Ethan’s Journey

 I got a call from the hospital. Ethan can discontinue his medication for his lung pressures. Yay!!!!! We have to check his labs later in the week. I have to check mine too so we are going to go to the lab together. Ethan has been having some odd side effects after this last dose increase. He was feeling tired, had trouble with temperature regulation as well as developing the blasted nasty sores in his mouth. Like he needs more torture. We made another adjustment and hopefully the labs will show that he doesn’t need to change much after this. #transplantlife My time is winding down with Heather. I know she will have an adjustment back to “life as usual” with a hearty side of the grieving process. She has a good support system in place. I am lucky I get to be her friend. I will be heading home after some meetings for work tomorrow. I am sure Paul is ready for me to come home. We haven’t really seen each other since Friday.

This morning was tough. We headed out to the cemetery. Heather borrowed a fancy coat from her friend. It was a black floor length coat with faux fur cuffs, collar and faux fur around the edge of the hood. It was glorious and fancy. We made it through the cemetary service. Heather just wanted to relax for the rest of the day. I did have some work to do, so we hung out at her house for the afternoon/evening. We spent the evening chatting and laughing at goofball things one of us has said or done. Tomorrow’s plan is to repeat today (minus the cemetery (because that would be just cruel). I am thankful that this happened after my back was fixed, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to be here.  Today I was also thankful for the day Heather and I met. She has given me joy, time and time again…..Some people come and go (not many because I am an introvert) then there are a few wonderful lifers that are a staple of my existence.

 Today was a long day. My good friend survived calling hours and funeral. Afterward was a delicious dinner and get together at a local restaurant. It was nice because it allowed Heather to mingle with everyone that loved her and loved her dad. Tomorrow we will head over to the cemetery and then collect memerobilia from the funeral home. My trusty van has a big trunk we will utilize for this task. Today was really nice. My friend, Heather had written a eulogy for her father. She stood up and read it. She made eye contact with the proper people. She had a perfect recipe full of half parts humor and half parts sentimental. She executed it beautifully and we all agreed she should be a public speaker. She hated this idea. Ha! I learned that her father was the guy that would ask “what can I do for you?” We would all benefit if we said this a little more. Maybe the world would be a kinder place. I watched Heather grieving, but still being a role model for her kids as this is the first death o

 I woke up this morning and decided, by popular demand, to do some food prep. Paul was out of town snowmobiling, so I could make a mess of the kitchen without bothering him. I had some vegetables that I needed to use up so I made a veggie soup. I thawed some tomato purée I had made from fresh garden tomatoes in the fall. Yum! I used that to make a batch of crockpot chili. Then I made some meatloaf that I paired with some green beans for Paul. Lots of yummy lunches and dinners (if I feel lazy) for us. I gave a few of the dogs a bath and washed all their bedding and caught up on some work stuff.  Avery came home from her friends house and we hung out together. Ethan had been home all day but the only exchange we had was when I said “good morning”. He has been in his room all day. Too cold to work in the garage. Tomorrow I have a calling hours to attend away from home. One of my favorite people, her dad passed away. I am going to spend a few days with her. My goal is to make her smile onc

 Phew! Today was a long day. I started working around 6:30 am and finished around 8:00 pm. Don’t feel too sorry for me though. I was able to sneak away for lunch with my mom, Avery and her friend. I also didn’t work that much on Wednesday and it caught up with me. I finally had to stop because I felt really tired. I just decided to call it a day.  I will be back at it tomorrow. It was quite chilly out today. Thankfully I had the fireplace blazing all day. The animals were quite appreciative. They were freezing their butts off outside.  I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. 

We got the call today that Ethan has zero rejection. His biopsies are negative. Yay! We are still waiting for the doctor to review the lung pressures to see if we can kick one of the medications to the curb! We then went out to dinner. It was quite slippery. I was really worried I would bust my butt. Luckily I didn’t. I am looking forward to summer. Happy 80th Nana!

Our day started out in the area that Ethan gets his biopsy done. We get in there and they start doing routine vitals. His oxygen level was good. His weight is steady. Then they moved to Ethan’s blood pressure.  Nurse “is his blood pressure normally high?” Me: “No. How high is it?” He hasn’t had high blood pressure since after his heart transplant when all of the poop hit the fan. Nurse: “158/98” Me: ……..”He’s normally spot on…..” my brain started spinning….what else could cause it to be high? We haven’t had any real changes. In animals, sometimes it can be high if the wrong size cuff is used. “Is the cuff too small?” I asked. Why is it high? What is wrong? The nurse agreed to try the next size up blood pressure cuff.  Blood pressure came back within the normal range. Phew! I joked with Ethan that his guns have gotten way to big for their cuffs. He had his biopsy. I reached out to our Butt Nurse. She normally didn’t work on Wednesdays but she was there. I met her in the family lounge an