20 Days Post Transplant

The morning started out with a healthy bowl of muesli and cinnamon rolls for Jim. We had a leisurely breakfast then walked to the hospital for a 9:30 appointment. Jim had blood work first. They will check his medication levels every time he has an appointment. Afterwards we met with Shannon, the nurse practitioner. This was our first time meeting her and she was very thorough. Blood work showed the blood count growing in the right direction. It also should elevated potassium and creatinine levels. These elevated levels can be a complication of one of the meds Jim gets. The best way to lower them is for Jimmy to drink lots of fluids and he had to stay in the clinic and receive 1 liter of fluid. Unfortunately he was stuck twice today. Once for blood work and once to start an IV. While he was getting the fluids I went back to the apartment and made him lunch. After bringing it to him I ran a few errands and went back to the apartment to pack. Jim said he would be ok walking back by himself after the infusion.



Today we were able to check into the Hope Lodge. What we decided to do was move some of our belongings over there, check in and then return to the apartment. If we could move all of our "stuff" in several trips it would be a much smoother transition. Also we walked to the hospital and took the shuttle to the Hope Lodge avoiding a taxi. We would have looked like this picture if we moved everything at once.







There were only 3 other people on the shuttle. It's a bumpy half hour ride to the Hope Lodge. It is not in a very nice part of town so the shuttle is a nice perk. We checked in and were assigned a room. We are on the 11th floor. Unfortunately we have one of the smallest rooms on the floor and there is no little refrigerator in the room like the last two we were in. I really can't complain. It is all free. Free thanks to generous donations given to the American Cancer Society. After all the money we have spent on housing here in the city free sounds pretty good to me.

Later we returned to the apartment had dinner and watched the Caps game.