A time to catch my breath

Yvonne was watching TV but she fell asleep on the couch.  That's OK. She can use some real rest.

This morning she had her first visit to the Transplant Clinic.  This will be a twice per week ritual for 4-6 weeks followed by a slow down of once per week, once per month, once per quarter and eventually an annual followup.  That's the plan.

Today's visit included a doctor, nurse, physician assistant and social worker.  Like any team, each is there to play a certain position and together they get the job done.  We were pleased with today's starting lineup.

It was a pretty upbeat visit with lots of congratulations being offered and smiling faces as we ran across old friends in the program who just discovered Yvonne is among the lucky ones who found a matching kidney (or in this case, a matching kidney found her!). One person Yvonne saw in the waiting room is her former roommate from this hospital stay who also received a transplanted kidney last Thursday.

There is quite a community feeling in and around the clinic.  Yvonne saw a young nephrologist who asked which surgeon did the earlier transplants and you could see the smile as he heard the name of one of the legends in the field who is now retired.  Doctors, patients, nurses, admin staff.  They seem to be a stable bunch who we continually see in good times and bad.

That same young doctor took one for the team as I vented a bit about the poor communication that took place during and after the surgery.  I included yesterday's ER visit as something that need not have happened if there was better communication.  I'd like to believe at a minimum I raised the issue enough that it won't happen to the next person in my shoes.

Blood was taken for tests and a urine sample analyzed and this will happen at every visit.  The medications will be adjusted based on the results of these tests.Because of yesterday's ER visit the kidney function was already known and it is the lowest yet (1.2).  This is terrific.  Yvonne probably hasn't seen a number that low since early 1993.

And since I made such a big deal about traffic jams I should say that again were able to get there and back without much trouble.

All in all a good day:)