Here is her Kidney Transplant story...
Last week or so of status with my wife with a bit more detail.
From: jjs
Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2014 9:32 PM
Subject: Re: Karen past couple of days 3/14/14
Well, today was a good day. Karen's blood tests came back all within normal limits. She is taking a phenomenal amount of Tums per day to get the calcium level back up, but it's working! Eventually, once the parathyroid figures out that she needs more Calcium, it will kick in, and the Tums will be decreased. She is starting physical and occupational therapy tomorrow, not once, but 2 times a day. She is excited to start the exercise program and is looking forward to gaining enough strength to get out of bed on her own. Having a cast on her left foot really adds a lot of weight to the leg so this will be a challenge. I am hoping that once she starts the exercise, her insulin will be decreased and her appetite will increase.
Due to the surgery, she is supposed to limit her speech so as not to strain the vocal cords too much. I think for the next day or two, you may want to just email me and I will read your emails to her. I think she would love to hear from everybody…. good thoughts, funny anecdotes, good You Tube videos, family stories, anything that will keep her up to date with the outside world. We skyped Karen 1, and Jen and Jeremy today, and got to see her two favorite grand daughters and she loved it! We looked at Face Book and caught up on all the photos of the new arrival. We read Brianna's blog, and did some ancestry on line. She had a very stimulating day and I think she was ready for me to leave so that she could get some sleep. I will be back tomorrow bright and early to see how much they work her with her therapy. So far, she seems to be making headway. I love her attitude. Such a forward thinker. I will try to keep you updated. Julie
On Mar 14, 2014, at 8:34 AM, SS wrote:
The last several days have been much less hectic than the first couple weeks up here. Karen has been recovering from her surgery on Monday and the doctors have been monitoring her recovery. Her calcium dropped (like they anticipated) and have upped her supplemental calcium. They will do this until things normalize out. Her kidney function is fine. We will know on the CMV virus level when they test her maybe Saturday. She has had a couple of episodes of being pretty nauseated but with some Zofran things are better.
Since Julie is coming in to Madison tonight, I will be leaving today to head back to Kansas to take care of some things at the house and try to catch up some at work. Plan was they were going to move Karen to the rehab floor sometime soon so maybe it will be today.
Next update will probably be from Julie.
Day by day:
TUES 3/11/14
Rounds were at 8 – creatinine @ 1.2, CMV 100,000, calcium @ 5.4 (normalized). Dr. Djamali did a good job of summarizing the last several weeks and talking each of the main points of Karen’s treatment – Parathyroid, Kidney dysfunction, and the CMV virus. Samples for calcium will be done 2 times a day down from 3 times on surgery day. Dr. Nick from rehab came in to visit and Dr. Sara (surgeon) came by as well in the morning. At about noon Dr. Nick brought by his manager and introduced him to us. The infectious disease doctor also stopped by. Physical therapy was @ 1:45 and a new diabetes educator came by the room at 2:45. Not much else the rest of the day.
WED 3/12/14
Rounds at 8 – creatinine 1.3, calcium @ 5.0, CMV blood draw next Saturday, Sunday or Monday. Occupational therapy at 9:45; during this time the orthopedic docs came in and said they would change her cast next Monday; alignment in the cast looked good but the fracture in her fibula is slow healing which is typical for transplant patients. Dr. Felix (diabetes) stopped by but no new news. Karen and I spent about an hour talking with one of the social workers. Late afternoon the transplant PA came by and talked about a potential blood transfusion as Karen’s red blood cell had dropped some more (hematocrit @ 22); since this was fairly new we elected to wait on this and she how Karen was in the morning.
THR 3/13/14
Rounds at 8 – creatinine 1.3, hematocrit 22; we talked pros and cons of blood transfusion; Dr. Djamali felt benefit / risk was good so we elected to do this. 2 units of blood were transfused during the day. Physical therapy was done before the KU/OSU basketball game. This went pretty much uninterrupted until one of the orthopedic surgeons stopped by to show us a before and after X-ray of her left ankle. It was a good day as KU won in OT and will play in the semifinals Friday night. Karen was nauseated and had another dose of Zofran. She slept well through the night.
FRI 3/14/14
Doctors just came by on their rounds – creatinine 1.3, calcium 4.2 and coming back up, hematocrit @ 27. Since calcium and red blood cell count coming back up they were OK to approve transfer down to the rehab floor today.
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