our first couple of days here. We are establishing a routine and I am finding myself with plenty of time to kill these days. At least the days go quickly.

Yesterday morning started with labs. On the weekend, they have to be drawn at 8:30 but submitted by 9 or the results won’t be back. So we were up and ready early.  The lab draw was done early, though, so we quickly made it downstairs.

In the morning, Patrick has meds at 9. Two of these are stored on a fridge on the first floor so I draw up the room temperature ones in our room then we finish downstairs. Patrick gets borer and wanders off. This time, I brought a little game with me and it went better than usual.

Then, we wash the containers his formula is mixed in and make a new batch for the day. Patrick likes helping me shake the soap in the mixing bottles.

Next, we grab it dirty laundry and poor in a batch. Patrick plays and I get some free time. I had a to do list on my computer but it wasn’t coming yesterday. So I switched over to playing the piano. That created a bit of a sitter in the house and made me wish I had had Brian pack more music.

Patrick wasn’t very happy with me though for directing him to play alone when he was bored. And he got more and more naughty as time wore on.

Finality, we got to our room and he was both dysregulated (out of control of his sensory processing) and feeling pretty disobedient. We ended up sorting down and drawing some house rules. Doors and drawers stay the way we found them. Don’t play with light switches. Leave the wheeled garbage can in its place. Only scam the spot let card I’ve each time we use it. Stay by mom. Listen and obey the first time.

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We free and hunt up these rules and I granted a bunch of stickers to praise him when he kept them. I also cut a “stop” cue or if craft foam and told him that any time I showed it and he stopped what he was doing to come to me, he could have more stickers.  The rest of the day wasn’t perfectly smooth, but we both were trying harder and it worked a little better.

The weather is still warm. Mid 50’s. So I grabbed us sweaters and we tried going to the park again. But we were barely out of the car when Patrick was shivering and asking to go. Guess I underestimated his body mass. So we came back to the house and took a nap instead.

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Then, it was time to start dinner. A few days ago one of the other bonds and I were talking about cooking. There are a lit of Hispanic families in the house right now. I mentioned that I learned to make tingavas a missionary and love it. And somehow decided I should make it on the next day we didn’t have a dinner group.

That was yesterday. I bought some ingredients the day before, but don’t dare take Patrick in a store on Saturday because of immune suppression. So we made a shipping list and a few other moms divided up the rest.

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We spent yesterday evening cooking. I made things. Violeta made rice. Miriam made salsa. Wendy did the veggies and chased Patrick.  We made enough to share and so helped feed 4 other families. They all offered to help pay for it, too, but we have been given some generous gifts this week and it felt good to share. Instead, they helped with cleanup.

Dinner was yummy. It was so nice to have some normal.. To cook and visit and let Patrick play without me nagging him over rules. To eat something different.

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After a few hours running around playing, Patrick stated to complain that it was hard to walk. His cerebral palsy has between especially pronounced odd late. His muscles atrophied while he was in bed and as we work to rebuild them, the spasticity in his leg and hip is coming back strong. I am having him wear his brace most of the day, but his hip still turns. And so by dinner, he was so tired he was falling because he was paying and walking and climbing stairs and made those weak muscles tired.

After dinner, I turned on blues clues in or room and finally convinced him he could stay and rest and watch while I ran around. So he sat in the bed and watched TV while I got meds and formula for the evening.

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We went to bed on time, but chatted with Brian before sleeping.  That made Patrick excited. At 11 I declared I was too sleepy and needed to go to my bed. I think he fell asleep about the time I did.

And now you get a post because I had a bad dream and need to be up to refill formula here soon so I figured it was a good time to write.

I took these pictures two days ago at the park. Just haven’t been able to get them to upload till today.

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Transplant Day 43 and Celebrating 11 years

(Sorry.. Internet connection isn’t doing syncing pictures right now. Will edit and add later if I can.)

Today is our wedding anniversary. The week has been so crazy that I wasn’t sure how today was going to turn out. We got the day off of labs so we slept all the way till 8 a.m. But then when we woke up, getting ready quickly was important. Still have to get meds from the fridge downstairs by 9 a.m.

But the morning routine is getting better. Brian sent a package yesterday and so I opened that while Patrick was in the bath. It had a few thoughtful little gifts in it. It made me really, really miss my best friend. But one of the gifts was a necklace that I have been able to wear all day to remind me of him. I have been so glad that we went big with a Disney trip last year as we’ve had to spend this day apart.

Thankfully, it’s been an overall happy day. A group home nearby comes every day to clean the playroom toys. Today, they were later than usual, which meant that we got to spend the morning downstairs playing. The rest of the house was really quiet so it was a great time to get to be out of the room. That’s how you got multiple blog posts today.

