Time for new hobbies

Lee has always loved building models mostly of airplanes, some cars and military vehicles. Our nephews Wyatt and Dilon are also into building models slightly different they build Gundums.  I bought one for Lee that I though he would like.  Lee and Wyatt sat for a couple sessions and was able to build a Gundum together it was amazing to watch Lee be able to sit and put it together. 

Lee's Gundum Gun tank. 

Our Newest Great Nephew

Felix Gordon Reed was born December 18, 2019 at 6:12 am.He weighed 7 pounds, 9.1 ounces and measured 19.5 inches at the time of his birth. Felix was welcomed into the world by his proud parents Baylee Wadsworth and Jesse Reed. 

Felix is the cutest little monkey.

Jesse and his family are the cutest too.  His (Soon to be) Wife Baylee and bonus daughter Lailahni.  

I cannot wait to meet my new great nephew.  Maybe soon. 

Thanksgiving and a couple other things

While Lee was in the hospital my Friend Tabitha went on vacation to Japan  she brought us back a couple of things.  I got a cute patch for my jacket, a etched glass tradition house and some chop sticks.  She brought Lee a model of the battleship Yamato, and a model of a Japanese submarine. Lee loves all things about World War II.

Our Sadie was also sick one night she was totally restless I finally got her to go outside and she peed blood, I took her to the vet the next morning.  She had a really bad UTI, she was clear of any bladder stones. She just layed around for a couple of days and she was super unhappy at the vets office. 

Finally it was time for thanksgiving dinner,  it was a special day because we have so much to be thankful for this year.  We talked about Lees donor and all the blessing that have happened to us this year we have truly been blessed.  We love having Wyatt and Dilon with us for the holidays.

Family pictures

Cathy and Ed came for a visit we decided it was time for some family pictures.  We had fun with our masks and finding good locations for pictures. 

Lee and I have not had pictures together in a long time.  We had fun with all the poses and trying to get Sadie to comply.  Ed and Cathy had some great shots too.

We also went out for dinner.  The Strap tank in Springville was good just a little disappointed that the waitress added her own tip to our ticket when we placed a cash tip on the table.  It was a good visit it is always good to have family here. 

The rest of Lee's hospital stay and rehab.

 September 2nd Lee is getting ready to move to the Rehab unit.  He will be there 2-3 weeks.  He will have at least 3 hours of therapies a day including PT, OT and Speech.  Lee is not that happy to go through rehab again but he will do so much better once he has gone through the process.  After working so hard to get to this point we need to do everything possible to get Lee better and back to normal life.  Lee was happy to be able to wear regular clothes and not to be in a hospital gown all day.  Rehab started off really good, Lee asked when he would be going home and he was told he needed to stay for 2 weeks He was not happy with that answer.  everyday he would tell me they were not going to let him ever go home.  On September 9th Lee was able to get his dialysis port and his feeding tube removed.  his kidney function is doing really well and considering he only has one kidney and went through transplant surgery that is amazing.  Lee was so happy to get that feeding tube out, he was having PTSD from his previous experience having a feeding tube from September 2018 to March 2019.  thankfully this one was temporary.  This was his Happy face.

on September 11th after several days of working with speech Lee finally got real food not chopped food that they were giving him for the previous days.  He was so happy to finally get food that at least looked good and he could eat better.  For lunch and dinner he was getting mashed potatoes, and carrots with some kind of ground up meat.  He was so tired of that kind of meal.  

A couple of days before Lee was planning discharged his wound began to leak he has a couple areas that opened up one at each end of the incision and one right about at the curve.  in the picture Lees belly was still distended from surgery and he has bruises from the heprin (blood thinner) shots. He also had one giant drain in all my years of nursing I have not seen a 500 ML JP drain.  I had to get a picture of it.  I got Lee a couple of gifts for his transplant I could not choose what t-shirt to get so I figure he will be getting a few over the next year.

