Officially a month post transplant

Well we are 1 month post transplant which is a milestone in of itself, as this is the mark that we will be transferred from the Transplant Team back to our Oncology Team.  On a sad note we did have to say goodbye to Dr. Marty as he has completed his fellowship and is on his way back to Australia with his family.  Although we wish him nothing but the best it was a hard good-bye for me as he has been the person holding our hands through this journey and we trusted him explicitly.  We will now be back in the care of Dr. Ron Anderson who was our original doctor and who oversaw Marty's fellowship, so this is good too as you could not meet a nicer guy, not to mention he is incredibly approachable and meets you with nothing but honesty.  I have included a picture of Gracie and Marty.

Gracie continues to do well and is eating us out of hearth and home.  She gained 1/2 a kilo in 2 days, wow!  This is the good thing about steroids, although we are tired of cooking non stop.  Gracie is also coming back to herself, she is happier and sleeping less each day, we get glimpses of her goofiness which always makes me smile.

We have had some issues trying to get her magnesium levels up and this is due probably to one of the drugs she is on, and the level of that drug (cyclosporin) is also an issue so I think one will correct the other eventually.  Her broviac lines (the lines that she has inserted in her chest so that she does not require iv's or needle pokes) are a continued source of frustration for us.  We are on our second set of lines and these too have stopped working.  We can administer drugs through them but can no longer get blood return on them, so this means that Gracie has to get a needle every clinic day, which is every second day at this point, however she does pretty good with this, she cries but loudly announces, when it is finished, that she is "DONE"!   There is some talk about taking out the lines, which we welcome, but not until we can get the levels mentioned above in check.  They usually don't take lines out until after the three month mark as you do not know if you may need them again, but because hers are pretty much broken they will take them out early and replace them if need be. 

So things are going quite well for us and we are happy and content.  We hope that everyone else is enjoying their summer.

Love The Sterks