It's Official

Derrek and I were able to come home late last night (I could go on and on about the efficiency, well, INefficiency of our nurses on the 5th floor - 3rd floor was the place to be; keep that in mind if you ever donate or receive an organ at the Methodist Specialty & Transplant Hospital!). Here's the best part. Earlier yesterday, Chris sent a text to Derrek. A nurse had just stopped by to give him a report on some test results. Now, I have no idea what either of these are exactly but here are the numbers:

Createnine (normal is .6 to 1.3) - Chris was a 5.0 on Tuesday and was at 1.9 yesterday!
GFR (normal is 60) - Chris was a 12 on Tuesday and was at 43 yesterday!!!
His next text said "Basically that means it is working great. Its official, you saved my life. Thank you."

Man, it's still making me cry. That news put a HUGE smile on Derrek's face on a day where smiling was difficult. The gout came back, as you know. That first night with gout (Friday) was so miserable. The nurse would not give Derrek any pain meds. It was quickly becoming the worst gout flare up he's ever had. It usually flares up in his right toe but this was in his left knee and by 7 or 8 pm or so his knee had become really swollen and the pain was reaching an unbearable state. We started asking for pain medication around 7 because I just knew it was going to be a long night. It was throbbing with every heartbeat by 9. The nurse gave him TYLENOL and said she'd check back in an hour. Then she asked what we usually do for a flare up at home. I told her he takes Advil and soaks in the bath tub if its really bad but its never been this bad. I could type all night if I went into all the details but long story, short: after tears and begging Derrek got one dose of Demoral at midnight. It was awesome...until it wore off two and half hours later when we were told he couldn't have any more. I told her that if we had gone home that day, we'd at least have the pain meds that were prescribed for the surgery pain. She said she wasn't seeing it on his stupid chart. Okay, trying to keep it short. Anyway, Derrek essentially went from 3 am to 11 am without a lick of pain relief. Wait maybe there was a worthless Tylenol in there. During that time, Dr. Vick did come in and was upset with all the confusion (apparently, he told the nurse we could have the prescription). So we got the Darvocet but Derrek's pain was so severe at this point that it didn't really do much. It did stop the throbbing but didn't give him enough relief to get any good rest. Also, for almost 12 hours, at this point, he was almost completely immobile. Dr. Vick sent in another doctor, Dr. Obeng to look at Derrek's knee. He came in around lunch time and it was nice to finally be in the room with someone that was trying to fix the problem. Because Derrek had a fever (it went up to 101.4 during the night) he drained his knee and sent it to the lab to make sure there wasn't an infection. *short story* * short story* *short story* In the end, there was no infection but no conclusive report that it was gout and they sent us home. Good news because we had stronger pain meds at this point but discouraging because we're home now and dont' really know what to do. We're going to try to get into a local doctor here tomorrow but Derrek is still immobile. We had to have alot of help getting him into the house last night.


The good from this experience still FAR outweighs the bad but it's really hard to see him in this much pain. Sometimes, if the knee bends or straightens when we have to move him, he'll turn white and almost pass out. It's that level of pain. However, Derrek's parents brought over a recliner before we got home so he is very comfortable 98% of the time (the other 2% is bathroom breaks, etc.) I'm keeping him on a tight schedule with his medicine and not giving him a chance to hurt whatsoever.
It feels good to be home and I can't believe what our friends and family have done for us. I won't have to cook for days. Derrek's family cleaned and organized our house, bought groceries, brought over the recliner. It's so much easier to completely focus on Derrek when the rest of the house is in some sort of order.
Rosie is glad to see Derrek too. She's not really leaving his side...



As good as it feels to be home, it was sort of difficult to leave Chris. He's doing great so it wasn't because we were worried, but I guess it just had to do with that fact that this huge thing we've been anticipating was done. And it was successful. Poor Chris is having trouble focusing on his great health right now because he's so worried about Derrek. But we did it! Chris is going to be with us for a long time. Derrek's kidney gave him life and we all get to move forward together as a family. I'm so incredibly proud of my husband. He is brave and selfless and I only hope that I would be as sure and strong in a similar situation. I am also so happy for Chris. He's been strong as well throughout this ordeal and I realy can't put into words how amazing and wonderful I think this is. It's almost hard to believe that Derrek's kidney is inside of Chris and making his sick body well. Did that really just happen?