Lealonnie and Hubby: Liver Transplant Journey

Lea: Praying that you rest well tonight, dear lady and prayers for your homeward bound trip.💕💕

Via con Dios, Lea and Chuck!

Wishing you safe travels and glad you are on this next stretch to the road of restored health. I always dread going to our downtown area for doctor visits and try to schedule as many as possible in the area just over the bridge from the island we are on. Hope you manage them with the least amount of stress possible.

Our middle child left with her family yesterday and were flying to Denver where her in laws are. Driving home to Utah from there today. They said the airport is somewhat of a pain to get to where the parents live. Sounded like NY where we used to live.

Hoping for an update this eve that the trip is half done. I am hoping it may even be enjoyable. It is always hard to leave the comfort and security of specialized care that knows what they are doing, and returning more to care as usual, but I know also you have a good solid attitude of taking things one thing at a time, one day at a time, and that you are ON TOP OF IT. Feel like I am riding this journey home with you.

Just a bookmark 😊

Hope you got off without a hitch. GF used to live in Los Alamos so had to fly into Albuquerque. Beautiful country.

We made it to Albuquerque after a 7 hour drive and being stuffed into the car like sardines in a can! I cannot believe how much we packed in there. I was stuffed into a 2 foot hole in the backseat w Honey lying next to me, and crap piled up to the ceiling. 😣 Chuck was semi queasy after about 4 hours but we stopped and got him a drink w electrolytes and he was okay afterward.

A gigantic tumbleweed came across the highway and crashed into us at one point.....we tried swerving away from it, bit IT swerved with us, and missed the windshield by a hair. We were laughing so hard, after the horror and shock wore off, and we will never forget The Tumbleweed Incident. I had to dig a chunk of it out of the grill when we stopped later on for gas. To see such a giant mass rushing at us across the highway caused my blood pressure to spike and DDs face was red as a beet. 😂

Figuring out dinner now, then bed time....but we have a room overlooking the patio where there's a reception going on w music till 1030pm tonight....and no free rooms available . 🤣 So Showtime on tv it is, on loud, till 11.

Off for leg 2 in the morning, which is 7 hrs I think, and we'll be home, thank God. I'll be driving tomorrow so I'm hoping for no high winds like last time and no craziness on the road.

Lea: Thank you for the update. Travel prayers going out to you for tomorrow.

Now you know where the inspiration forthe song Tumbling Tumble Weed came from.

It is a wild experience the first time. I actually ducked and I was driving. Thank The Lord for HIS care.

Praying here that you guys get home safely!

Thanks for the wonderful travel log. I could see it all now! I love it.
One of the cutest christmas trees I ever saw was the skeletons of those tumbleweeds stacked up and decorated.
Yes, try to keep Chuck hydrated. It is such a problem for me in the heat when traveling as the 80 year old bladder says "don't drink a lot if you're going on the road and the rest of me knows I better NOT get dehydrated. It's being between the devil and the deep blue.
Traveling with you today while I take care of the Foster Dog--baby sitting.
Will be relieved when you are home; bet the Honey will be Happy, as well.

Angels on your bumper.

When I have been away from home for a while, I wish I could hug my house. It will be good to see home.

We're home. It took us about 7 hours with stops but we made it. DD unloaded the heavy stuff from the car and carried it into the house for us, and then I drove her home. My house looks like a mansion, my bed feels fit for a queen, and Honey was rolling on the lawn with happiness......scurrying from the lawn to the hallway and back again. Everything greened up while we were gone and looks so lush, its funny. But it's 100 degrees here....lol. We'll take it, we're just happy to be home!

Chuck is feeling fine, took today's ride well, and is sitting on the couch with his feet on the coffee table just like always.

Its almost like a dream we were there and back. I read an article in the car that 106,500 people are currently waiting for an organ transplant in the United States alone. Every 17 minutes someone dies waiting. I am very thankful to God, The Mayo Clinic and the donor that Chuck is no longer waiting for a liver.

Thanks everyone for your support. 😚

So glad you made it home safely!

I bet you will be so glad to sleep in your own bed!!

May God bless you all!

🎉🥳🎈🪅🎁🎉🥳🎈🎊

Lea, I am so happy and relieved for you and Chuck.

So glad you are home!!! May the next months be peaceful!

Lea: So glad to hear that you're home!💖💖

Thank you for taking us along on your journey. Now the next chapter begins. I hope Chuck does fantastically well and you two can get back to normal life, whatever that may look like.

My brother's cousin died while waiting for a living transplant. I am glad your husband beat the odds.

