In general, Becky's intestinal problems have been less severe than they were last year. We did make one trip to the ER for a suspected SBO (small bowel obstruction), but it more or less resolved itself with an overnight stay. She's had a couple other recent episodes where she felt like she was headed in that direction, but she managed to will herself through them avoid more ER visits.
The bigger problem so far this year has been a combination of a virus of some sort and her anemia. Becky came down with what started out as a cold in late January. She most likely picked it up somewhere along the way during our short trip to Florida. After a making the rounds to the doctors - one urgent care visit, one after hours clinic visit, and one PCP appointment - with diagnoses of a cold, bronchitis, and "coarse" sounding lungs, she eventually ended up in the ER in late February. While there, she was diagnosed with dehydration and AKI (acute kidney injury), and was admitted to spend a couple days getting IV fluids and for general observation.
After she came home, she was still fatigued. Her regular bloodwork she does for her transplant team the next week showed she was still dehydrated and still showed signs of anemia. All this on top of some kidney bloodwork numbers that still didn't look normal to me. We didn't really get all those results until a Friday afternoon a couple weeks ago. We sent several messages to doctors to determine the best next steps and by the following Monday they had suggested we head to UTSW in Dallas for an in-person appointment and that we schedule an ultrasound on Becky's kidney. That turned out to be a bit of an adventure, but we eventually coordinated it so she could get the ultrasound on the same day while we were at UTSW.
We had a good conversation with the kidney doctor during that visit. I brought up some of my own concerns about the trends of some of Becky's kidney numbers. The doctor was less concerned than I was about some of them being out of the normal ranges. She made the very valid point that "normal" ranges don't necessarily apply to a transplant patient with only one kidney. She did want to run a few more tests since we were there so she could rule out a couple other possibilities like a UTI and also check for organ rejection markers.
Within a couple days we had another set of test results. Everything looked OK. The doctor said there were no changes to Becky's medications or routine required - other than she needs to drink more water. There was no mention of rejection concerns, and no abnormal results from the ultrasound. She'll probably be back on a schedule for more frequent bloodwork for a little while just to be on the safe side.
We are still working through some things with Texas Oncology regarding Becky's anemia and bloodwork numbers related to that. She still has a fair number of days where she's tired and worn out. Texas Oncology had cancelled her March appointment because the doctor wasn't available (or something like that). It was a little unclear. We do have something on the books for April and I plan to go with her so we can make sure we both understand the situation and the plan forward.
On a more positive note, Becky has started to get back into her sewing room. She's picking up the pieces (literally) from a quilt she had started before her health degraded to the point where she couldn't continue. She had been hesitant because she just wasn't sure if she could still do it. After getting started, she's enjoying it and even said she was looking forward to getting back to sewing and quilting.
At the end of the day, we're still both extremely grateful for the transplants and the chance to continue life together - even if the road has a few more turns and pit stops than we'd like. Thanks again to all those that have supported us and been on the journey with us.
