Note from Stacey

Aunt Carol, thank you for your sympathy but I’m sure childbirth is much harder than gall bladder surgery. They put me under general anethesia so I didn’t feel anything during the operation. I woke up to some pain from the surgery, but the internal pain I was feeling had evaporated so I guess surgery was the answer. It seems strange that we would have an organ that we can live without safely, but I suppose that is the case. After the surgery, I was taken off IV food (called TPN) and disconnected from the other IV medications too. Once I was off certain meds, the nausea lifted and I was able to eat normal food and keep it down. I was still very weak on Friday, but within three days I went from hardly being able to move or speak, to being able to sit up, take a shower, and go for short walks, and sit up most of the day. Moving day was long. It took 2 1/2 hours to take down all my posters, card display, books, clothes and deliver them to Dave’s truck. We waited for 4 more hours for the doctors to come by with the proper forms. Now that I’m out, I feel more normal and healthier. I still have to lie down much of the day, but I can get up and walk around the house, take a shower, wear real clothes, sleep in a real bed, and eat regular food. Thanks to a friend, I have a full-time paid caregiver named Myrna for the next two weeks, which frees up Dave so he can go to work. My mother, who is visiting for a week, has been busy cooking ahd teaching Myrna the ropes about transplant patient care. Stacey, from H.O.M.E. apartment