Lee got better and better and was finally ready to leave rehab and come home.  He worked really hard with all his therapies and even went shopping, and cooked me grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato macaroni soup. The day finally came for Lee's discharge he made the rounds to say goodbye and as he was leaving they play a song for each patient and overhead and all the staff step out to cheer them out.  It was an awesome thing and I love Lee's smile.  (I will try to get the video to work)

Lee has been doing great since discharge He has been in the clinic every Monday and Thursday to make sure his medication levels are where they need to be.

 He has been working with out patient Speech, OT, PT and cognitive therapy.  This has kept us pretty busy but we have found a little time to get in a good nap.

We were finally able to go out and eat a couple of time but we have manly kept it in the house because of Lee's immune system they recommend not eating out often and absolutely no Buffets.  Lee and I likes the Off the hook food truck and it is based out of Wyoming.  Lee's two sisters came to visit and we went out to Bam Bam's BBQ they make swachos which is BBQ nachos with chips baked beans and the meat of your choosing they are really really good but you better come with an appetite because it is a big order.  

I also took Lee out to Utah lake for a drive he was feeling really good and decided he wanted to give driving a little try since there was no one around.  Lee has not driven in two year, when he developed enchepolopothy we together made the choice for him to quit driving for everyone safety.  He cannot wait to get the official ok to start driving again.  

I also was able to work on Lees blanket that I started last year.  I told him it was for his transplant but I had not been able to work on it for a while because it was summer and way to hot to hold that big blanket in my lap to work on it.  It is finally done and Lee and Sadie loves it.  

We have just been keeping up with appointments and therapies I plan on returning to work on November 1st and I know Lee will be ready by then  he is doing so Awesome.  

I will forever be promoting organ donation so you will see memes often from me about it.  

The 8th and final call for a liver

Lee has finally gotten a call for a liver.  For real and true this time. It is a Sunday night and I am at work Lee is home alone when he received the call This time he was able to get hold of me sooner then later, my awesome co-workers sent me out the door as soon as I was done charting and I headed home to pick Lee up and head to Murray Utah where he would be getting his transplant. We arrived at 9:30 PM with an expected OR time of 2 a.m., this time was changed multiple times to 5 a.m. 10:30 a.m 12 p.m. ,2 pm, 5 pm, 6:30 p.m then finally 7:30 p.m. He finally went on the 8th scheduled OR time.  While the team was going over the surgery with us they explained it could take 6-12 hours in total for surgery, they explained he would have a internal jugular central line a foley catheter, and they would place a feeding tube in his nose for nutritional support. 

These are all things that I expected but the one I did not was the dialysis port.  it was explained to us that preforming dialysis during the procedure helps keep the kidneys from failing, Lee already had some renal insufficiency coming in.  He only has one kidney they other one is atrophied we do not know why he was told most likely from a childhood injury.    They did tell us just a little about the donor, they were 70 years old but that is not an issue with the liver not having a real chronological  age with the liver that regenerates itself in someone that is otherwise healthy. Lee's surgery start time was 8:08,  I started to see a trend with 8's so I determined that it was his lucky number.  Jessie, Joetta, Dee and Jeri all came to sit with me during Lee's surgery. We all walked out to get jackets there was a pretty sunset that we could see while waiting the picture does not do it justice. 

The OR crew were super awesome to keep me up to date on how everything was progressing and how Lee was doing.  Dr. Gagnon was the primary surgeon, with Dr. Alonzo assisting.  Everything went super well for surgery he ended with a smaller incision and only one drain in place compared to the 3 that we were expecting.  Lee arrived to the ICU about 3:30 AM he was gone from me for 8 hours he went to the OR at 7:30 pm.  He was still intubated when he arrived to the ICU.  Everyone went home after the surgeon came out to let us know how things went.  I went up to the ICU and waited to be able to see him.  He was sedated so I just tried to rest but only got a couple hours of sleep. 

