Day +21: three weeks out

Well, it's been an interesting three weeks. We've definitely experienced a bit of the roller coaster ride we were warned about, but everyone is telling us we've gotten off pretty easy. That can still change, of course. GVHD can show up at any time, and her immune system will take six months to a year to be back to full strength. But we've been pretty lucky so far. There's still the nagging issue of her liver function tests, but no one seems to be worried about it. I'm planning to quiz the doctors one more time tomorrow.

Mina Brigitta is now taking all of her medications by mouth. She's still on the IV, but only because she's not drinking enough fluids. There's sort of a chicken-and-egg problem there; she's not as thirsty when she's getting IV hydration, but they won't stop the IV until she drinks more. It's true that she's not eating or drinking as much as we would hope. She's probably still feeling a little punky from everything she's been through. But there don't seem to be any more hurdles to us going home, so assuming everything goes well over the weekend I imagine they'll spring us mid-day Monday. That gives us the weekend to get the apartment ready, which is probably not quite enough time, but it will have to do.

I have another photo album ready; see the link at right. I've been working on these at night on those rare occasions when Mina Brigitta goes to bed at a reasonable hour (last night she went down at midnight :-( ...). It's from our previous stay in the hospital. I have two more to do, one from the time at home and one from this hospital stay. I'll probably work on the newer one first to get the pictures of the transplant day out there.