The Next Several Weeks

So, here's what the next several weeks should look like for us...

Tricia needs to meet four criteria to be discharged:

1) Walking at least 1 mile daily. She walked a world record 16 laps today, which equates to about 4700 feet, which equates to about 4/5 a mile.

2) No chest tubes. She had two more removed two days ago, and another removed today. She's got one big tube and two small tubes left...the big one should be removed in the next few days, and the smaller tubes will probably be removed on her last day.

3) Able to cough, especially cough up the secretions that she is currently needing the bronchoscopy/suctioning for. She is literally having to relearn how to cough, and because she was on the vent for 3 months, her muscles are gaining strength slowly.

4) No signs of infection or severe rejection. They won't let her go if she's just going to get sicker at home. So far, so good.

She is doing great with her breathing and talking. She talked on camera with Barbara yesterday for at least 25 minutes, and I got my first phone call from her in over 3 months the other day, which was super cool. She will keep her trach until sometime between being released from the hospital and going home. This will allow her to easily be bronched every week and be a safeguard for an emergency.

Her walks are going great. She walked twice today, 6 laps in the morning and 10 laps this afternoon. She only stopped once for a breather on our walk in the afternoon. She is still walking with the Swedish walker, but mostly just to carry her chest tubes. She has been asking for less pain meds the past few days.

So, we're hoping that Tricia might be discharged by Wednesday of next week.

Lots of people are coming by to talk with us. A pharmacist came by to explain all of the new drugs she'll be on. The coordinator to teach us about lots of different transplant care. The patient resource manager to discuss a few things. I'll talk more about some of this stuff later.

Once Tricia is discharged, the first thing we need to do is go pick up her drugs and equipment. She'll be referred to the Center for Living again to complete another 24 days of PT, and then we can finally go home. It won't take 24 days, though, because she'll also have lots of clinic visits and other appointments to make that will take away days from PT. She'll also need to have a stomach wrap (very common post TX), but we haven't been told when or for how long.

Gwyneth needs to meet four criteria to be discharged:

1) Breathing on her own. She's had this one down for several weeks.

2) Weighing in at no less than 2 kilos, or 2000 grams, or 4lbs 6oz. She seems to have plateaued at 1500 grams for the past week, but we're hoping she'll hit 2000 in the next 3-4 weeks.

3) Eating completely from the bottle and none from the feeding tube (that tube in her nose). She is currently eating from about half a bottle about 3-4 times a day (she is fed 8 times a day). This will come as she grows stronger and bigger.

4) No other major issues. So far, so good.

So, we're hoping that Gwyneth will be on her way out within the next month as well.

Anyway, all of that means that we're hoping we could be home close to the first of June.

Thanks.

Nate