Pluggin-Along

I went down to Richmond on Friday to see my folks - and all is well. I took my dad to the transplant clinic for his check-up. His creatinine had gone up a little since he left the hospital, so they wanted to take it again to see if they needed to readjust his meds. It looked fine on Friday, so they kept his meds the same. His BP continues to drop - now consistently in the lower 120's - so they will stop one of his BP meds on Monday. Other than that, they couldn't be happier with his recovery.

After I dropped dad off at the house, I went to the Trotter's to pick up my kids and bring them over to see Grammy Squirt and Duni. My mom and dad LIVE for their 6 grandchildren, so seeing them was the best medicine! Caroline had lots of new things to show them. Since she saw them last she has learned how to jump rope, do a 1 handed cartwheel, and do a running cartwheel with a hurdle...yes, she is taking gymnastics. Her new random goal it to learn how to hola-hoop. Jackson is my techno-file and showed my dad his new video camera that can record up to 8 minutes of film or hold 20 digital pictures. Grammy Squirt always has the best food for Jackson, so he spent most of the time with his nose in their fridge looking for her special treats.

Then on Saturday morning, Caroline and I took Grammy Squirt shopping. We were out and about for a few hours. She had to move slowly to avoid pain at her incision, but gains more strength and mobility everyday. Dad and I then went out to Home Depot and Costco and he looked healthier than most guys at both places. His coloring is awesome and you'd never know he had a major organ transplant 12 days ago by the look of him walking around. His big thing will be trying to do to much to soon. He has no patience for "taking it easy". But he did admit that he was tired after our outing, so both my folks took a nap.

We left Saturday afternoon with both of them looking and feeling great. My mom and I spent an hour going over his meds and how to fill his huge pill box. We also went over his nutritional program to determine the rate at which to reintroduce certain supplements based on the guidelines in his transplant handbook. We were all pleased to see that they encourage supplement intake as soon as possible, they just warn against taking herbs, which I am not a big fan of anyway, so that wasn't a problem.

Mom will be able to drive on Monday, so she will take Duni in for his next check-up tomorrow morning. Once they both get clean bills of health next week, these postings will probably slow down to once a week or so - unless something crazy happens.