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Thursday, February 22, 2007 - 3:00 p.m.

Surprise, surprise!  Dr. Kareem is sending us home for two weeks. Carissa will drop her dose of Cortef down to ten milligrams twice a day on March 1^st.  We have to be in clinic on the 8^th for a biopsy.  If all goes well, we will stay in Pittsburgh for two weeks and, then, we'll will be able to go home for a while.  Dr. Kareem told Georgetta to tentatively schedule Carissa's reversal in May. That's a word from the boss, so there is hope that it will happen.

Rotavirus is going around Pittsburgh with a vengeance.  We have heard that thirty transplant patients ended up in the hospital and twenty-six of them went into rejection because of it.  Needless to say, we have made an effort to stay away from the hospital which, unfortunately, means that we haven't been able to visit friends.  Rejection is always serious, so we are praying.

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Monday, February 19, 2007 - 10:00 p.m.

Have you been wondering whether Carissa and Sharon got to go home?  Yes, we did, for two weeks!  It is always wonderful to be home and we were able to celebrate family birthdays together.

We (Carissa and Sharon) returned to Pittsburgh on Friday, February 16^th.  Snow and ice kept us in Harrisburg a little longer than planned, so we took advantage of the first day of clear weather to return to Pittsburgh.

The transplant team was performing a transplant today, so we didn't see any of the doctors in clinic.  However, Carissa had a biopsy and blood work, and we received a call from the coordinator to let us know that results were good.  The only change is an increase of Prograf to five milligrams once a day.  Carissa's Prograf level was nine two weeks ago (too high, so dose reduced to four milligrams), but today it was 4.7 and Dr. Kareem likes to keep it around five.  The see-saw is typical in the weaning process.

Two weeks ago last Friday Joe Fahy, a newspaper reporter who wrote two articles about Carissa and small bowel transplants for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, ate dinner with us at the Residence Inn.  He was in the process of writing a third article at Dr. Kareem's request.  This past Friday, just two weeks later, we received an email from Joe telling us that he has been diagnosed with lung cancer.  Joe knows Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, so he doesn't fear death, but he longs for more time with his family.  Would you pray for him? 

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Thursday, February 1, 2007 - 8:30 p.m.

Carissa's biopsy and blood work results were good today.  Dr. Kareem was pleased, but hesitant about sending us home this weekend.  He agreed for Carissa to have another biopsy on Monday and, if everything is okay, he will allow us to go home for a week or two.  Lord willing, we will be able to celebrate three birthdays (Celeste, Ben, & Kyrie) with our family before returning to Pittsburgh.

Carissa will be trained tomorrow to give herself daily injections of Forteo.  It was encouraging to hear today that a fellow transplant patient was on it for a year with excellent results. 

Carissa will be speaking to a group of nurses tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. regarding gastroparesis, pseudo-obstruction, and multivisceral transplants.  It will be a good opportunity to inform the nurses about these frequently misdiagnosed conditions and the hope that a transplant gives.  A friend (Carey, who has a daughter with gastroparesis) from the Yahoo International Gastroparesis Support Group invited Carissa to speak.

Tomorrow evening, Joe Fahy and a photographer from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette will be eating dinner with us at the Residence Inn.  Joe decided it would be the best setting for a post-transplant picture of Carissa.  I think he really just wants to watch her eat!