"Uneventful"

A word like "uneventful" is great when it refers to medical examinations.
That was the long story short of the biopsy report.
phew! I could almost feel my blood pressure get back to normal.
No toxicity from Tacrolimus, no rejection...
No change to medications right now. We wait and watch before taking any decisions about change in medicines.

The other nice thing was, the doctor saw me after 4 months and said, "you have lost a lot of weight."
Man!! That felt great to hear. With a daily dose of steroids, amidst all the doctor visits, office tasks, home chores, feeling dull - I have been trying very hard to do some activity on a daily basis.
All thanks to my dear husband who keeps pushing me and pumping up my motivation levels to stop finding excuses and get up and do something.

There were many days when I would have rather just slept for longer/ sat down and done some other stuff. But I'm glad I didn't.

For medical reasons, I learnt that post transplant it is very important to do physical activity to maintain a healthy weight and blood pressure levels. I knew this was good for me.

When someone notices it and tells you...if feels nice too :) - encouraging indeed.

And yet again

Inching towards the 1st year mile stone
It has been anything but smooth.

iron deficiency, anemia, orthopedic troubles followed by physiotherapy sessions...
The Creatinine is up again...am in for yet another biopsy :(
3rd one since the transplant. Phew!

While I am grateful and happy about many things in my life, even in this situation...I cannot but be truthful and state that this is extremely stressful to deal with.

As we spend another week to get through the procedure and await the reports, here's hoping things are not too bad.

Uggh!! 

Every day is a new day

Iron deficiency = iron tablets = stomach problems = visits to the Gastroenteritis doctors.
Some kind of block in the middle back gives me many sleepless nights and resulting wasted days = visits to the orthopedic doctors
Creatinine decides to remind us of its existence = more frequent visits to the Nephrologist
Now a recurring red spot in my eye = doc says its common during winter...

Past few weeks have had us do the rounds of different doctors, trying combinations of medications and home remedies to get the stomach back in shape + dealing with the crazy pain in the back.

All this + trying to be present (physically and mentally) as much as possible; doing as much exercise as I can; doing as much as possible at home...

Phew! I am so fed up of being a sick person endlessly. Really want some normal boring days in my life. Yes, thats me saying this. Amazing! 

Traveling with Nuo

After a lot of thinking, lot of assurances from the Nephrologist, we went on a short vacation (to Rome) - first one with Nuo (7 months post transplant).

Our usual style of road trips meant getting to our destination, parking our car in a safe place, exploring the destination on foot and/or public transport. We would usually book a bed and breakfast and head out after breakfast often only returning at night to sleep.

We knew it would be prudent to take it a lot easier than usual with Nuo, with anemia, with the medication time etc. Yet we had clearly not thought of a few things until we reached Rome. The city is big - not really walkable - so here we were faced with the challenge of driving in the crazy city center with the impossible task of finding parking / taking public transport (lot of people, touching lots of machines, handles...touched by hundred others...)

We figured our catch 22 situation with traveling:
Big city

• Advantages - better and more options for clean accommodations, food (given we are vegetarians and that right now I still need to watch for protein, not eat raw stuff anywhere etc). 
• Disadvantages - need to use public transport (metro etc), parking in city center is a problem, overall costs are higher, more crowds everywhere...

Less popular destinations/country side:

• Advantages - less crowd, cheaper, do not need to use public transport
• Disadvantages - food and acco options are limited

This was our prototype vacation. Other things we learnt.

• Sights seeing will be purely dependent on the amount of tourists in there - especially places like museums/indoor stuff. Outdoor things might be better options. 
• A mask, hand sanitizer and medications are a must in the hand bag
• Remember to take breaks, eat at regular times (the side effect of Myfortic on the stomach goes haywire otherwise), drink enough water
• Keep a watchful eye for people around (in restaurants etc) who are coughing/sneezing...move away if possible...

Given the new normal of our travel - there might have new normal on who we travel with (if so) and how too...

Spontaneous travels

Traveling is something that never ceases to excite me. Yes I used to be the 'frivolous' one.

6 months post transplant a new normal seems to be that planing for travels isn't relevant anymore. Everything depends on the bi-weekly tests, their results and what the doctors have to say about them. Of course another dependency is how we feel after seeing the reports/ meeting the doctors.

I am no longer starry eyed about the (never-ending) list of places I wanted to travel to in the world. If the forces align and I do spontaneously happen to land up in one of these places, I will consider myself blessed :)

Its amazing how quickly one's mind can adapt to new situations if it is forced to.  

The facade of being fine

Feelings, insecurities, emotions, situations, facts, figures - it's amazing how many things a patient with a chronic illness has to ACCEPT and OVERCOME on a constant basis.

• Why is it that one is expected to be strong every day/every minute regardless of what life throws at you? 
• Why is crying seen as a sign of weakness? If so, why is being weak (sometimes) a bad thing?  
• Why are we always taught and told to hold back on our emotions and put on this facade of being fine all the time?  

Changes

Interesting to observe the roles different people play in one's (my) life - each person seems to fit into a box. With the changes in my life, the dynamics with people also seem to change...

Some people have emerged out of the blue to become much closer to me than I considered them, few of those I considered close seem to be falling through the gaps, some have disappeared, others view me as the 'damaged good' - as my life currently revolves around my creatinine levels, medicines, hospital visits - I have nothing interesting to offer. Now, why would anyone want to spend time with someone like this right?

Interesting change in dynamics - another new normal perhaps!