We hope you are all doing well.  It has been about a week and a half since we have sent out an update and we apologize for that.  Today is the two month mark since Miranda had her heart transplant.  It is hard to believe that two months have already gone by, but it is amazing the progress that Miranda has made over that time.  She continues to get stronger and can walk further distances at a time.

 

Last Wednesday (May 3) Miranda had labs and her white blood cell count had dropped.  This is not uncommon for heart transplant patients because the anti-rejection medications that they have her on can cause this to happen.  So she has to be more careful about who she is around and the number of people she is around.  Miranda had more labs done yesterday and the white blood cell count was up, but it is still lower than the doctors would like them to be.  Yesterday was a full day at the hospital.  We had to be there at 7:30 for her blood draw for labs.  Then she had a physical  therapy appointment at 8:00, school at 10:00, an echocardiogram at 12:00, appointments with the cardiology team at 1:00, and an appointment with a counselor at 3:00.  Consequently, we did not get back to the Ronald McDonald House until around 4:20.  It was busy, but it was a good day.  At the appointment with the Cardiology Team, Dr. Albers told us that she did not see any reason that Miranda could not go home.  They feel that Miranda is doing well enough that this will not be a problem.  Miranda and Lorie are excited about that and we will be getting things packed up at the Ronald McDonald House today and be headed home.

 

Tod was able to come up this past weekend and spend it with Miranda and Lorie.  We had a good weekend.  He stayed for the appointments on Monday and after the news of Miranda being able to come home, he went ahead and stayed Monday night also.  It will be nice that he can help get things packed up and moved home.  Hopefully we will be able to leave Seattle before too late in the day.  Once we are home, Miranda will still have to limit the number of people she is around because of her low immunity, but it will just be nice to be home.

 

On his way to Seattle last Friday, Tod was able to go to a dance performance that Brittany had at Pacific University.  The dancers all did a great job and Tod was glad that he was able to go and spend some time with Brittany before he went on up to Seattle.  It was late night though and Lorie had to stay up because he did not have any keys to get into the Ronald McDonald House.  Brittany will finish up her Spring term next week and will be moving back to Pendleton on Wednesday for the Summer.  It will be nice to all be together again.

 

Thank you for your continued thoughts, prayers, and support.  It is very much appreciated and we can definitely feel the support. Since we will be leaving the Ronald McDonald House, please do not mail anything more to Seattle.  We will ask the Ronald McDonald House to forward any mail to our home address.  Thank you again.  Take care!

 

Lorie, Tod, Brittany, & Miranda