I ordered Brian a pizza and pizza cookie. I really wanted to find a way to send him warm cookies for our anniversary.. And to tell him that I’ve been working on other plans. The pizza place was kind of enough to put a note in the pizza for me, even. Then Patrick and I went upstairs.We stopped by the office because they kept coming and telling me I’d received flowers. (Don’t I have a sweet husband? It’s fun to get flowers in a place where people get excited about them coming.)

Then I made lunch and I fully intended to put Patrick down for a nap. But then my phone rang and it was his homeschool teacher cancelling class today because he had a fever and was going home sick. Then, people started to come inside and tell us what a beautiful day it was outside. Patrick had been begging me to take him for a walk in one of the house’s wagons. So, I gave in.

We had a great time. (And I met my FitBit step goal for the first time in almost a month.) And, yeah, it was so nice that I still didn’t feel right making Patrick go sleep the day away. Instead, I offered to take him to the park. One of the moms here pulled out a local guidebook that they’ve put together and gave me the address of a nearby park. It was only a few blocks away and it was perfect for Patrick’s mood. Quiet. Small enough to not be too hard for his recovering body. He was so happy he was literally jumping up for joy.

Then he got really, REALLY tired. He asked to go back to sleep, but then remembered that he had a $1 bill in his pocket that had come in the mail yesterday and he was dying to spend it. I wanted to do some shopping anyway, so we packed up in the car and we drove to one of my favorite on-a-budget stores: Aldi.

But we didn’t find a way for Patrick to spend his money there. I had, however, noticed a Family Dollar on our drive out and knew that they bring in crazy cheap toys for Christmas. So we stopped there instead. He picked out a remote control car. (Ok ,ok. Not $1. He actually had another $10 that he’d forgotten about so I gave it to him to spend when he spotted this car.) I found a shelf of kid’s knit gloves. I’ve been looking for those EVERYWHERE! Patrick can’t help himself touching things everywhere we go. Kid’s vinyl gloves are not really accessible and also not really comfortable. But little knit gloves? We can stick those in the car and put them on when we get somewhere he might need them. And then, we can bring them home and stick them in the wash. I bought 14 pairs of knit gloves. Some are pink. Patrick insisted. And that’s ok.

When we got back, he really WAS tired. I meant to come back and just cuddle up in the room and watch TV and maybe he’d fall asleep for a bit and that would be ok. But his new car required a screwdriver to get open. And then we discovered that there was a big stack of mail for Patrick today.

Oh my gosh do we feel spoiled today! Savannah, Maria, Emily, and Clarene.. Thank you! Those packages just on time to make today feel a little more special.

And speaking of special, tonight’s dinner group brought along Santa Claus. Patrick was so excited to see him again that he ended up first in line. But then he froze and couldn’t remember what he was supposed to tell him he wanted. He also pulled one of his new favorite tricks on him and pretended he didn’t know his own name. It was a great Santa moment.

Santa brought a bag of beanie bears and Patrick picked one out with polka dots, then named her Chrissy after his favorite friend from school. (Have I mentioned that I taught Patrick about naming stuffed animals this week? He’s received 2 others this week. A stuffed dog he named Cookie. And a purple teddy bear that he’s bounced back and forth between calling Pink and Cute Bear.)

Anyway.. once Santa left, Patrick was for sure ready for bed. We came up to the room and he went and picked out his pajamas. I told him he could start changing while I got meds.. But with the hospital here preferring that we loop his line up instead of down, he accidentally tugged it and pulled his dressing off. I did my first dressing change here. It went ok. Patrick actually did a decent job helping out.. being my non-sterile hands.. a job usually reserved for another grown up. And we managed to get by with the very different dressing change kit provided by a new homecare company.

Then, we make a very quick Christmas ornament, read our nightly scriptures, practiced how to pronounce “Bethlehem”, said our prayers and laid down to sleep. Patrick was out in minutes and is fast asleep now.

So I’m wrapping up this blog post and hurrying off to the kitchen to get some more formula for the night and post what I’ve written. Then, if I’m lucky, I hope to get my husband on the phone for a bit on our anniversary.

11 years is worth some celebration! Especially 11 years married to my best friend. We’ve known each other over half our lives. Howie (or as you know him, Brian) has always been my anchor. He calms me down. He teaches me patience. He has carried me through all of my hardest times. It doesn’t matter if we are right next to each other or oceans apart, we have always been best together. But I sure am excited that there’s only one more week of this particular apart time because I miss him a lot. Especially today.

The week in pictures

So while I’ve got an internet connection, I thought I should probably share some of the pictures that have been taken since we left the hospital.

Transplant Day 42 and His First Checkup

Patrick asked me to take this picture with him and the Ronald McDonald on the wall.
Patrick asked me to take this picture with him and the Ronald McDonald on the wall.

