The Vampire Strikes Back

    I think the picture says it all.  We think it was 33 tubes in all, we lost count because there were some that went directly into a cooler.  Despite our anxiety and that it took two sticks to get all that blood, today went rather well. Better than we expected....lots better than we expected. 

   We picked up the schedule and headed to have his labs drawn, give a urine sample, get an EKG done, and an x-ray taken. Barnes made this surprisingly easy and it was all done in one place!!  From there we met with the social worker, she was a little rough but seems likes shes the type that gets things done.  From there a respiratory therapist walked William to assess his oxygen need.  He did really well and probably will be able to go without it during the day in another few weeks.  YAY!!! From there we went to radiology and had the radionuclide heart scan(see previous blog for description of tests).  And then to get a CT of his chest.  After all the radiation he was exposed to today I'm surprised he's isn't glowing. :-)  The last thing we did today was meet with a mentor, a previous transplant recipient from Barnes. Bethany is a lovely lady and it was nice to see a success story, even though her's wasn't picture perfect. And that was it for the first day...not too bad! We did put in some major mileage but we have the wheelchair thing finally figured out even though I'm not the best driver.
  
   After all of the appointments our day was pretty boring. We got some groceries, ran a few errands, and drove through Forest Park.  Forest Park is beautiful and it's amazing that it's right in the middle of the city. I'm going to try and get a run in there before we leave.  We watched some Monday night football at the hotel with another transplant recipient that we met.  He's very nice and another success story, he gets to go home finally on Friday.  Tomorrow is a very long day. We start out at 7:30 and won't return till 5 or later, so forgive me if there is no lengthy update tomorrow.

   Again I want to thank each and everyone one you that reads this blog.  As well as all of those who reach out through texts, calls, facebook or just think about and pray for us.  You sustain me! Today's lesson: You really will not run out of blood during a blood draw, even if you think you might.