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.
