steppin out at 11

It is getting near the end of a pretty long but excellent day. Emily continues to improve. She just finished a three lap walk with her posse in tow. Just as good as a stroll in the garden. Had to stop to rest a couple of times. but basically Em cruised. She continues to eat well and has fewer IV bags hanging as meds are being switched to oral as possible. The high doses of steroids she is taking is making the management of her diabetes (yep, got that to deal with too) a bit harder but she is sorting that out with each meal.  She had to have some dressings changed as she was getting some bleeding at the chest tube insertion points. Seems ok now.

At the moment she is getting a bit of a bath. Partly to refresh but also to guard against infection as her immno system is so dramatically suppressed to prevent organ rejection. It is very complex and there are a lot of very bright and dedicated people working on making this transplant work. The skill of the surgical team was spectacular,sublime. Take a minute and ponder how complex our wonderful bodies are and then try and imagine what they have done. Magic. Now the task is to avoid infection and rejection. This is always, Emily will now be on some level of anti rejection meds for her lifetime.

After the bath she will do an inhalation therapy. Many of you close friends have been around as she has done these through the years. Thousands of them. Tonight's is a bit different, the medication is so powerful that we all must leave the room and stay out for an hour after the half hour treatment. This is to try and prevent the return of the fungus that wasted her lungs over the past years. She is tired but happy tonight. Tomorrow will be a day of evaluation and tweaking of pain medications and walking.

Good night from Seattle from us all Emily, Peg, Nicky & keith

Keith