Recovery Day 20...

meant spending the day in the Ronald McDonald House. It started normally, but ended poorly. We stayed in pretty much all day. Ian was fine this morning, but shortly after lunch he started to complain about feeling cold. He spent the rest of the day either feeling cold or doing normal things. We went to Boston Market for dinner, and then the real shenanigans started. He threw up once, but there wasn't much in his stomach. He came back to the table, ate a little bread, took his Prograf, ate a little more and drank a lot of water. He took the rest of his medicines 30 minutes after the Prograf (which absorbs in about 15 minutes). So, we knew he was good on the Prograf. We got him ready for bed. He was complaining about not feeling well. I called the transplant team and ran through a series of questions with them. Right now, the theory is that he ate something new that didn't agree with him. There is no fever and he's okay for the most part (other body functions are normal). Keep in mind (this is as much for myself as for the readers) that absence of fever does not mean absence of infection. So we wait. I'm getting him to sleep and he starts to complain a lot about his stomach hurting. I tried to comfort him, which worked until he threw up everywhere. By this point it had been an hour since the remainder of his medicines, and those move through the stomach fairly quickly as well, so he should have absorbed everything. We did not need to re-dose.

After the second ralphing, he felt better. Still no fever. He's asleep now, and when we've checked on him he's said his stomach doesn't hurt. He's also drinking lots of water. So, the signs are pretty good that he just ate something that didn't sit well (he had lots of new things today, so we are going to pull back to normal foods and then reintroduce things). Could happen to any of us. We'll know more tomorrow (he has labs in the morning and then clinic at 1:00).

Mostly, I just felt bad for him. He generally likes chicken, but he felt so yucky that he didn't really try the Boston Market (which is quite good). Not only that, I personally don't care to throw up, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. He seems better now, like I said, so we'll see tomorrow... and tonight. I doubt I'll sleep much.

Speaking of sleep, my eyes are closing on me as I type this. That's usually a good sign that bedtime is here.

Lots of people have been asking us what they can send, and the truth is that we really don't need much here. Usually if we need something, we need it urgently enough that we go buy it. So, that being said, I suppose what we would ask people to do, in lieu of sending something to us here in Atlanta or home to Charleston, is to donate money to Ian's COTA fund instead. The link is here. Also, his medicines are quite expensive. The first cocktail he's on, without insurance, is upwards of $2,000 for one month supply (I don't know how much it is with insurance, but at least two of the drugs are for sure tier 3 drugs and are very expensive). Donations can be anonymous, I believe, and we will never know how much you donated. The most we can learn is that you did donate some.