Happy New Year!

Although it had some good times, I'm happy to see 2011 go. Repeated hospital admissions, getting listed for transplant, living donor work ups, a failed transplant attempt, etc. overwhelmed me (and us). I know post-transplant life will have its hiccups, but I hope living life will be the main focus of the new year.

That being said, this last day of the 2011 was pretty decent.  Jaisal has done well off of the bipap mask, pretty much to the surprise of everyone. This evening we reduced the rate of the flow of oxygen to Jaisal. 4 hours into the experiment he seems to be tolerating it well.

Today also was a good day because Kirk and I went home for a few hours, together. We've both been home for one reason or another since transplant. There have also been a steady stream of other people at our place, who have been able to being its anything we need from home, but today was the first time in 20 days that we were in our house together. And it was fabulous.

We both just breathed a sigh of relief while standing in our living room together. It was thrilling to do something as mundane as taking down our Christmas tree. Also, I am not ashamed to say that I love my couch and TV, and I absolutely adore my bed. If there was a fire, after saving Jaisal, Kirk, and Denali, I think I'd try to save the bed. I'm not joking. Sleep has always been a serious matter for me, and these days thoughts of comfortable, long lasting sleep are almost always on my mind. I cannot wait for all of us to be home together and to sleep in my bed every night.

On the liver front, we are still struggling to keep Jaisal's immunosuppression at a therapeutic level. We have to keep increasing his dose, which is not a thrilling concept considering the toxicity of this drug. We hope that the slight increase in his liver numbers are because his immunosuppression isn't in the therapeutic range right now. An ultrasound of his liver showed great flows, so the slight bump in the labs are either due to low immunosuppression or rejection. Both of which, thankfully, can be managed medically rather than surgically.

We're looking forward to bigger and brighter things in 2012 and wish you all the best in the new year as well!