Post Transplant Week 11

Let me begin by saying I’m sorry I have been a slacker with the transplant updates.  I find myself slightly overwhelmed by the quarantine.  Today found me dropping Ben off at the hospital door for admittance. :/

It’s a terrible thing to take a loved one to the hospital and watch them walk away like you’ve taken them to the airport.  I feel like I should be there with him, but this time of Covid19 has us all doing hard things.

Ben has been home for 3 weeks and has been doing well.  Post transplant really is a lot of 3 steps forward and 1 step back.  Most of the current downs come from reactions to meds.  Ben is eating and drinking and believe me he is enjoying his food.  I feel like if I had to say what his favorite thing to eat is lately, I would say peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches. We literally go though a small jar of peanut butter and a large jar of grape jelly in about a week. 

His body is absorbing nutrients and this is a great thing!  His transplanted small intestine is doing it’s job!  He has not had any more signs of A-typical rejection which is also good.  His biggest problem of late has been swelling in his feet, legs and hands.  This seems to be a side effect from the heavy dose of steroids they give home to suppress his immune system.  He currently takes 30mg of hydrocortisone 3 times a day. He is still getting blood thinner vi a shot in his leg every day.  However, this weekend he started to notice blood in his stool.  Today when he went in for his weekly blood draw his hemoglobin was 6.2. NO BUENO. The low hemoglobin and the sign of blood is the purpose for his admission into the hospital.  Their short term plans is to give him a few units of blood to help his hemoglobin number recover and then try and determine the cause of the bleeding. The hospital is not the place to be right now, but hopefully it will not be a long stay. 

 A few days ago he hit a small milestone, they released him to drive for the first time since February.  It was really good for him to feel a little independence.  We continue to look positively to the future, we feel very blessed and we continue to have faith in Heavenly Fathers plan for Benjamin and our family.

Selfie from his hospital bed.

First time behind the wheel since before transplant.