The journey continues

As most of you probably already know, Becky’s liver and kidney transplant surgery yesterday was a success. However, that is not really the end of our journey. It is simply a mile marker, a significant mile marker to be sure, on this crazy road we’re on. As the picture suggests, it’s a road that disappears into the mountains so we’re not really sure what’s on the other side yet. There will almost certainly be bumps, curves, valleys, tough climbs ... should I go on? Are you tired of my analogies yet? I’ll move on.

In many ways today has been a pretty uneventful day. The surgical team for the liver is happy with how the new liver appears to be working. No concerns there so far. The new kidney is being a little slower to “wake up” (their term). Becky was placed back on the CRRT (continuous dialysis) yesterday evening. This is not a surprise. Apparently it’s common for the kidney to take a little longer to start doing its thing. In fact, from this point forward, it will be the kidney team that’s in charge of her care and medications. The kidney is more subject to rejection and overall requires more monitoring. Who knew?

Becky is still on the ventilator this afternoon. We’re waiting for her body to get over the sedation and recover from the trauma of a 6-1/2 hour surgery and two organ transplants. Again, no real concerns from any of the numerous doctors, nurses, interns, residents, techs, therapists, etc. that have been in and out today. We just need her to get past this so we can start the next part of the journey. Real time update - she just started a “trial run” of breathing on her own with limited ventilator support and seems to be doing OK.

I suspect we will be in Dallas for Christmas this year. I’m not sure yet if Becky will still be in a rehab facility or if we’ll be in a hotel room with frequent hospital visits. Hopefully that picture and timeline will become more clear in the coming days.

In the meantime, we continue to be thankful for everyone’s support, including my employer’s, and we continue to ask for your prayers as we prepare for the next leg. Maybe I should have used an Amazing Race theme for this blog. Oh well, too late now.