Well, 72 hours since discharge as I’m writing this and I am amazed to say that today it seems we maybe hit our stride a little bit. Amazing, considering how out of control things still seemed last night.

Sneaking back into the room last night after blogging, I noticed the distinct smell of formula and knew that it meant that Patrick’s g-tube had come open and leaked all over him and the bed. That woke him enough that I gave in and crawled in his bed to sleep last night.

At 7, his pump alarmed, waking is both. It was an early morning, but meant we had time to get ready. It took some courage for me to figure out how to get Patrick a bath with his new ostomy without losing the pouch. Yesterday morning, I knew the pouch was about to fall off anyway so we tried it and, sure enough, I had to change the bag that afternoon. But today, we did a bath again and it was ok.

Putting Patrick in the bath helps mornings go much more smoothly than showers. It means I can leave him for a bit. For example, this morning I was able to get the bed stripped so it could be washed. Patrick is chilled so easily right now. I don’t know if htat’s because his hospital room was so hot for a month and the weather outside is so cold.. But he gets shivers all over at the slightest cold. So I’ve started wrapping him in two towels. His calls this his towel dress and it is the highlight of his morning.

Being up early this morning also meant I managed to get a shower in before the nurse came. And, amazingly, Patrick woke up feeling good enough to not need Zofran this morning. That will earn me an extra half hour of sleep every day.

I didn’t feel lost looking at Patrick’s meds this morning. I kind of know what he’s getting and when and how much prep to do in the room before taking them downstairs.  So after labs were drawn, we went downstairs and gave meds and mixed formula. (Which I remembered to make with warm water so it dissolved better.) And then I made pancakes. That felt like quite the luxury. Patrick ate 2 bites. Turns out we don’t love sugar free syrup from IHOP.

Then I glanced at my phone and noticed I’d missed a call when I was in the shower. It was the transplant clinic asking if we could come in early for Patrick’s appointment today.  So, we hurried off to run our one errand of the day, and then rushed to the transplant clinic.

I am used to doctor’s visits where the answer is “you’re doing as well as you can. Nothing can change till after transplant.” Instead, today things were moving. Patrick’s prograf levels were still high this morning, but for fear of swinging him the other direction, they are leaving his dose the same. That means that he gets to take the morning off of labwork tomorrow and have it done Saturday, instead.

Because he is tolerating feeds SO incredibly well, they are said that we can start giving him a break in his feeding schedule. We’ll increase his feed rate by 8 cc’s and he can have 2 hours off. If that goes well, then after the weekend, we’ll go up again and he’ll get 4 hours off. Because of the diproblems with his lungs, they will go very slow in transitioning him to a different formula. So he probably won’t gain much weight in the next little bit because he isn’t getting a lot of fat.. But slowly that can be reintroduced.

Alas, the formula that they often use next has milk in it, so we need to take our time going to a hyperallergenic formula instead.

And that’s that. We came home from clinic and tried to eat lunch. But Patrick was bored and sleepy, so he spent the afternoon napping and I have mostly just spent my afternoon laying here keeping him asleep… though I snuck out of bed to write this blog post.

I finally realized today that I can write the post in a word processor and then just copy and paste when I go in a room that has an internet connection. It might mean some delayed posting, but should be a little more effective than trying to get away in a room with internet long enough to write.

Follow-up added this morning after:

We were woken from nap by a phone call saying that dinner was ready. Patrick was still all over the place at dinner, but thankfully the crowd was small because he’d slept through the start of movie night at the hospital.  Dinner is very overstimulating for him. So we usually retreat to our room early.

Last night, we had good incentive. We’d picked up a Christmas tree earlier and I finally brought it into the room. We set up the Christmas tree and hung the ornament he’s made thus far on it. Then went and made two more. I cleaned out the room a little bit more. I think we may finally be almost moved in. I can’t even imagine moving houses with a kid this age.

And then, we made it to bed. Patrick’s prograf levels must still be high because he just can’t fall asleep at night. Last night, he wouldn’t stop playing with his hands. I was really grateful for the chance to visit with an older transplant patient who is staying here. He explained that the prograf makes his hands shake, hurt, and even lock. Last night, Patrick wouldn’t stop playing with his hands. So I thought to ask him if his hands were hurting. The answer was yes. And so I laid there and rubbed his hands till he settled down. Then I told him I was just too sleepy to stay up with him anymore. I went and laid down and he was asleep in 15 minutes.

We slept in till 8 this morning. No labs today. It felt luxurious. And now we’re downstairs letting him play in the playroom. Which means a little bit of internet time for me.

Yesterday gave me hope. We had some downtime and I think that will get better the more used to this new routine.