Settling in

Bodie and I have now been home a little over 2 weeks, and we’re still settling in. I’m still finding boxes that never got unpacked – and still trying to find things that were moved while Bodie and I were gone (and no one seems to know where they moved them to!). We’re so grateful to be home though!

First off, Bodie is doing great! We continue to see increases in his stamina, and even his friends have noticed his increased energy levels! We’ve been doing regular lab work and had a remote appointment with his transplant team last week. We made some tweaks on meds, but from the outside, everything looks pretty good, thankfully. We go up to Stanford the week after this for an echo and in person clinic appointment, so we’ll know for sure then. But things look good for now!

He’s settling into school, but we don’t yet have routines set in place. His first day of school was rough, because I inadvertently gave him food poisoning. (No, I’m not proud!) I accidentally grabbed an expired bottle of Almond Milk to make his pasta (yes he eats pasta for breakfast). It smelled fine, so we didn’t know any different. But when I picked him up from school and realized that he had thrown up 4 times at school (but hadn’t told his teachers, so they just thought he had to got o the bathroom a lot), let’s say my spidey senses were on high alert. You never want a transplant kiddo to start vomiting suddenly. He spent the better part of that afternoon and evening throwing up. And I spent the better of my evening watching him and talking to his transplant team to determine whether an ER trip was warranted. Thankfully, he hung in there and was back to baseline by the next morning, back to school the day after that! Nothing like being thrown into the fire of school with a transplant kid! Suffice it to say, we all learned our lesson (Bodie learned that he needs to tell his teachers if he’s throwing up, and I learned to always double check the food I’m making him!).

Other than that hiccup, school is going well and Bodie’s working hard to get completely caught up. I think he’s ready to be on campus 4 days a week (full time at his school), but our agreement with the school was 2 days on campus with the remainder at home for the first semester. We figured he’d need a little more time to settle back in.

Speaking of settling in, I keep trying to figure out why it’s so hard for me to get everything done that I need to get done.

And then I looked at my schedule and realized that in the 2 weeks since we got home, in addition to Bodie’s schoolwork and my client work, Bodie and I had a combined 5 doctors appointments, 2 lab draws, 2 therapy sessions and 2 meetings at school. And a super successful 2 day yard sale spearheaded by our dear friend Francesca to raise money for our COTA fund!

In addition, Sierra’s sweet 6 month old kitten Toulouse was just diagnosed with Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP). FIP is an aberrant immune response in cats to infection with feline coronavirus. Without treatment it is universally fatal in days to weeks. The good news is, the FDA approved a drug to treat FIP just this past June, enabling us to get treatment for him without resorting to back alley drug deals. The bad news is that the medication isn’t cheap (but thankfully much cheaper than surgery!). We started injections yesterday and he’ll be on daily injections or pills for the next 12 weeks, then will be on observation for 12 weeks after that. We got him for Sierra the day before Bodie and I headed up to Stanford in June, and in many ways he was Sierra’s emotional support animal this summer. He is the sweetest, snuggliest cat we’ve ever had. We all love him and would hate to lose him.

Anyone want to guess who’s in charge of obtaining and giving the injections?!? Hint – she’s one the one typing the blog entry!

So yeah. That could possibly be why I’m not getting anything done. But in the grand scheme of things, I’ll take it! Because it all means we’re home and settling in. More or less.

Bodie and Sierra had their Homecoming dance last night. In true Bodie fashion, he wasn’t very interested in giving me any pictures. This one at the top and this pic were the best I got.

Bodie went with one of his buddies, and Sierra went with several different groups of friends. It was so special to have them be able to share their Homecoming Dance with each other. At least I thought it was.

Turns out, neither kid particularly appreciated the specialness of the moment.

Especially Bodie.

With a fair amount of wrangling and a lot of bribery and threats, the kids managed to take one good pic to send to me.

And because SIerra is a teenage girl living her best life doing allllll the things (musical theatre, ASB, rowdy crowd at the games – you name it she’s all in and loving every minute!) she did send me a bunch of really good pics. I just love how radiant she looks even after the crazy last few months!

Even amidst of the overwhelm of our life at the moment, I am always reminded of how lucky we are to be in this season, where we are all home and TOGETHER. I think often of our friends who are not that lucky. Friends in the hospital still waiting for their miracle hearts to come, friends holding vigil bedside as their children fight through unexpected obstacles in recovery from their transplants, friends whose children are further out and suddenly fighting again. I KNOW HOW BLESSED WE ARE.

Thank you so much for all of your continued prayers for Bodie and for our family! We covet your prayers for continued peace in this time of transition back home, for our sweet kitty Toulouse, for Bodie’s appointments next week to go well, and finally, always, for our donor family. Without them, none of this would be possible.