Ethan’s Journey

​I reached out to Ethan’s Heart Transplant team today to find out how his prospera test went. This is the research study test that is supposed to help identify people that may have rejection through a blood test. The purpose of the test is to try and eliminate biopsies whenever possible.   Ethan’s last test was elevated. Normal is .18 or below. Ethan’s readings have been .42 and .34. His heart team has advised doing a biopsy to check for rejection. I asked if there was a chance that these elevated values do not mean rejection. Her answer was simple “it is rare for someone to have these kind of numbers and is not having any issues, but I have seen it happen.” Biopsy is the best way to see rejection at a cellular level and with Ethan’s Kidney values low, I do feel he needs to have this done on his kidney as well. He does both of these tests without anesthesia. He is a bad ass! I reached out to the kidney team asking when our next appointment is (it hadn’t been scheduled) and if we sh...

​It was a bit drizzly today. A perfect day to work! I took the dogs out in between showers only to find the gift likely an osprey left me. Gross! I had to be creative to keep the dogs away so I could take care of this guaranteed stomachache. I am thankful it was a fresh-ish fish head. It didn’t smell yet. There was not a bug infestation. All good things. I worked into the evening. I had some things to catch up on.  The dogs did get some outside time prior to the arrival of the rain. The rain was mostly steady. The dogs really had to run in between the raindrops to go to the bathroom today. I was saying “hustle, hustle, hustle!” They mostly did a lot of sleeping in shameless positions. Paul got stung by a bee last week. It was a bumble bee, the big fuzzy ones. They don’t have barbs on their stinger, so they don’t die. Well, he has been struggling with swelling, not feeling great and swollen lymph nodes. It is changing the way things taste.  He got his haircut cut today and real...

​I got to work very bright and early this morning. I did my calls from outside mostly.  I did have a helper. He sat it his little chihuahua camping chair and napped in the sun. After work, I hung out with my cousin and shoreline neighbors until they decided they were going to go out to dinner. I was invited but politely declined. I had dinner already planned.  My cousin and I had a fire and had some good laughs. These two joined us at the fire and snuggled. The doors went up in Ethan’s barn. Yay! Progress!

​another great day! Around noon, Diane and I rode one of the jet ski’s over to the island. It is our sunning spot to get out of the wind. Paul brought Diane’s double tube so that we could float. We floated and chatted for a few hours before coming back. Diane had to leave around 2:30 ish. The wind picked up, almost to send Diane home. We rode back to shore safely, weather the waves that had gotten slightly better. This evening, we went down the shore line to visit with some friends. We met a new friend. We were instantly friends when I heard him say “I want to find a dead body.” “ME TOO!” I said.  We watched the sun set as we chatted away. It was another beautiful sunset this evening. Paul’s wound from 3 weeks ago is healing well. It is almost resolved. Paul was worried there will be a scar.  I have several scars that I wear proudly. Each scar has a story. It is part of our memory trail. Scars are conversation starters.  I wish I had a scare from when I was bit by a camel...

​it was great sleeping weather. Nice and cool with lots of white noise. I slept great. Paul complained that I was twitching in my sleep and kept him awake. I thought of Ethan when I stumbled across a praying mantis. I really like them. This was a male mantis. He was smaller and would soon be losing his head after a rendezvous with a cute lady friend. This afternoon we went over to a local beach. Paul rode the jet ski. Diane and I drove. Paul went down and stole a neighbor’s starfish floaty. We knew he was out of town. He used it for the afternoon. We sent him the following message: He will never suspect it is Paul in the picture because I blurred out his face.  Diane and I floated on the double tube for the afternoon. Paul floated on the starfish. The wind died down and it was down right hot in the sun. We had the tunes cranked and there were not a whole lot of people there. That was wonderful. It was a bit too chilly for the dogs to get a lake bath today.  Maybe tomorrow? We ...

​Paul woke up. It has been 48 hours after his double bee sting. When the sting happened my advice was basically the same as Vanilla Ice’s would be. “ICE, ICE baby!” Paul often will ignore my medical advice and google what he should do. It is typically always what I had already advised. He will ignore that fact and deny it. He will often ignore the google and wife advice and just chose to complain. His face was swollen this morning and I told him to put some ice on it. He was worried it was swollen so long after a sting, and I told him that it is typical and to ice it. So of course he went to google. He read outloud that peak swelling is 48 hours after initial sting. I immediately became annoyed and went to speak up….he cut me off and said “it also says here that you should listen to your wife and ice it.” It made me laugh. I tell him all the time “you should have listened to your wife.” When he has deviated from the device and gotten unfavorable results. We took the boat and jetski’s o...

​I took a comp day today for last week’s conference. I did still log in for a bit to go through emails and wrap up some things before the long weekend. Then….the day was mine. I did some walking with the dogs, bike riding with Moe, everyone got their nails trimmed and smooth with the grinder and relaxed. All four dogs were outside quietly….even ahem….Penny. I had them all tired out so much, they were angels for the afternoon. They hung out with their dog cousins, Maggie and Mindy. Doing dog stuff like butt sniffing and play bowing. I did a little garden work. I plan to do a little bit each day. We had a fire tonight. It is quiet on the shore so far. It was very dark away from the fire due to the clouds. I was disappointed that the only pigs I saw were cooped up in the pig pen. Who knows what tomorrow brings. Maybe I will make a hole in the pen and create some excitement….but likely won’t. Ha!