Day +28: First Day of Our New Routine

Call me crazy, but I am counting all the new "firsts" we are experiencing post transplant.

For instance, today was the first time we visited the Clinic in Ward C2 North. We were told by Professor Marshall yesterday to attend Clinic at least twice a week, and the regularity would be dictated by how well Sean was recovering. This week, we had appointments for today and Thursday. The purpose of attending Clinic was to have Sean's blood drawn for various tests to ensure he was still on the right track as far as recovery was concerned. One of the important tests was to ensure Sean's Cyclosporin A levels were just right - this was the immunosuppressant medication - if it was too low, then Sean ran the risk of developing Graft-Versus-Host Disease, and if it was too high, then it would affect Sean's recovery.

It was a pretty early start for us. By the time we dragged our sorry butts out of our bed, it was 6.30am. We got ready in a hurry - Jonathan and I both sculled our coffees, gave Sean his medicines, grabbed our bags and raced out the door. It was imprinted on us how important it was for us to be at Clinic by 8am, and with peak hour traffic to contend with, we needed to leave by 7am to get to the hospital on time.

We arrived just after 8am, and raced upstairs to Clinic. The very new ward clerk tried his best to get our paperwork processed, so we could be shown to an isolation room. He took his time getting things ready, and we were left waiting for about 15 minutes before a nurse was finally assigned to us.

Once we were finally shown into a room - we were given the Recovery Room to stay in, the nurses then took their sweet time getting things set up to draw Sean's blood. After being told over and over again how important it was for us to be at Clinic by 8am for these blood tests, Sean finally had his bloods taken at 9.15am.

The Recovery Room was quite stark. The room did not have a TV, which made keeping Sean entertained just that little bit harder. I was going to have to bring some of Sean's toys with us on Thursday. We had plenty of space for Sean to run around, which suited him just fine. At 9.45am, Dr Karen Gomes came by to review Sean, and checked him over from head to toe. Professor Marshall dropped in as well, and after the thorough review, we were given permission to leave the hospital.

Jonathan and I had expected to be in hospital for hours on end, so it was a nice surprise to be able to leave by 10am. We discussed whether we should chance an outing to buy groceries, and as we were a bit desperate for food in the house, we decided to head to Ermington Woolworths (a stand alone supermarket not attached or located inside a shopping centre) to buy our groceries. Sean slept from the hospital all the way to Ermington, and although he didn't like having to wear the mask, he did enjoy sitting in the trolley and being on our little shopping trip with us.

Our first grocery shop post transplant, and we bought so much food. The bill came to over $250, but it was worth every cent. We didn't buy a lot of groceries over the past 5 weeks, and we fully expected today's bill to be enormous.

We now have a fully stocked fridge and freezer. It finally felt like we were home.

Our first meal at home was a mild chicken curry in the slow cooker. Jonathan and I talked about planning our meals for the foreseeable future around our clinic days, and on the days when we were going to be in clinic, we should consider making meals in our slow cooker in case we were stuck in the hospital for hours on end. We bought a few slow cooker recipe bases, and today, we tried out the mild chicken curry.

It was delicious! Not only did Jonathan and I like it, Sean liked the curry as well! He had quite a bit of rice with a smidge of curry, and he also tucked into the carrots that were in the curry. Sean was hovering around my plate so much I had to get him his very own bowl of curry and rice, and he ate it all up. Well done, little man!

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day, and it will be another first for us - the first day that we get to spend at home, just us, doing nothing, not needing to be anywhere at any time. We are all looking forward to a nice day in, to be spent in our pyjamas.