The Trip Home

Coming home has never felt so good.  Yes, we still have unpacking to do.  My apartment is piled high with boxes I will need to unpack and put away over the coming weeks, but I LOVE MY APARTMENT!  Here is a little pictorial travel journal of our journey home from Milwaukee this week.

 Think we were loaded high enough?

Hitting the road!

Chica tells us where to go.

My mommy and daddy are mean!  They said I was too klutzy to

play on the playground or slide down the slide.  I resemble that remark!!

Lunch:  egg salad, Cool Ranch Doritos and water.

 

It looks like a Schwiesow picnic!  I can see cousin Kim, Aunt Bess, and Grandma.

They even had a white tablecloth on the picnic table, and all the trimmings, like the 

family used to travel on those epic siblings trips across the country.

Cool rock formations.  Not bad for a shot while driving!

More cool rocks.

You know you are getting close to home when you get trees, a deer

crossing, and a construction barricade all in the same shot!

Orange Carrot Mistic.  Best juice ever!

The important stuff got put in at the rest stop.

Yeah, that's my Shopko Hometown!

Milwaukee readers:  Gas is supposed to be LESS than $4 a gallon.

HOME!!!

Once I get settled into my apartment (in about a month!), I will post photos of that.  For now, it's Dr. E on Tuesday.  Feeling great!!!!!

Home on the Range

So, what's the weather like in Milwaukee? Don't know! Here in good old Madison, SD it has been overcast and breezy with a brief shower today. THIS IS NOT A MISPRINT!! We are home!

Why you ask, after the last hospitalization I had such a rapid turnaround and improved so that on Friday, I said if I was at 18 like last summer, I wanted to go home. The team talked it over and decided they were doing nothing for me there that couldn't be done in Sioux Falls, so westward ho! The head transplant surgeon from Milwaukee in now spending 80% of his time in Sioux Falls working on betting them certified as a liver transplant center. They currently do kidney and pancreas.

After finding out all of this Monday morning at 10 AM after my echo cardiogram and bubble test, we packed frantically, and left Milwaukee at 8:50 AM yesterday. We got home last night at 7:50 PM. Four stops for rest or meals. Great trip, tolerated it well, and first one up this morning. Feeling fabulous! See Dr. E in Sioux Falls in Tuesday, then I hope we can go to monthly. Tired of getting poked once or twice a week.

THANK YOU ALL for your prayers and support. Although I am still awaiting transplant (contingency plans made), you have helped me recover and helped mom, dad and I get through this trying 5 months and 2 days. We wish you all well.

WOW!

Ok, obviously I have been neglecting the blog again.  May was busy, with yet another fruitless hospitalization for complications of abdominal fluid removal.  And two of those lovely paracentesis fluid removal procedures, for a total of  9.3 liters of fluid (not quite 3 gallons).  Ugh!

I have felt wonderful since coming home on the 30th, however.  Lots of energy, totally clear head, no issues at all.  Hopefully writing that won't jinx it.  Realised that today is my 671st day on the transplant waiting list.  Yeah, a long time.  In one week, we will be in Milwaukee for 5 months WITH NO TRANSPLANT EVEN CLOSE!!  Our family says we're so good to wait patiently.  Who the heck is waiting patiently?  Not us!!  We are horribly impatient, and have expressed this to the transplant team.  I hope that a plan I proposed for them is green lighted.  Fingers crossed.

On the upside, a couple of nice days, more wonderful fashion finds at the least expensive places in Milwaukee.  And on a very positive note, out transplant housing neighbor Dwight, got his Type A liver on May 15.  The surgical team said everything fit in place so well it was like it was his own liver.  His recovery went remarkably well, and he returned home to Worthington, MN with his wife last Friday.  He even had the go-ahead to drive his pickup a few miles.  That's usually a 3 month wait!  He hasn't driven it yet, but did go sit in it again to let it know papa was home!  So happy for them.  We will miss them dearly.

Well, as usual I am writing in the middle of the night because my sleep patterns are still messed up due to the liver disease.  But, I still have a recipe to share.  I made a thank you for the clinic staff, and it was so good, easy, and basically sodium free!

REFRIGERATOR SALSA
4 small vine-ripened tomatoes, diced
2 bunches scallions or green onions, sliced thinly
1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and de-ribbed, diced super fine
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
Pinch of sea salt

Squeeze of fresh lime juice

Combine everything in a jar or container and refrigerator. Let set at least overnight to let flavors blend. Adjust the amount of jalapeno based on your heat preference.