Fortunately........Unfortunately

Fortunately, I woke up at 3:30 AM and couldn't go back to sleep.  So I decided we should just get up and get an even earlier start on the day.  I even thought maybe we could get in and out of clinic really fast and get back to St. George early!

Unfortunately, there was snow and a blizzard from 10 miles before Cedar City all the way to Nephi.  So we didn't get to clinic early.  The drive was horrible, I white-knuckled it the whole way.  I'll even admit that for a minute, only a minute, I thought to myself, "Maybe I can't do this.  I don't know if I can wake up at 3:00, drive for 5 hours in snow,  be tense at clinic and waiting for what the transplant team has to say, then hop in the car and drive back in snow again, and then try to wake up tomorrow and teach school all day."  The doubts were flying!

Fortunately, we pulled in the parking lot of Primary Children's right when my car clock turned to 9:00-exactly on time for our appointment.  My thoughts quickly turned to, "We are freaking amazing!  Snow, blizzards, traffic, 300 miles...... and we still make it exactly on time!" I couldn't stop bragging, I definitely felt amazing.

Unfortunately, I really was the only one that thought it was THAT amazing.

Fortunately, clinic went well.  Abby's echo looked awesome.  We are going to continue on the prednisone taper and hope that the rejection has cleared up.  She hasn't had as much swelling in her arms and legs this week since she started on her new blood pressure medication, and her pulse has also gone back to normal.

Unfortunately, Abby has been having some horrible headaches this past week.....possibly migraines even.  She didn't have headaches before the transplant, but has just started them this past week.  She said to think of your very worst headache and times it by 4 and it will almost be how bad her headaches are. She's been pretty miserable.

Fortunately, we talked with the transplant team about many possible reasons and decided that her prograff level was probably too high, and when we got the results later in the day, we would just adjust her tacro med (anti-rejection medication) and her headaches would be gone.

Unfortunately, her prograff level actually came back too low....so that isn't it.  We are going to try some other things now.  Possibly it's the large steroid dose, or maybe she's becoming too dehydrated.  We'll figure it out.

Fortunately, we don't have to go back to clinic next Monday.......we have a week off!  We just have to make a trip to Dixie Regional on Monday to get another Prograff level.

Unfortuantely, we have to go to Salt Lake again this week anyway because Brock's football team, Desert Hills High, is playing in the semi-finals at Rice Eccles Stadium Friday night at 6:30.

Fortuantely, I love watching Brock play football!!

Unfortunately, Britt has to be back for her Sadie's date at 9:00 on Saturday morning.  So that means we'll be having another very early morning drive, this time on Satuday morning.

Fortunately, while I was typing this, Britt told me that there's a spirit bus and she can ride it to the game and back!!! 

Unfortunately, Britt won't let Abby and I be chaperones and catch a free ride up to Salt Lake and back!

Fortunately, Abby is doing better, she's going to be able to go to school as soon as she come down more on her steroids, and we don't think she is in rejection any more!! And I kept running into this quote throughout the week, so I decided I better include it in the blog.  There was a reason it kept popping up to me, I needed to be reminded.

“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God . . . and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father and Mother in heaven.”
― Orson F. Whitney