The Last 2 Months

Has it really been 2 months since I posted last? Wow. I guess that is what happens when you start to get better. I will do my best to tell you what has been going on, and I’ll try not to make it too long!

June was an interesting month. My sister and her husband planned to come down from Boston for the week before Father’s Day. I was so excited to see her! She had surprised us a month or two before with a visit, but I was still in the early stages of recovery and didn’t have a whole lot of energy for hanging out. Mary and Peter got in late on the 13th and the 7 of us (including Blizzie, of course) had a great dinner together the next night. I had bloodwork the following morning and that evening my coordinator called…my kidney levels were up high again and she wanted me to come down in the morning. And she told me to expect to stay. So, Mom and I packed bags and headed to Baltimore the next morning. After waiting all day (and that is not an exaggeration) they had a bed for me. They gave me fluids over night and my kidney levels jumped right back to normal…but they had done a blood culture and it showed that I had an infection. My doctors felt like it would be a good time to remove my picc line, even if that wasn’t the cause and so they took it out. They found that my picc was infected (although it showed no signs at all) and the infection had gone into my blood. What they told me would be a 2-3 day stay turned into a 7 day stay. I still needed IV antibiotics after the picc was removed to treat the blood infection. And because I have tiny veins that have been stuck a lot in the past few months, each IV they put in only lasted a day or so. At the end of my stay, I had gone through 5 peripheral IVs and went home with one. I’m not going to say that this was just another hospital stay…one of those “bumps in the road” as the transplant team calls it. This was a hard one. Really hard. I went in for one problem and found out I had a much more serious problem that we didn’t even know about. Everyone was saying how good it was that I had come in before I got really sick…but I was having trouble seeing it that way. I just wanted one piece of my body to work. I honestly couldn’t think of a single thing that had not been affected by the transplant. It didn’t help that the interns and floor doctors were not the most pleasant and compassionate I’d ever met. It just wasn’t the greatest of weeks at Johns Hopkins.

I had really been struggling with all the smaller issues I don’t really talk about… It just really confused me. I can understand the lung transplant and how God could use that to encourage people through our situation…but how is it helping anyone if I have to get stuck 3 times just to get an IV started, only to have it go bad and need a new one the next morning? It wasn’t until I was home that God helped me understand why there are those difficult times that no one knows about. I know that things are not about me or having a perfect little life…that much is obvious. But it isn’t even about the people we encourage through our situations. This is all about God. And at those times when I feel like no one could ever understand what I’m feeling, when no one can know how much it hurts, when I’m home alone and all I can think of are problems…those are the times for God to be encouraged…and only Him. So, when those times come up, I’m trying to do my best. My very dear cousin has told me before that I’m a “Rock Star”. I want to be a rock star even when no one is there. When everything is wrong and no one knows it, God does and I think it encourages Him and gives Him glory when I face the challenges and don’t let them get the best of me, even when no one sees. So that is what I’m going for. And Nicole, I love you and I think you are a Rock Star, too.

So that was basically June. Mary and Peter had to leave before I was out of the hospital. Mom sacrificed a lot of time with Mary to stay in that dumb hospital room with me…and I am so thankful. I went home and finished up 7 days of IV antibiotics and then I was free! I had an IV from February 25th – June 28th. I finally felt like things could get a little more normal. And they did. I went back for a follow up after my hospital stay and at the end of the visit my doctor looked at me and said, “3-4 weeks then.” I said, “3-4 weeks, what?” He said, “We’ll see you back in 3-4 weeks.” Mom and I were silent for a few seconds. Then I got big tears in my eyes and told him how happy I was! It turned out they didn’t have any open appointments for 5 weeks, so they said that would be just fine. I’ve been down to Baltimore several times for bloodwork, but not for an appointment! I’m supposed to go back on August 3rd. It feels like forever!

July has been good. Jonathan and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary on the 10th. It was so happy and very emotional for me. This isn’t what we expected. It made me sad in a way because I know we didn’t get to have that “newly wed” feeling for long…only a month before all of this started. We have already had to face a situation that we honestly didn’t know I would live through. I will never forget telling him I love him and having to let go of his hand as they took me back for surgery. That is the hardest thing I have ever done. And I thought of how much he had to care for me when I came home. He did everything for me even after working all day long. And things still are not easy. But God has pulled us together in a way that I can’t describe. And I wouldn’t trade this year for anything with anyone else. It was also happy because it was like we were starting everything new. I’m feeling so much better and can go and do things. I’m not expecting year number 2 to be a walk in the park (although I can walk in the park if I want to, thanks to my lungs!) but I know for sure it will be new and different and beautiful!

In other news, there are 2 new members of the little Slick family! Hermit Crabs! Irwin and Woody have been living with us for about 3 weeks and we just love them! We got Irwin in Chincoteague on our weekend trip for our anniversary. The store gave us a paper about hermit crabs and I read it on the way home. I discovered that hermit crabs don’t like to live alone…so Jonathan said we could get Irwin a brother. They didn’t get along very well at first, but now they are pals. At least I think they are. Jonathan wondered how I could tell that Irwin was lonely in the first place. But I could…I guess my sensitivity to pet emotions is just a bit higher than his! Anyway, they are just so great and I love them!

July 26th was the 5 month mark since my surgery. Thank you, God. You are so good to me.

- Rachel

Eating our 1 year old wedding cake on our anniversary...
don't know why it's a tradition to eat cake that's been around for so long...
but hey, it's cake!

Eating at our FAVORITE place on the island...Woody's BBQ!!!

Jonny setting up the umbrella. What a cutie :)

The bag Brian sent us home from the hospital with completely full of medicines,
has now become our beach bag...much better this way!