First Clinic Day Post Transplant

We have survived a long and tiring day :-)

6:00 arise and stumble to shower

7:15 leave for clinic, park in garage, obtain wheel chair, head half block underground to proper building

7:30 grab orders, proceed to lab waiting room. (wait, wait, wait, get stuck with needle)

8:30 get chest x-ray, which is actually scheduled for 10:00, but sometimes you can sneak in early

9:30 meet with transplant coordinator (the nurse who will make sure Loren has the proper presciptions, writes down questions for the doc, checks his vitals, basically holds everything together)

10:00 Loren snoozes on couch in lobby, while wife makes amazing progress with crossword puzzle labeled "hard." (after she skipped two others that were going nowhere)

"Ma" is bored and goes to check e-mail in subway level computer room. Gets new IM buddy name of old friend :-) Checks on prescriptions....not ordered, yet.

11:00 hold hands to go for slow walk up and down halls for ten minutes. Get left in the dust by a man on crutches

-more snoozing (and crosswording)

12:00 get take out lunch from small, trendy cafeteria. (what is the POINT of mini corn cobs, anyway?)

-more resting

1:00 proceed up to waiting room for doctor's appt. It had been scheduled for 3:30, but he had a few cancellations. YEAH! We get to go "home" early.

1:45 see doctor for appointment. Find out VERY interesting information of pathology report

2:15 go to pharmacy to pick up Rx. Find they are not called in yet.

2:30 go to Main desk to register "Ma" as a clinic patient, so she can get flu shot. (Loren got his on the day he was discharged) I have my own clinic number, now!

3:05 FINALLY done getting assigned a clinic number. Return to pharmacy. Find pills have not been ordered. Call transplant coordinator. Something out of the ordinary "came up" She will get to it.

3:30 Deposit Loren at our cozy little room. Run off to Wal-Mart, again. Make record time in shopping :-) Return to check on hubby.

4:15 Change into tennis shoes. Walk 4 blocks back to clinic, to the pharmacy

5:10 After waiting in line behing 12 people, am told the meds are ordered, but it is too early to fill them. (?!?) Decides not to argue, even though several pills will run out next day, and we were told to refill when a week is left. (I am SO confused. I'll worry someone about it tomorrow)

5:20 Walk back to Transplant House, feeling hot and BOTHERED. Plunk in recliner and cool off by thinking insipid thoughts.

6:10 Phone home and talk for most of an hour with everybody in the joint :-) Sing "You Are My Sunshine" to Trevor over the phone. Am told he nodded his head :-) Feel MUCH better, now.

7:00 Finally kick Loren off computer, IM with new buddy for a bit.

7:30 Make way slowly to dining room, set hubby in chair while I rustle up a bang-up frozen meal in the microwave.

8:15 Come back to Blog :-)


Here is some information gleaned from the pathology report. We now have a more precise name for Loren's condition. His old heart was studied after it was removed, and the pathologist diagnosed it with ARVD, which stands for Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia. In simple "Ma" terms, the right ventricle gets displaced with fat. This condition is often, but not always, genetic. With people living longer, and having defibrillators in them, this condition can also eventually affect the left ventricle. Loren is the third heart patient transplanted here (out of well over 200) to have this condition.

The doctor suggested getting hooked up with genetic screening, but not for several more weeks. This condition can be diagnosed more accurately with an MRI or a CT scan. This could be really important to some of our family memebers.

As to Loren's current heart situation, he now has an ejection fraction of 69%! That is just super, especially compared to what he used to have, in the 20's. The 50's are considered normal.

His blood pressure is a little higher than it used to be. Upper number in the 130's, sometimes a little higher. Apparently, this is par for the course after transplant. It can actually go up in the coming months. Some transplantees have to take blood pressure medicine. We will see.

That is about it for this big day. All the doctors say Loren is doing quite well. Others who have been transplanted say that, in about one more week, he will be feeling significantly better.

Excuse any mispellings. I'll fix 'em later :-) Night, all.

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