Hello, 2016!

And goodbye to you, 2015.  Don’t let me keep you from going out the door. You were a most trying year.

In November, I mentioned that a lot had happened but I have not had the time nor the physical or emotional energy to write about it (and even now, it’s stretching things a bit).

I hardly know where to begin.

You may remember, that the husband has been very ill since last January and, was waiting for a liver/kidney transplant.  He had jumped through multiple rings of fire to be considered a candidate with the University of Virginia’s transplant team and, in August, they had accepted him into the program.  There is a scoring system for those waiting for a liver transplant; the higher the number the closer you are to the top.  But, the higher the number, the sicker you are, too.  Patrick’s number was pretty high right from the get go and we were told that it would not be a long wait.  A mercy, since it was a constant struggle to keep him stable and out of the hospital.  You have to undergo blood testing every week.  Every week, the test results can shift and so can your number.  So, you find yourself in the weird position of hoping to get a high number when your tests come back even though that means the person is actually pretty sick.

But the “short” wait stretched into weeks and then months.

In the meantime, as I mentioned to you last summer, my 93 year old mom was failing but I was unable to go see her because I could not leave Patrick in his precarious state, especially not knowing when that transplant call would come.  What if I were not home when it came?  It was unthinkable.  And, yet, not seeing my mother again was unthinkable, too.

The week of October 19th, two things happened.  First, Patrick’s score went down, which was pretty crushing news.  And second, my sister let me know that Mom, who was at home with hospice, would not be with us much longer.

I spent the next few days trying to figure out what to do.  After a couple of days of hand-wringing, I woke up Friday morning with the certainty that I simply needed to go hold my mother’s hand once more.  So, I threw Emma P. Buttercup in the car, dropped Patrick off at dialysis, and headed home to Pintail Point, intending to come back that evening.

When I got there, I realized pretty quickly that Mom would be leaving us imminently.  As the hours crept by, I found it impossible to leave her.  So, I stayed.  Friday became Saturday; Saturday became Sunday; Sunday became Monday.

At just past 3 AM on Monday, October 26th, my beautiful mother’s soul left us to fly home.  It meant the world for me to have been there for that.

For some people, divine intervention seems ridiculous, a fairy tale.  But I know differently.  I suddenly realized that if Patrick’s score had not gone down, I would never have had the peace of mind to leave Richmond.  Had I not been able to be with Mom, I cannot even imagine how I would have been able to cope.

After the hospice nurse, our wonderful caregivers, and the funeral director left, my sister and I were left wondering what to do next.  So, at 6 AM, I got in the car and headed back to Richmond.

Monday is blood testing day.  And on that Monday, Patrick’s score went back up.  

Eight days later, just as we were becoming really discouraged, we got THE call.  It was about 5 in the afternoon on Election Day.

We believe Mom wasted no time dilly-dallying around testing out her new angel wings.  She just made it happen.  I could feel her spirit – as well as my dad’s – riding with us in the car on our way.

Divine intervention.

By 7:30, we were in Charlottesville.  We checked into the hospital and were up all night with testing and doctors coming in and out.  And at about 7 AM on November 4th, they wheeled Patrick into the OR to receive a new liver and a new kidney.  The surgeon came out to talk to me at around 4:30 that afternoon; the surgeries (there were 3!) had gone exceedingly well.

I checked into a hotel up there for the next 11 days after which point, the team felt things were stable enough for me to come back home and start commuting back and forth.  It was a bit of a bumpy road – lots of stumbles, wild reactions to the anti-rejection drugs, lots of pain, and the very disappointing news that the new kidney just did not want to function.  This required, to our immense distress, that he go back on dialysis a few days post-op.  The liver, on the other hand, was functioning beautifully.

Apparently, it is not unusual for a transplanted kidney to be slow in “waking up” in its new home and the team continued to feel positive that things would eventually even out.

In the end, Patrick was in the hospital up there for a month.  They discharged him on December 3rd.  He continued with dialysis in Richmond and we embarked on a mind-boggling medical routine that we need to follow to the letter every day.  It consists of taking vital signs, blood sugar testing, insulin shots, and about a hundred pills to be taken.  Twice a week, we have to go for blood testing early in the morning.  In between all those things are visits from home health nurses, physical therapists and occupational therapists.

By the week of Christmas, the kidney was doing much better and they decided to take him off dialysis.  This was the ultimate Christmas gift.  But the joy was short-lived as on Christmas day, complications ensued that required heading back to Charlottesville for another stay in the hospital.  He was released on the 29th but on the night of the 31st, New Year’s Eve, he felt terrible and had a temperature of over 102.  Once again, we were summoned back to UVA.  I pulled into the ER at the stroke of midnight.

By Sunday the 3rd, he was doing much better and we once again came home to Richmond.  The doctors have said that the first 6 months after transplant can be pretty rough so I have tried not to be surprised.  Nevertheless, I can see improvement – he is already so much better than he was a month ago.  It’s a bit harder for him to see it because he is tired of feeling bad and being in pain.  I have the utmost faith in the transplant team – they are phenomenal and we are so lucky to have their amazing, compassionate, intelligent care.  They are fully invested in his complete recovery and that is a real balm.

Through the whole ordeal (and make no mistake, that’s what it is) I have been in awe of and so proud of Patrick’s demeanor and ability to retain his sense of humor and kindness throughout.  The doctors, nurses, and staff all love him.

The days seem to rush by, filled to the brim with everything that needs doing on a constant basis.  That will ease, too, over time.

The “99 and 3/4 percent projects” (the kitchen/bath renovations) are pretty much done (after almost 11 months!!!) and I am so in love with them.  The final tiny dots on the punchlist were finished just yesterday in my beautul new kitchen; all is put away, pictures are hung, and I’m thrilled.  The bathroom still needs to have the walls adorned and things stowed away but that will happen soon, I hope.

In the end, though 2015 was quite possibly the worst year I have ever had to slog through, it was also quite wonderful.  There is something about being in the bottom of a valley that makes you realize just how many things there are to be grateful for.  The whole year through, so many good things happened to us; and it was precisely because so many bad things happened that that is the case.  Friends stepped up in so many ways to help us. People all over the world, some of them strangers, prayed and sent messages of hope and positivity and continue to do so even today. Neighbors brought us food and took care of our animals and the house when I couldn’t be home. Show organizers showed me a great deal of compassion and sympathy when I had to withdraw from their events.  My wonderful customers hung in there, too, sending messages of support and strength.  I was able to carve out enough time in the late fall to be able to make some pieces for Beekman 1802, who I admire greatly.  I had the good fortune to be asked to make a piece to be auctioned off at a prestigious charity event in NYC, and I had one of my wreaths featured in the LA Times. Currently, I have a pretty sizable list of people who would like me to make them something and I hope to get started on that in the coming weeks.  If all goes well, I will be back on the show circuit in late April at the Nashville Country Living Fair, followed by others later in the year.

I have not yet come to grips with life without my mother but I am filled with gratitude that I had her for so long.  As I said in the piece I wrote for her memorial service, my sister and I won the parental lottery.  My mother lived a long, happy, and fulfilled life.  She is now reunited with my dad, the love of her life. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

Patrick has been given an incredible and rare gift of life from an absolute stranger. He is looking forward to getting back to a healthy state of being where he can offer something back to the world.

All is good.

Happy New Year to us all.