Lee was able to be extubated the following day (Tuesday 27th) around 11:30 in the morning, Lee did really well but he still had some confusion which is normal for liver transplant and he came to the hospital quite confused.  I spoke with the doctors and they say it will clear out over time.  Just one funny thing Lee said, he asked me who punched him in the gut while holding his right side where his incision is, I answered you got your new liver, he looked at me with a puzzled look and said "I ate a liver" I started laughing and he just gave me a dirty look.  That night Jessie and Joetta came to stay the night with him while I went home with my sister for some much needed sleep.  When I arrived on Wednesday (28th) I was told that Lee would be moving to T-10 this is the transplant floor that Lee had stayed on several times. 

I was just shocked that he was ready to leave ICU so soon.  My sister and I sat with him while they removed his foley catheter and his internal Jugular central line.  This only left his dialysis port in this left neck, the small bowel feeding tube and two IV's one in each arm. I sat and stayed with him that night and he was really confused and impulsive it reminded me of times he would get severely encephalopathy he would just get really stubborn and you could not tell him anything he was doing what he wanted.  I got very little sleep again that night.  on Thursday the 29th Dee and Jerri along with Jessie and Ron and Dilon came over to see him I left that afternoon to head home for some sleep I have learned that I cannot go days without sleep like I did when I was younger.  The staff felt that he needed a care attendant to sit with him so I could go home to sleep. Lee did not know what to think of that idea.  When I arrived Friday (30th) morning they decided that his kidney function was doing great so they removed his dialysis port he was still quite confused and was getting grumpy, I told him I needed to go home that night because Dilon was not going to be home with Sadie.He kicked me out of his room earlier then I expected to leave but I was not staying with the grumpy man.  Today Saturday (31st) Lee is much more awake today and less grumpy but feeling more pain.  He has worked with PT every day to get stronger and with OT to help with daily activities.  He also worked with speech he was cleared for thick liquids and a soft diet.  He even thinks thick
water is great.  We are waiting for his meal and he is a much happier.
 A little more about all the 8's
Lee was born the 8th child
He has 8 siblings
Lees surgery was in August the 8th
on the 26th (2+6=8)
the 8th phone call for a liver
with 8 different surgery times
it was 8 hours from the time he left to when I was able to see him again.
I am sure there are many more 8's in his life and now I will be looking for them this is why I say 8 is now his lucky number.
 I am adding screen shots of the multitude of facebook messages. 

Yet another call from Donor Connect

Yesterday afternoon we received a call from donor connect, they told us that Lee was on standby as a back up recipient for a liver.  Lee was not allowed to have anything to eat or drink after 6 P.M.  I asked Lee what he wanted to eat because it could be his last meal for a couple of days.  Lee decided to have Olive Garden, I ordered and talked Dilon into going to pick it up.  We all tried their new Lasagna Mia They were pretty good but not something we will all order often they were a little gooey
on the inside.
       

We received a call around the same time instructing us that Lee needed to be in the hospital lobby waiting for further instructions at midnight. So after supper we both tried to take a nap but with nerves running high neither one of us had much success.  Lee was super anxious so he was pushing me to leave so we left the house at 10:30 to take our drive to Murray.  We arrived and waited about 12:30 we received news that the primary recipient will be going to surgery for the liver, but the surgeon wanted us to wait 2-4 hours in the lobby. Lee was really upset this was call number 7 from donor connect. 

Lee just wanted to be up and moving his anxiety was getting the best of him.  After a while we decided to head out to the car and see if we could get a little nap while waiting on the next phone call.  With every update they wanted us to stay another hour. Finally at 4 A.M they said we could go home. Lee was starving so we went over to Ihop for breakfast then headed home.  After we arrived home we went to bed and slept for a little while.  I had to get up early for an eye appointment maybe I will get my new glasses soon.  We will just continue to wait for a phone call from donor connect maybe the next one will be the one.