Ethan’s Journey

​I waited the full 48 hours for a MyChart response from the kidney team regarding a kidney biopsy. I then called and spoke with a nice lady who is going to elevate my question regarding rejection to the doctor. I am trying to give the benefit of the doubt as she was out of the office last week. We all know the punishment of being out of the office and coming back to a pile of work waiting for us. The doctor called fairly quickly. We made a plan for Ethan. He will get his heart biopsy. If the comes back as there is rejection, Ethan will be treated and we will not do the kidney biopsy. Even if the kidney is also in rejection the treatment for the heart will also treat the kidney. If the heart biopsy comes back negative we will move forward with the kidney biopsy. I am satisfied with this solution. I think it is the most non-invasive solution to support Ethan and his health. So now we wait until next week to see what the verdict is.  Ethan has noticed he is having episodes of feeling ...

 I had an interesting situation today. I spoke to a lady who had been terminated from her position of 8 years. She worked at a previous position for 7 years. Total of 15 years experience. She had been terminated the previous day. Her claim is that she voiced concern over patient care and was terminated. Regardless of the details (each one with their own version), she was devastated. She was petrified of what was to come for her. She was terrified no one would ever hire her again because of this one thing. She discounted her patient care, her skills and her personality to this one moment. All valid feelings and fears that I would have if it were me. I stopped the interview at one point to give a pep talk. I evaluated her resume in real time back to her. It was a good resume. She could hold a job for many years. That is one thing not a lot of people can do in veterinary medicine. This blip in the road didn’t define her. I used my most valuable advice I received from another human bei...

​I sent a note to Ethan’s kidney transplant team inquiring about a kidney biopsy. I never got a response back. I did submit it as a non-urgent medical question so technically they have 48 hours to respond. Maybe the doctor turned her attention towards “more important things”. I am still holding a grudge over that! It was nice out today and I had all the windows open!  I did LOTS of laundry and washed as much as I could wash.  It was a pretty quiet day. 

​we made it home today. The drive was very smooth. The dogs rode very well without a peep. There weren’t any dumb dumbs on the road. Well there was one. But for a 3+ hour drive, that isn’t bad. I chatted on the phone with my mom and listened to a pod cast to pass the time. Once home I unloaded my things while the dogs watered the grass.  Ethan was home and the dogs went crazy. All 4 of them were excited to see Ethan. Jiminy was the first! He been-lined right to Ethan and used his doggy stairs to get up on the couch. He began flicking Ethan as fast as he could. I send Ethan text updates about how Jiminy is doing….mostly because he is so easy to photograph looking cute. I unloaded the van and unpacked. I got a jump start on laundry with all the dog blankets and towels we have gone through. This evening, I chatted with my brother to catch up with him. It had been a while, so we shared a few stories of how things are going and what we have been up to. Tomorrow I have a busy work day. I...

​Today was a warm and beautiful day full of sunshine. It wasn’t too hot, wasn’t too cold.  Paul worked on waxing the camper in the morning. I worked on tiring out the dogs.  We did a few walks, a bike ride and Moe went to the spa. That means I trimmed his toenails and gave him a lake bath. He promptly dried off while sunbathing. Paul and I took out the jet ski’s and hung out with some boat friends on the less windy side of Fox Island. Getting there was quite wavy. I got soaked, I figured it was going to happen so at least I had on my long sleeved rash guard shirt. I wasn’t cold at all. The sun was helpful with that. The water is starting to become a little brisk when we get in. Damn it fall….I am not ready for you yet! We had a campfire fire until it started to sprinkle. We made plans to relocate Nextdoor and hang out at the neighbor’s cottage. It was myself and 4 men. The conversation was quite interesting and ranged in topics from lip injections, to music, to suppositories a...

It has been 25 years since the horrible tragedy that changed our word forever. 9/11 - travel has never been the same, people’s families have never been the same, the world by saying things like “that was pre-9/11. I was outside and closed my eyes. I took a deep breath in. I could feel the sun warming my face, I took a moment to think about how many people perished on that day. How many people helped and then got sick afterward. It’s like the bad regift that keeps on regifting. ​A little later, I went to log into my banking app. After three tries of facial ID, I saw my reflection in the phone. I had a heavy deep scowl. Very much a frownie face. Once I fixed it and relaxed my frown, it worked just fine. I think frowning is my default face. It kind of made me laugh.  My Aunt and Uncle arrived and we decided to go to dinner. We ate outside over looking the bay. I cleaned and organized areas of the camper removing things that I don’t need or use. It freed up a lot of space. Paul arrived...

​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...