Grapefruit

As I promised, here is a picture of Jerid's latest battle wounds. I told you it was weird looking. I'm not sure how long the stitches stay in for, but Jerid says it doesn't hurt too bad. At this point, when I give him his bath, I pretty much ignore his entire chest. I just spot scrub spots that have adhesive or dried blood.

I slept in a little today and took Jerid lunch from Olive Garden. He requested ravioli from there the night before. When I got to the hospital though, he had already eaten. So we saved it for later and instead we went for a walk. It was by far his farthest yet and he says that the recovery time for his breathing to go back to normal is getting better and better.

Once back, Jerid was ready for a little nap. I had a little chat with the lung coordinator, Kevin, and caught up on the latest news. The bacteria that Jerid has is called pseudomonas. (I don't know exactly what it is, but Kevin describes it a a nasty bacteria. That's good enough for me, because I looked it up on Wikipedia and could only understand about every 4th word.) This is what we all prayed and danced and chanted that the antibiotic (Colistin) would fight off. Well, it seems as if it worked. Unfortunately though, they decided that Jerid is having an allergic reaction to it causing numbness in the face, lack of taste and dizziness. These things are all reversible once the medication is stopped. However, it is also causing kidney problems. Ughhhh. So they're taking him off the Colistin and putting him back on his old cocktail of antibiotics. Three that I can't remember the names of. They think that these were working previously and are hoping that they will continue to fight it.

Everything did go well with the bronchoscopy. They also took him off of the pain button and put him on a pill. He seems to be in more pain, but he needs to wean himself off it eventually.

After Jerid's nap, I heated up his ravioli and he ate a little bit. His appetite is getting better, but eating is still difficult because of the vocal cord and swallowing. Then we went for an even longer walk than the first one. Go Jerid! Bath time was next and then I settled him in bed. (This is no easy task. It's about a 30 minute ordeal which involves a lot of arranging of pillows and urinals and things)

He was getting his pulmonary inhaler treatment when I left.

Jerid called me as I was writing this blog. I asked him what he was doing. He said "getting sleepy". Thank goodness he called. Whew! He also said that he pooped. That is good as it's been a little rough lately. Only about every other day. And in there, it's a big deal.

My last announcement is this: I've been avoiding putting this on the blog because it didn't seem like a very big issue to report, but I can't go any longer without mentioning it. Ready? OK. So you know how Jerid's legs are all swollen because of the water from lack of exercise and laying in bed? Well, apparently it's common for it to cause something else to swell on men... yeah. Uh huh. Jerid's scrotum is HUGE. When I left Thursday, it was about the size of a baseball. Yesterday, easily a grapefruit. He has to keep it elevated like his feet. I'm shocked every time I see it. Seriously. I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but I'm really trying to let everyone know what really goes on during a transplant. And this just had to be said. So there you go. It's all out in the open. Jerid looks like the elephant man. I'll keep you updated, but I'm hoping things will shrink and the next time I don't have to go up to larger fruits... cataloupe, honeydew... watermelon. Poor Jerid. And yet he can still laugh about it. He even let me take pictures, though I'm sorry to say I won't be posting them on the blog.