To elaborate on my celebratory post from this morning...Torger has reached Day 100 and, despite the grim prognoses before his transplant, he's still very much alive. Hooray! Now we're gearing up for the next 100 days. Early on, we were told that if Torger made it past this first milestone, he'd have about a 50-50 chance of making it through the first year. So that's where we are now, which is much, much better than where we've been. We just have to keep working , and, as Torger's dad, Jon, said this morning, Torger will pretty much just have to resign himself for the next three months to wearing his duck-billed mask until he just about reaches...but doesn't quite cross...the point of insanity.
The milestone is a little anticlimactic, though, because it's now looking like we won't be able to move out of the hotel until about February 4 because of both the work that needs to get done on our house in Fort Collins and the appointments Torger has to have at the hospital before they let him leave Denver. Dr. Tse is actually out of town this week, but in his absence he has scheduled Torger for a long list of tests and exams that will determine whether we can go home in the near future. We just got back from the dental clinic, where he had a detailed dental exam and X-rays. (While I was waiting, I went into the little computer resource room they have set up for patients and visitors in the waiting area, hoping to do some work or at least update the blog. Instead, I had to laugh when I saw the sign in the room warning that the bank of computers is only to be used to access dental-related websites. No WONDER I was the only person in there! I can understand restricting the use of one or two computers, since it's for patients in a dental clinic after all. But six?? It just seems like they're anticipating a whole lot more interest in dental-related websites than is probably realistic. And I'm a fan of teeth!)
Tomorrow, we've got the next round of exams, including a CT scan, eye exam, pulmonary function test, and the usual labwork. We're still trying to schedule him for another set of skin biopsies, which Torger is dreading. But so far, all the tests he's taken look really good, and Dr. Tse has even reduced Torger's fluid infusion so now we'll have two days off a week from "doing the drip" at home. The reduction means Torger will be required to up his fluid intake to at least a gallon a day, but it's worth it to get a little bit of freedom from the IV. This is the kind of milestone that is really meaningful for us right now.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
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