Home Again

This photo was taken last summer - they were both sick and I didn't know it. Flint is gone...but my husband remains. He got out of the hospital yesterday afternoon and today was his first day at the dialysis center. He is on the LONG road to recovery which will (hopefully) end in a successful kidney transplant.

After Sunday, Monday was a little better. He had dialysis again and blacked out again mid-way into it. We were both tired that day and his parents came, they looked sad. It was hard to try to to be upbeat. I was overwhelmed with phone calls and people coming, it was more emotional energy that I didn't have. Doug's parents left after dinner. Doug and I started to watch a video on transplantation and we both fell asleep. by 8pm the lights were out.

Tuesday was better, the neurologist came in to see him and said that he was not having seizures. He thought they were vasovagal blackouts because of lack of oxygyn to the brain and a stressed body. Thankfully, he hasn't had one since.

Wednesday he was ready to go home but his blood pressure and heart rate were too high. They planned for dialysis the next day and then he could go home.

We arrived 6 days before on a warm and promising spring day and left to cold and windy wintry weather. The ride home tired him. I was happy to have him home but it was also hard. We were now coming down from "survival mode" and being strong through the crisis. Now is the time of transition - into a whole new life that we couldn't have imagined a week before.

Today we went to the dialysis center and he had his first session. It went well, the people seem to know what they're doing. The paperwork he had to sign had all these disclaimers - so he could know what kind of problems could happen. At the end of each description was the words "or death" but in one instance said "heightened mortality rate." What can you do? If you don't do it, then death is sure. This is truly living dangerously!

On the plus side, I found a great knitting pattern to make a felted kidney. I think I'll make one for the person who is able to donate their kidney to my husband. Maybe, if I'm ambitious enough, I'll have one for each of the people who put their name on the list.