What a Week!

Life has been insanely busy lately (as evidenced by my lack of blogging).  This past week was no exception, but it was filled with lots of wonderful events and news, so here's the blow by blow.

Sunday - Mother's Day

This was the first day that I did not work even a little bit in a long time. That fact in and of itself made Sunday fabulous.  I also, however, spent the day with family and friends eating, drinking, and generally being merry.

Here we are spending some quality time with my cousin and his son who were visiting from India.

Jaisal having a playdate with Sahana - and kissing his first girl. On the lips no less!

Monday

About a month ago, I started looking for a new job and on Monday, I got an offer for an in-house (at a company rather than a law firm) legal position. I was really surprised to find something so quickly, especially a position that I am really excited about, but hey I will take the good news and celebrate the heck out of it.  

Not only did I get a job offer on Monday, but Kirk's mom moved into her apartment on our street. She's temporarily moving to Chicago for some medical treatments, which means we get to have her living nearby (pretty much exactly one block away). Her place is on my way to the "el," so I walk by it twice a day. Having her so close means that we'll all get to spend more time together, but particularly her and Jaisal. Yay!

A random picture of Jaisal with his new favorite car toy - sunglasses. This has nothing to do with Monday, but I thought it was cute. :)

Wednesday - Cardiology Clinic

It was finally time to circle back and check on Jaisal's heart again. Both Kirk and I thought Jaisal's heart was continuing to beat fast, so we were a little nervous about this appointment.  The news from the appointment was all good! His heart rate continues to be on the high end of normal, but everything about his heart function is totally normal. It's quite possible that one of his medications is causing the higher heart rate, so we hope that as his immune suppressant levels go down over the next year, he can get off this medication altogether. Also, after transplant, part of little man's heart had been slightly enlarged. That is no longer the case.  We're going to have one more follow up appointment in 6 months and then potentially be done with cardiology.

Oh, and I also formally accepted my job offer on Wednesday. It was a big day.

Thursday - Liver Clinic

We drew labs a week earlier. (We also were supposed to have clinic that same week, but I kind of forgot to make the appointment and the schedule got really full so we pushed the actual appointment. Oops!)  His labs were greatly improved since last month. Every result was either normal or had come down to Jaisal's normal except for his GGT, which was still quite elevated. To make sure there was no obvious cause for the elevated GGT, Jaisal had an ultrasound before clinic.  Jaisal was hungry and cranky by the time we were seen for our ultrasound. Thank heavens I had a show downloaded on the iPad to distract him. Have I mentioned how amazing that thing has been for all of our appointments and hospitalizations?

Clinic was more good news.  Jaisal gained over a pound in one month. Our little guy is around the 30th percentile for weight and near the 75th percentile for height. That's right, those numbers are for our little guy. The little guy, who we were so proud of when he hit the 5th percentile for weight and maintained on that curve, is now jumping growth curves. Sir Oliver is doing a bang up job of getting our kid nutrition (well maybe we play a small role in what we feed him as well :)).

I know compared to most kids these are not chunky thighs, but they are a vast improvement on Jaisal's pre-transplant scrawny chicken legs. I love being able to see fat and muscle on him! I may squeeze and kiss him excessively, and for now, he tolerates all the extra loving.

Beyond the vitals, the docs thought Jaisal looked fabulous.  His ultrasound also didn't show anything concerning. Next month we'll be 6 months post-transplant and as long as Jaisal stays steady, they'll start reducing his steroid immune suppressant!  Kirk and I were jumping for joy!

Friday

I gave my two weeks notice at work. I know this new job is the right decision for me, Kirk, and Jaisal, but it was still hard to know I was quitting a good job and leaving some really wonderful co-workers. BUT the mere act of giving notice was a HUGE relief and definitely made for a much more enjoyable weekend.

And really, how could my weekend not be great when I got to spend it with this face?

 I mean, the weekend is pretty awesome even when I have to spend it with angry Jaisal. A little less charming, but still damn loveable. Jaisal is really starting to develop a distinct personality and shows some serious attitude through his expressions. Even his speech therapist commented on how much he has developed and grown in the past three months.

 

Saturday - 5 Years!

Saturday was mine and Kirk's 5-year wedding anniversary. How did we spend it you ask? Well, Kirk was off in San Diego with the boys for my brother's bachelor party and I was getting caught up on laundry. Thankfully our anniversary in no way, shape, or form approximates our actual relationship, so I'll let it slide that we were playing into some stereotypical gender roles on Saturday.

I actually celebrated our anniversary by getting a tattoo. As I am sure is apparent, organ donation is a massive part of our lives now. I never could have imagined how strongly I would feel about organ donation when I registered to be a donor when I got my driver's license.  For quite some time, I've wanted to get a green organ donation ribbon tattoo as a means of encouraging conversation on the subject.  It turns out that the tattoo studio I was considering for my tattoo was donating all of its profits from the weekend to the shelter where we adopted Denali from. I took that as a cosmic sign that it was time to get my tattoo this weekend.

I love it! I already had the opportunity to educate my tattoo artist about organ donation rates and the process for becoming a registered organ donor while he was inking me.

Now our whole family bears scars related to organ donation, although Jaisal's is clearly the most beautiful. :)

Yup, it was quite the week.