When no news isn't good news

I've been holding off posting with the hope we would have some good news. It's been more than a month now since we found out Maria was in rejection and these are the dark wearying days when the initial rush of rising to a challenge have sagged while the waves keep crashing in bigger and closer together.

So, I think a lot of our emotional disappointments have been that we were already on plan D for Summer Vacation and now we've slid back to Plan F, which is also the grade I give to Summer vacation 2014. This is my week off work for this summer. Friday night we decided to go to bed early, rise early Saturday, and head north to Paulding County, Ohio, for some fun but Maria didn't sleep much and was in so much pain Saturday morning that we spent many hours debating whether she should go right back to the hospital or not. She had just been released after spending Wed to Fri there last week. Ultimately, after speaking to her nephrologist, we decided to stay home and just drug her heavily, which got her over the hump. We were both fully disheartened after speaking to the doc as this is the guy we'd been waiting eagerly for to come back from his convention. I think we were both hoping he would return, review the chart, and have some brilliant insights and devise a great plan for getting her well. Instead, he was more of the tone that gee, they've run every test and checked things out, what more did we expect?

Sunday we drove up to just shy of Cleveland for a viewing and funeral. We spent the night and had a nice swim and ate inside an Ohio Buckeye's themed train before heading home. Bonus - it was all fully wheelchair accessible!

http://buckeyeexpressdiner.com/

We have another kitty, Celeste, going downhill. (We just lost a kitty 2 mos ago.) She'd had surgery Friday for an abscessed tooth so we picked her up Monday as we got back in to town.

Maria had to run out to get her blood drawn Tuesday morning so I got up with Gus and had a great plan for the day! Knock out Celeste's home care, feed and bathe Gus and me, pick up the house before Maria gets home, run a few errands together, and have plenty of time to take in the Red's game that evening! Reclaim the week!!!

Well, an hour in to trying to care for Celeste I am pretty sure I have not done anything right, she's bitten my index finger piercing through the nail bed from the top and another puncture on the pad, and I have wet cat food slung from one end to the other of my kitchen, all the while dealing with Gus whining and complaining constantly because I'm caring for the cat and not him. Maria calls about this time having finished the blood draw, and I just lost it. I am so sick and tired of no one being able to figure things out for her medically and I'm utterly failing keeping any balls in the air at home.

I manage to rebound enough to slap some food on a plate for my son when Maria calls me back, this time opening up with, "Listen, Christi, you're going to have to pull yourself together. I've been in an accident."

She was sitting at a stop light when a lady in a 2014 Lexus slams in to her from behind, causing her to hit the Volvo in front of her. My dear wife, who thinks of everyone else first, is so upset at having wrecked a car that was being loaned to us by friends, gets all the way through the police report and drives the damaged car up to other friends' body shop before realizing, "Gee, I don't feel so hot." Gus and I raced out the door to meet her at the shop so at this point we hand Gus off to our friends (thank God for the Boitnott's!!!) and head back to Christ to the Emergency Dept. Her transplanted kidney is in the front right where the seat belt comes across so they needed to check out the kidney to see if everything looked okay. Christ ER now has a "quick care" section so heck, while we're there, I get a tetanus shot and antibiotics for my stupid cat bites. For Maria, they don't find anything from the ultrasound but warn her that her whiplash pain is only going to get worse. I'm not convinced her kidney is altogether well.

So, Tuesday's blood draw was for her Wednesday transplant clinic visit. This middle of the week visit is the reason we couldn't get out of town for the week so we were going to take off Thursday and Friday for Lexington, KY, to go see the Horse Park. The folks at clinic had other plans. They said, "We penciled you in for a biopsy tomorrow." We counter with, "How about Monday instead?" Well, here we sit waiting for biopsy results....

We did get to the zoo for a few hours and went to dinner at the new restaurant that one of Maria's nurses and her husband recently opened. http://www.yelp.com/biz/angelos-family-restaurant-and-bar-independence

If you are near Independence, KY - go to Angelo's!!!

Okay, so, this just in, and I finally a bit of good news to share!!! The doctor just told Maria the biopsy results show definite improvement and she doesn't need any more treatments!!! Hooray!

Now, to salvage the final days of our Summer vacation....