The past is never far....

It was a year ago today that I came home from the hospital, post-transplant, (for the first time) and I so fondly remember just how sweet it was to be here.....balloons, banners, cards, my couch, my guitar, my REFRIGERATOR, my bed!!!

Home. Home again. Ahhhhhhhh.

Though it was short-lived (I had to go back within 4 days) it's a lesson that's imprinted on my brain now not to ever take even the simplest things for granted. Some of you know that I have been reliving the events of last year day and night for the past twenty days and never taking things for granted seems to be the underlying theme.

Thursday I had my official " One Year Out" clinic appointment. I text a friend that as I was going into the appointment, Inside Job was playing on my Pandora. I thought this was a beautiful coincidence and definitely good karma. The one year marker is a bit of a milestone in the tx world and they are very happy with how my grafts are performing. Although I am having some other issues that are directly related to the aforementioned success, they've handed me off to "other issue doctors." and despite my very vocal protesting I have had to have some rather medieval tests done. What they originally believed was the result of CMV, the transplant surgeons now think (hope) that the trouble is coming from the combination of meds that I am currently on and will be consulting with the other doc to determine a course of action. On Thursday they ran a couple blood tests to check levels of  CMV, eGFR, RBC Morph, Abs Baso Ct, Abs Eos, Abs Immature Gran Ct, Abs Lymph Ct, Abs Mono Ct, Basophils, Eosinophil, Immature Gran, Lymphocytes, Mature Neutrophils, Monocyte, Cyclosporine Levels, Lipase Lvl, Amylase, Magnesium Level, Phosphorus Level, Anion Gap, BUN, Calcium, Chloride, CO2, Creatinine, Glucose Random, Potassium, Sodium, CBC with Diff - HCT, HGB, MCH, MCHC, MCV, MPV, Platelet, RBC, RDW-CV, RDW-SD, WBC, and some others.

I also had the joyous revelation the other day that it's been more than a year now since an event of hypoglycemia has almost killed me. With the deteriorating kidneys and the diabetes, this was becoming an all too often occurrence back then and so this alone is worth any inconvenience or symptoms that I have now.

Since I've now cleared the one year hurdle, I am not scheduled to return to clinic for six months (analogous to birds being kicked out of the nest) and my twice-a-week blood draws now are cut back to once every two weeks. Woooooo Hoooooo!!!

That's the word from here for now.

Sign me......Forever Thankful.