3 Weeks Post- Transplant

Three weeks have passed already!
Mitch had a second bronchoscopy this afternoon. Dr. Yankaskis performed the procedure. "Yank" has been closely involved in all of Mitch's progress and we are thrilled to have him on our team. He is a renowned, highly respected, pulmonologist: clinician, UNC professor, researcher, consults for NIH, pharmaceutical boards, gazillion lengthy and medically-enlightening publications, and on and on..Not to mention the fact that he likes to tell his patients meaningless trivia to distract them before a procedure, and well, whenever. Mitch was all groggy after the bronch but was full of these trivial facts Yank had told him, like, the history behind the word 'shindig' and random stuff like that- Other than spouting off random facts, Yank did gather a biopsy (tissue sample) and did a little cleaning while he was in there. They will test the biopsy for any signs of rejection that are not showing up clinically.

I only wish Mitch was experiencing the optimistic and positive reports his labs and x-rays are showing as well as the nods and "it doesn't get better than this" comments from the pulmonologists.
He is still not feeling any better, physically than before the transplant, he reports. This is because of all the pain, and numerous uncomfortable list-of-items which are torturing him at every moment as well as the inability to sleep. The massive amounts of prednisone and anti-rejection (immune-suppressant) meds make him shake and sometimes irritable- (sometimes downright nuts!- and there is this phenomenon called steroid-induced psychosis) - no really, he has been fine, nothing I can not handle...;)

On the home-front, Matias has a stomach bug-(scream!) the sanitizing measures in our home went up about 100 notches today, I am lysol-ing everything and washing every body's hands about 15,000 times a day. If I get this stomach bug, we are all doomed. I don't even want to think about Mitch getting it.
Should I quarantine?- i recently read Albert Camus's The plague- it feels eerily similar...

What does one do when they are not a nurse, a janitor, a housekeeper , a cook- well make that food preparer, masseuse, a dog walker, a mother, a chauffeur, a respiratory therapist , a personal trainer, a coach, and a mental health practitioner? Well, they read novels and stream foreign films- preferably french- from Netflix onto their laptops; at least that is the escape I have been employing to get me through the very stressful and ultra-serious goings-on in the life in Chapel Hill.

Oh, and we had a food fairy come and visit us on Tuesday... someone donated her services- she will be cooking us 2-3 meals a week- yeah!! Thank you food fairy and whomever sent you our way via the Sweet Melissa fund.

The pics above are from our drop-in clinic visit yesterday, on account of Mitch not feeling well, and the docs and patient care coordinator-Ken (in the pic next to Mitch), reassuring him he is doing great!