Medical Update

I got a lot of great news! First of all the medical stuff:

I got a phone call from my transplant coordinator and we set up my final tests to finish my profile to give to the transplant team.


My Sister in soul- Ng got a call from my Transplant coordinator as well. I don't know what it entailed, I didn't think to ask, but the fact that she got a call back means I am that much closer to being done with all this!

Now for school: I currently have a 4.0 and perfect attendance. I am also one of the class leaders it seems. I guess there is something to be said for being immensely reliable. I am planning the schools Criminal Justice social for late this spring/early summer and planning on joining the Criminal justice club and becoming a tutor.

Yes, I am doing a whole hell of a lot, but just let me say this: After so many many months of being completely inactive, this feels really good. I'm being productive and working towards a career which is something I've never had.

I've been immensely lucky while all this has been going on, I feel really good. I'm on overnight dialysis now, and it's working better than I ever had any right to think it would. It's easier on my body and I sleep fairly well while I'm there.

I hope to be updating more often than I have been, but life being what it is, I can't promise that right now.

Medical Update

  It's been a while since I've posted a medical update, and I apologize for that. Things have been rather crazy, but in a good way lately.

   After I was released from the hospital on December 8th I was the new owner of an AV graft, that is a small tube in my right forearm connected to a vein and an artery. This allows for the dialysis needles to enter both sides and draw blood and cleanse it more efficiently. The surgery was long and the healing painful, but it was finally ready 4 weeks later. In the intervening time I was again hospitalized with another catheter infection, however lucky me! The infections never left the catheter. So, thankfully they just pulled it out and that was that. I had been having some neurological symptoms, however over time they seem to have cleared up. I honestly believe it was because of the ineffectiveness of the catheter that caused them.

   So, the New Year came and went and the access is holding up -beautifully-. It's doing well enough that I have returned to college and am now on the overnight dialysis unit where I go in at 9pm and sleep there while the machine runs until 6am or so then go home.

   I cannot thank the many friends and family members who have worked to assist us in our time of need over this past holiday season, and I know that I can never ever repay that generosity except to keep paying it forward as I try to do always. I know that should anyone ever be in need..if I can help Tell Me. I will.

   I will be posting a more personal update tomorrow about how life is going outside of medical things, as well as pics of the kids ;) Stay tuned.

Once again it's been a while

   However, I feel that things have gotten stable enough to really say that they are getting -better-. I spent only a few more days in the hospital right before new years and then returned home. My AV graft is working beautifully and I am feeling better and stronger all the time. New Years eve for me heralded in a new perspective for me and a chance at living a life again.
   My DH was told when he returned after the holidays that he would be a permanent solution to their problems so any concern we had about weather or not we needed to be looking for a new position for him this year are gone. What a friggin relief that is! It has been since the beginning of our relationship back in 07 that He was laid off from work and had not had a long term position since then. It's been going from one temp assignment to the next, one seasonal job to the next. It was making us both very crazy. Knowing now that he is somewhere that he is needed and also that it is some place that he truly -enjoys- for a chance is making us both feel much more stable.
   I also have made a change. I've gone back to school. After a vision a dear friend had about my becoming a private investigator. I've taken it a step further and have enrolled at Kaplan University downtown for criminal justice. I'm having an amazing time, it seems like this is exactly what I am supposed to be doing. My mind feels stretched and used and I am more peaceful than I have been in forever.
   Amazingly enough the housework is still getting done and dinner is on the table. I'm not feeling rushed or over worked in any way.

~THank You, G-d for bringing me peace.

Update

Ok, it's been a week since I've been sent home from the hospital, things got rather crazy while I was readjusting to life at home. There were several issues waiting for me when I got there, a broken pipe that required a plumber to be called, getting used to the kids therapy scheduel again and all the other things that come with having a home that's been pretty much unattended by you for almost a month. I'm not saying that the menfolk didn't do a good job, cause they did wonderfully so. It's just..I prefer to do things a certain way. They don't do them that way...any other housewife out there probably knows what I mean.

So, I've been sent home with plenty of instructions and medications and things seem to be stable. Today I -did- have to go to the ER because my picc line came out of my body and required replacing. I was wonderfully sent home afterwards. I arrived there with an overnight bag, just assuming that for some reason I would be sent to the floor in the inpaitent wing. I have never been so glad to be wrong.

Readjusting to dialysis hasn't been easy, I've lost so much weight in the hospital that my "dry weight" has to be redetermined. This means that every other day until it's gotten right I spend my dialysis time throwing up and cramping, I get home and collapse.

There's been some family stress as well, DH and I had a prety severe (for us) argument last sunday that left us both feeling washed out and unhappy. It was resolved by the next day's lunch time (which I made darn sure that I met him at work for as a suprise) Learning to do everything again and taking the time to try to de-stress and all of it has been a learning experiance. As such I cherish it, even the hard times.

I miss the times when I knew for certain that I'd be home, and that things would/could run like clockwork provided that nothing huge happened to derail us. Now, every other day I wake at 5:30am, go to dialysis and live in fear the whole time even dreaming about being admitted to the hospital while there (because I do everything in my power to sleep through the sessions) and then hopefully..come home and breathe a prayer of thanks for being able to return.

I have been thinking about christmas eve (We celebrate both since DH is christian) and I have this menu in mind that I desire more than anything to create. I've got the recipies and I've made the shopping list but I'm almost afraid to go and get the things nesessary to make it happen. It requires a lot of prep, and most of it could be done this week and the entire week before christmas so that I'm only steaming, baking, and roasting on christmas eve proper. But, I'm afraid. I'm afraid that I will do this and the prep will be for nothing because I will be in the hospital and the things I prepped will go bad because they had a limited shelf life. (For example, the liver paste for the beef wellington)

On the other hand, the part of me that's not afraid is chom[ing at the bit to get it done so that we can have a romantic christmas eve with all the traditional food and mulled wine my overly traditional and idealistic mind can encompass. I'm trying with everything inside me to hold onto this part of me. As I was taught/learned/relearned this weekend...Faith manages. So...I hold on and I make my prep list and I try to get the house to a point where I know that we can sit and enjoy.
With Faith and Joy,
Kristen

Oh it is going to be one of those days?

   I certainly hope not. Today was my DH's first day back at work after his leave of absence while I was i the hospital. For some reason I cannot fathom, I have slept most of the last 48 hours and did -not- want to wake up again this morning. When I did get up and get the kids situated, it was an immediate fuss-fest. We are trying to break Aleksey of his poptart habit. Have you ever tried breaking the habit of a ritually ingrained kid? I don't suggest it.
   Somehow, I have to wake up enough to get the living room cleaned up enough for the early head start teacher and get real clothing (read: not pajamas) on the kids (even though I don't feel like getting dressed either) and then run through a whole ton of phone calls and errands. Shoot me?