April 28th 2008

Hello Blog readers, well I am on my second week home, and so far so good. I have labs done here on a weekly basis, and so far all the tests look good. The kidney Function did go up, but that could be caused from all the Meds that I am on now. I currently take 20 pills in the morning, plus a shot of insulin, so I guess I can see where they may act up. But Mayo will follow up with those levels. And I am happy to say, that the tube I have been waiting so patiently to come out, finally came out on Saturday night. It was getting to be a pain, I had to tape it to my stomach every day and night so that it would not get yanked out too early, because it had a stitch on the inside that had to desolve. And with a little work, I finally got it to release and come out. And I am also HAPPY to say, I GET TO START DRIVING ON MAY 10TH, YEAH! Can you tell I am a little excited about that. Well it has been a long time since me and my nice car got to spend some nice time together. So we have a date on the 10th. I ask you to pray that the scar will heal, there is still some drainage, but they said that is normal, but it would be nice to not have to bandage every morning and night. I thank you all once again for all the prayers, cards and gifts that have been sent. I am truely blessed. And not just by that, but by the answered prayers that I got the Liver on a timely basis. I find out ever day how many people have died waiting for the same organ I got twice, and I am just so thankful that I was blessed to get it. It is very hard to put into words,until you have been in the spot. So I just thank you all for every single prayer. Lots of love and huggs. Jmee

April 24 2008

Hello Blog readers, well I have been home for a week and it is the best feeling. I sleep better and it is just a lot better to be home. The weekend that I got home, I got to go to my Church, and I was welcomed back like you would never know. I got applauded, it was kind of embarrassing being right on the spot, but the nice thing is that I have so many caring people who prayed and prayed that I would get my liver, and the prayers were answered. In fact I can't even count how many Churches actually had me on their prayer lists, I thank each Church for that, and for the prayers that they continue to say for me as I recover. I am truely blessed and honored to be this far, some people don't make it this far, and I have twice, so that must mean something. I was suppose to go to Mayo this week because they were concerned about the bile leak, well I kind of asked if I could just do lab work here, and they agreed to that. I got the call yesterday from my coordinator and she said that my scores are PERFECT! As my best friend said to me, (it has been a long time coming, but we have God to thank for those perfect scores). And he is right. So now I won't have to do anything until next week. I will have to go up, to have a tube removed, but that is all. There is still the chance that the leak may not be fixed, but they are hoping for the best. I thank each one of you for all the support and prayers and encouragement. Love always, Jmee P.S. I get to drive in two weeks!

April 17th 2008

Hello to everyone. Today is day 20 post Transplant, the day I was hoping to come home. But seeing that it didn't work out, it will just have to be tommorow. YEAH! The last time I up-dated I was having an ERCP done to place a stent into the bile duct that was leaking. Well the procedure went well and the stent was placed. That should help the duct to heal. They will need to replace it or remove it in a couple of months, but until then it is just wait and see. Today they took all the staples out, and tommorow after the Ultrasound, they will remove the bile tube that is in place. Then as far as I know, I am set free to go home and see my little men. So I ask for a special prayer tommorow, so that things will go as planned and I can head home. I thank you all for all the prayers that have been said already. I am truely blessed for each one of them. Lots of love. Jmee

April 15th 2008

Well todays appointments did not go as planned.Or shall I say the results. The test that I had,was where they shoot dye into a tube that is sewn inside of me. Well the test showed that I have a Bile leak. They are not sure why it is leaking, but they want it fixed as soon as possible. They tried getting me in for an ERCP today, but that didn't work out. So that will be done sometime tommorow. And anyone wanting to know what an ERCP is, it is when they take a camera and put it through your mouth, into your throat, and then down into where your internal organs are. Then they can see what the problem is and how to fix it. They sedate ya really good so I won't know anything just like surgery. And then during the test, the will put a stent in the place where the bile is leaking, and the stent will help the part that is leaking to heal. But because they found that, I may not get to go home when planned. Which makes this so much harder, I was so looking forward to going home Thursday. So prayerfully I will still be able to. So I have the rest of the day off, and then back for round two tommorow. Thanks for all the prayers. Love you all, Jmee

