We're Home!

It's been a long day (even longer after our appointment in Dallas was rescheduled to an hour later), but we've made it to yet another milestone. After our one-day trip to Dallas turned into 85 days, we are finally back in Georgetown! Don't assume this means everything is back to normal - or whatever normal used to be. It's not. Far from it. Very far from it. But, compared to last summer, it at least feels like we're on a trajectory of improvement rather than a downward spiral.

Our last weekend in Dallas was filled with plenty of activity. Becky took a little tumble early Saturday morning so we ended up taking a farewell tour of the UTSW Emergency Department. She’s OK, just a little sore for a few days. Other than that, I packed up the hotel room (it’s a good thing we traded my Cruze for the Durango a couple weeks ago!), and I tried to work as many logistics and order as many supplies (and groceries, and Christmas presents) as made sense so we would have most of what we needed waiting for us at home. It was mostly successful.

Our last appointment included some conversations about Becky’s general lack of appetite and changes in her taste buds. Although not the case for the majority of transplant patients, it is not uncommon or unusual for patients to go home with the Dobhoff tube. In fact, there were two other patients being trained on how to use the Dobhoff tube on the day we left Zale rehab last week. It’s not ideal for her general nutrition and health long term, but not a major concern right now. It’s something for her/us to keep working on.

I'll be busy putting things together and getting things in order this week while we work on figuring out how much self-care Becky can do at home, how much help she'll need, and where that help will come from. I'll be trying to squeeze in a few hours of work, but I'm sure it won't be one of my most productive weeks!

Physical, occupational, and speech therapy evaluations are scheduled in the next couple weeks. We'll see what those recommendations are so we can start planning those regular out-patient therapy visits. Lab work will need to be done once a week at 8:20am every Wednesday. And we'll have to make monthly trips back to Dallas (at least for a few months).

Challenges certainly remain after almost three months in a hospital (about 40 days of that in ICU), but we're glad to continue the journey from our own house in Georgetown where we can sleep in our own bed. Blog posts will likely be a little less frequent although I do intend to continue to document the journey. For those following along on Facebook, there might even be a few non-recovery related posts (if I have time). You never know.

Thank you to our kids and grandkids for keeping our house in one piece and taking care of Spicy (our cat) while we were away!

Thank you to the girls for cleaning house this past weekend!

Thank you to Hayley (with help from a few adults) for decorating the tree so it would be up when we got home!

Love you all! It's great to be home!