For those who don’t know, this past week has been an absolute joyful blur. On Thursday, Alan’s team decided his heart was strong enough to leave the hospital once a dialysis seat was solidified at home which happened hours later. After one last hospital dialysis Friday morning, we got to leave the hospital. 177 days! New Years, Valentine’s, St Patrick’s Day (and a missed Flanigan Jigs dinner), a very special Easter, Memorial Day, Alan’s Birthday (and first fresh 2022 breath), and then June 24th Freedom. Since we weren’t sure what time we would leave on Saturday, we celebrated with staff that had become family while ringing Alan’s victory bell Friday. This bell at transplant house has always been a beacon of gratitude and rebirth but throughout this journey I learned even more about it. There is a beautiful girl (around my age), named Candice; I encountered her story often throughout our stay as she celebrated her 20 transplantiversay in February but I hadn’t connected with her since we celebrated Alan’s 20th in October by re-listing him, and I wasn’t necessarily in the best place. Although Alan and Candice were only a few months apart in Cleveland Clinic Pediatrics, they did not overlap but turns out several of Alan’s other hospital-mates did with her. I reached out to Candice thinking I was offering the advice and shoulder to lean on but I was the one who learned more. Candice is thriving with this heart and that is her goal and mentality. She wasn’t a stranger to transplant life when her’s happened as she had watched her older sister go through it a few years before her. Her sister then exhausted that heart’s capabilities and required a second transplant a few years ago (maybe 18 years post transplant, I don’t completely remember.) This is not my story to tell, nor do I have the full details but I am sharing because this puts all in perspective. Her sister passed away a few weeks after her re-transplant. Her name was Patrice. This is her bell. Candice and Patrice are deeply connected to Transplant House of Cleveland, both physically and in memorium. Nearly 10 weeks after Alan’s re-transplant, he was able to ring the bell. We are taking him home. We are on our third life. There is so much to be grateful for. We had our immense challenges along the way but we are here. We watched friends fall and our hearts are with those still waiting. This transplant community are the boldest, strongest, and toughest I have ever encountered in my life.

Friday evening, we knowingly cheated on his sodium restrictions (sorry team) and after burgers and chicken wings, Alan and Reese slept in the larger bed at Transplant House while I packed up 6 months of my life. In the morning, I finished the laundry (apartment sheets and towels) and tetris-ed everything into our SUV. We were home Saturday late afternoon. After clearing out the car, we picked up our pups from Alan’s parents’ house and got Alan’s favorite pizza (before getting back on track Sunday morning). Alan started dialysis monday afternoon and today was our first free day (other than getting our sprinklers up and running and watch Reese both love and hate the water sunshine dependent). 

Our house and animals are still standing thanks to our incredible parents and siblings. We had christmas trees still up when we left and came home to a beautiful porch and backyard summer paradise. Toys were organized, bathrooms were shining, and food was cleared out and organized. We are grateful for our village. Within hours, it honestly felt like we had just gotten back from maybe a two week, albeit horrific, vacation and the scars of the past half year were rapidly disappearing. Our journey is still not over and this won’t be the last post. His kidneys are still uncertain. Alan is still severely immunocomrpised until at least the 3 month mark when his system will start rebuilding itself. We hope for outdoor masked/distanced rendevous but we are content waiting under our own roof in the meantime. If nothing else, Alan is looking forward to his partitioned off corner at our COTA silent auction/spaghetti dinner on July 24th. Please spread the word and we hope to see you there, maybe even wearing our recycled parts logo. Thank you for those still reading along with us. We love you all very much.