April 14th 2008

Hello to my readers. It is the end of the day and I am getting ready for bed. Today was a good day at the clinic. I got to talk to the Doctors about heading home. And my hope was to be able to go home on day 21 which is Friday, but they are thinking of letting me go a day early if I can get all of my appointments done by Thursday when I see all of them. So tommorow will be a early day. Starting out with labs at 6:00am, and then other tests to follow. And what the appointments this week will do, is to just make sure that everything still looks as good as it did two weeks ago. Then if everything pans out, and looks good, I will head home and won't have to be back till 4 months from now. So I am going to push to get these appointments done so that I will be able to head home and see my sweet little men and sleep in my own bed. Today they told me that the incision looked good. I still am carrying fluid, but they are not wanting to put me on a water pill quite yet till they see an ultrasound. Then they will consider it. They finally gave me something to help me sleep. One of the meds that I am on makes it hard to sleep and kind of makes you diabetic, if I have said that already, please bare with me. But until I am off that med, it will be hard to sleep. So they have given me a sleep aid. So I just ask that you pray that this week will go good. I thank all of you for the prayers that you have said and will say for me. It is a blessing to have so many caring people in my life. Here are the latest photos, I hope that you enjoy them. Love lots,Jmee

April 12th 2008

Hello it is me again, the patient. Well today has been a very relaxing day, I did not have to go to the clinic at all, and I had two visitors that came up and took us out for lunch. It is nice to have the day off, no Doctors or Nurses poking around. Yeah I like my days off. Well tommorow I have labs first thing in the morning, and then the rest of the day is free. Then Monday morning I see all the Liver People, and I am going to talk to them about when I get to head home. I will hopefully get to leave this coming Thursday or Friday, that will be my 21 days, and that is normally when they set you free. Things have been going well so far. I do have a few bruises that they are watching, and the tummy gets sore, but other wise things are moving in the right direction. I will hopefully get these staples out soon too. It makes it very hard to have good posture when you have 56 staples up and down the sides and middle of the tummy, so then that makes the little back sore and the hips. So I am hopeful that maybe Monday or Wednesday they will take them out. The tummy is still kind of large, but I think it has gone down just a little, which is good. They did an x-ray to see if there was any bleeding and there was nothing wrong in the x-ray, so they said to just keep and eye on it. I finally got new photos up, but as you can tell, they are not my best looking ones. Thanks for all the prayers. Love to all who read this. Jmee These are the day after Transplant.

April 9th 2008

Hello to my faithful blog readers. I am so sorry for not updating sooner. It has been 11 days since the Transplant, and things are going as planned. I got moved into the Transplant House on Sunday the 6th, with the help of my best friends the Fanta's. They came up on the 4th and spent the night in Rochester and then came to visit me Saturday and then helped me move Sunday. Jin-nee came and stayed with me the first night and then my lovely personal Nurse Ellen stayed with me after that. Ellen stayed with me from Monday to Tuesday and worked on her scrap books,she was very excited at the fact that she got to spend a whole day and part of a night working on them. And now my dear sister Amy is here with me till tommorow and then Katie come for the rest of the week. So here is a big THANK YOU to all of them for coming to take care of me. I didn't have to see any of the Doctors today, but tommorow I will see the Liver Doctor and my Coordinator. Please pray that the fluid in the tummy will start to go down. I now have more sympathy for pregnant women, I feel at least 9 months along. So I am going to talk to them tommorow about if there is something I can take to help it along. This Transplant is definately harder than the first, I did't take on any fluid at all the first time and this time I have mine and some of my neighbors to. But I am praying for tommorow to see what they can do. I am also giving myself insulin shots and checking my blood sugar on a daily basis. The med that they have me on has kind of put me as a diabetic for a little bit. But they think that as they get me off that med it should get better and then I won't have to do that anymore. But for now I will have to do that. I have some photos, but are not yet on the computer, I will post those as soon as I get them done. I thank you all for the prayers and suppport through this Transplant. I send out big hugs to you all. Love always, Jmee

April 2nd 2008

To all my blog readers, things happened so fast on Saturday that I just did a quick little blog. But I will recap for you on the day that gave me a second wack at life. I was not feeling so well the few days before Saturday ( Transplant day) I had gotten a cold from I think hanging around my little men, so Friday night, I had taken a cold pill, and taken my sleep aid, put an ice pack on my neck and fell right to sleep. I didn't hear the phone go off early Saturday, so I didn't get it answered. So by the Grace of God, Mayo called Ellen's number and she got a hold of me. She got the call around 1:30am, and I was being rolled into surgery at 1:30pm. And by the way, Ellen, thanks for being here with me and making sure they did things right. So I am not sure about surgery length as of yet, but it did take a while because of the scar tissue. It was a hard first day, I didn't start breathing on my own right away, so they had to keep me on the breathing machine for a while. I ended up crying a couple of times when things didn't go as they were suppose to go, but I made it and I am moving forward. People can not believe how thankful I am to have this all behind me and am able to think about driving my nice car, and spending my time with my little men. It is killing me not to be able to see them every day, but that will come in time. I just can't wait. I miss them like you would never know. I have not gotten the new photos of me yet on the computer, so for now I will just for now I will just put some of my favorite people. I thank all of you for the prayer, love and support that you all have given me.