There's No Place Like Home

I've been home just about a week now and things are going okay. I guess I just expected them to go a little more smoothly if I was feeling so good when I left the hospital. Now that I'm home, I'm still in a lot of pain and my doctors are trying to wean me off the pain medication as much as they can. Unfortunately that means I'm feeling more pain. Especially in my back, my chest from having my chest opened, and my wrist hurts most of all from where they had the A-line. That's so painful that I am actually dictating this blog post on my iPad so I can just copy and paste it to my blog. The wrist pain is also the most frustrating because I expected it to be mostly healed by now. Especially since it's nearly three week post transplant.

Another little annoyance is I've been getting headaches a lot more frequently. The first day home I got a really bad migraine and my doctors adjusted my medication. That seemed to help but now it seems about every day around six or seven I get just a headache. Not bad but it's annoying. As for the back pain, I've been using a heating that and that helps alleviate a lot of the pain.

My nurse says that my staples and incision look really good. The staples are coming out on June 8. All 51 of them! She also said that there's a good chance that some of them may even fall out on their own, which kind of freaks me out a little bit because I'm afraid I'm going to wake up and find staples in my bed. The staples freak me out alone and knowing that they could fall at any moment only adds to the anxiety of having them in.


I'm also starting to get more comfortable with my medications. I'm nervous about having to refill my pill box this week, only because when I did it for the first time last week, I had filled out one day's worth with the doctor down in Philly as a "cheat sheet." Vicky helped me with the rest of the week. Maybe if I'm extra nice she can help me again this week. Also, the few times I've been out and about in town, the support and congratulations I've been getting from people has been really wonderful. I feel so blessed to live in a community that pulls together to help another resident in a time of need.
Well I just wanted to give you a quick update about how the last week has been. I will post again tomorrow because I have an appointment down in Philly as well as an appointment with my general practitioner here in Verona just to check me out. I will let you all know how things go with that and again thank you for all your support and prayers and love you and well wishes. I do not know how I would've gotten through all of this without all of you. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your Memorial Day Weekend and I will talk to you all soon.


-Bryan