Monday - Feb 18 - First Clinic

Karen attended her first post-surgery clinic today at Baptist Hospital. Everything is looking good and the kidney function has improved some more (creatinine level lower than Thursday!). As expected, they are making tweaks to her medicines, but Doctor seems very pleased with her progress.

I believe that Karen's expectation (and many others) was that she would immediately feel terrific, so she has been somewhat disappointed. She continues to tire very easily, still needs a lot of rest and not feeling great. Dr. Rogers (transplant surgeon) helped to manage her expectations today, telling her that it normally takes 2-3 months before she really starts feeling good again and can return to "normal" activities. I think that was actually a relief to her because now she knows better what to expect. He also indicated that she will probably need to stay away from stenuous exercise including driving a car for about 6 weeks from the date of her surgery (I didn't know driving was stenuous exercise so glad to know I have a been on a heavy exercise regimen since I was 16!). We may need to call on some of you that have volunteered to help with transporation.

My postings will probably be less frequent now that we are past the surgery, etc. but I will try to give you an update a couple of times a week.

Rusty