Home again! I am thrilled! Thank you so very much, and CX, as well, for taking us on this journey with you. So many of us would have been wanting updates, afraid to bother you with them. Feel so lucky to have been in this strange new world I really knew nothing much about. So grateful for the comaraderie you had from others brave enough to take this journey.

I'm so happy for you both!

There's no place like home is there? I know that you have a new found appreciation for your home and for life in general. You can't possibly go through what you have and not be permanently changed.
We are all praying for continued healing and no complications here on out.

Welcome Home! You now have a whole new appreciation for it, huh.

Is there anything more satisfying than sleeping in your own bed?? Congrats on making it back!

It's wonderful that you're home and Chuck is doing well! Make sure to give yourself a few days to recuperate, this has been quite a journey for *both* of you , and you *both* will need some recovery time.

Chuck's PCP appointment went beautifully this morning! We love this man, he has saved Chuck's life 3x now, honestly. He is a brilliant man in every sense of the word. He was shocked at how great Chuck looks; and he's gaining weight finally, but PCP said just gain maybe 10 lbs, no more!

PCP made PT appointments for him, blood tests for every week, the nebulizer appts for the inhaled antibiotics, everything. No pushback at all from Kaiser who can tend to be cheap when it comes to 'extras'. They're going to keep him on blood thinners for 3 months, then do another CT scan, and re test for Lupus Anticoagulant blood disorder which was positive last time around. May have been a false positive due to being on Predaxa, they do not know. So all of his docs are coordinated now at Kaiser, with Mayo, it's perfect. They're all using the same computer system too so they can cross reference one another. Tomorrow he has the cardiologist appt, then late in the month the Hepatologist. She is the one who will monitor his anti rejection drug levels in his blood, but ultimately MAYO is the one who makes any med CHANGES! Amazing how all of this works, I must say. We feel in good hands here due to his PCP, his Hepatologist (who's head of dept) and Mayo OVERSEEING everything and keeping on top of his meds/blood levels. He's feeling good and able to drive, too, thankfully. The drop foot is incredibly better than it was at the beginning, even without the specialized orthotic he'll be getting from Physical Therapy.

I am trying to unpack suitcases, do laundry, grocery shop, take Chuck to his appointments, and keep on top of everything going on with meds/lists/real life back home. Now I have to arrange for my mother's funeral at the military cemetery that I put off while we were planning our trip to AZ for this transplant. I will call the Neptune Society so they can get that on the cemetery's schedule in the next couple of weeks; she will be interred opposite my father & her headstone will be engraved on the reverse side of his. It's nice weather now vs. the cold & snowy weather we were having in late Feb/March when we would have had the service outside at the cemetery. Postponing it turned out to be a good idea, I think. (She was cremated and her urn is safe here at my house).

One step at a time.

Just wanted to update that we're alive & doing well! Chuck is feeling very good and adjusting to life back home with no hiccups so far. God is good and so is the Mayo Clinic! :) And so are you good people for all the support you've given me along this journey!

Cheers!

I am so glad you updated us and filled us in. I honestly have to admire that the medical system is getting this so together. Chuck as much as he means to US is but one patient. This is quite remarkable. You will remain one busy gal.

Yesss. Your Mom’s service. I still take my hat off to her for passing before Chuck got the call from Mayo. 😀

Colleen.........AMEN sister! I was shocked to the core that mom chose that time to peacefully pass......literally 3 days after Chuck became eligible for transplant! I'm writing her eulogy in the midst of everything else here & that thought keeps popping up in my head.

Alva, Mayo had SO many patients to handle at their Phoenix campus, they could not fit in ONE more person for labs last week, so we had to drive to their Scottsdale campus 20 minutes away........4x that week. Yet the results STILL come in within 20 minutes of the blood being drawn, all but 1 that comes in w/i a few hours. The streamlined efficiency of their entire operation is remarkable.

I'm so happy you are home. When you're sick, there's just no place like it!

When DH had his transplant, it was such an emotional time. 16 years and counting. He got to see 13 grandkids born and continued his career that he loves so much.

You're still in the early days--but, wow, such great support and so much love!

And yes, there are not nearly enough donors. We made it our goal to educate people about the 'beauty' of organ donation.

I hope your donor's family accepts your thanks and can begin to heal from their loss.

All good wishes for you guys!!

welcome back home!! :) :) :)

Phil Lesh, the bass guitar player for the Grateful Dead, had a liver transplant in 1998. Since then, during every concert that he plays, whether under his own cover or as a "guest" player, he talks about his transplant, and the importance of being an organ donor.