Day + 108 - Home sweet home

It is so nice being home and we have just been enjoying quality family time, hence posting on the blog has fallen behind! Sorry, sorry, sorry!

What have we been up to?? Adam has been enjoying getting back into some normal activities, like his usual household jobs, such as emptying the recycling, setting the table and emptying the dishwasher. This has been great for smooth family dynamics and nice to see Adam coming out of 'patient' mode. We have been on a family bike ride every saturday, not a long way, but a good ride. Adam has managed these well and we have all enjoyed getting out and about together. It is easier for Adam to ride than to walk, as you can ride sitting down!!! School work is back on the agenda a bit more consistently, with work from the hospital school and soon some work from Adam's class this year. It all takes a bit of time to get organised and into a routine.

We have had a few visitors too, which has been fun. Adam is itching for more visitors, but we are a bit tentative, understandably, and want to spend quality time with those people who can visit. Slowly, slowly and lots of patience required.

We have enjoyed getting back to our usual 'homely' clinic at the hospital and catching up with all the fantastic staff and our wonderful specialist. Generally, things continue to go well with Adam's progress. The steroids are slowly bing decreased, so soon (in a couple of weeks) the immune suppressing drugs can be decreased also and we can move towards the 'non-isolation' phase. His liver, chest/lungs and skin are behaving. We are praying for this to continue, so the above transition runs smoothly. Decreasing the steroids will be helpful for the family food budget too!

It is nice to be home for so many reasons. The dog is enjoying having Adam home as well !!!

Thanks for your thoughts, prayers and well wishes, keep them coming. I will try and post more often!!!!
Love the McAllisters

Day + 95 and HOME !!

Yippee!!
As some of you probably already know Adam and Marian came home last Tuesday the 8th of March. We did have some indication that this might happen, but were not sure for certain until the day before. We had flexible flights so could have changed them right up to a 1/2 hour before the flight. Thankfully this was not necessary as the team in Sydney decided that, as his liver enzymes were slowly heading in the right direction and his chest/lung complications could be monitored just as well at the W&Ch, we could be looked after successfully in Adelaide for the rest of Adam's post transplant treatment. Even though we are home Adam still needs to go to the clinic 3 times per week and is still in isolation (meaning he can not go to any inside public places without a face mask and we need to generally avoid crowded places, outside and in, and contact with anyone that is unwell). So we will not be throwing a party just yet, but have managed to see some well family members.

It is wonderful to be together again as a family and share more normally the family responsibilities. Darren did a fantastic job keeping on top of things for Matthew and Alexander, and although they were very pleased and excited to see Mum and Adam, they were also both very calm and collected about it. Adam is itching to get back to school and church and normal interaction with the outside world, but we are not quite there yet. Although we are fast approaching +100 days, we are still on steroids and not looking at decreasing the anti-rejection drugs just yet, so are expecting to be in isolation for a bit longer.

As always we are very appreciative of everyones thoughts and prayers, and even although we are home, the journey is not over yet, and we continue to need your support, and we will continue to update the blog!
 
Love Marian, Darren, Adam, Matthew and Alexander

Day +86 and keeping positive

Just a quick update. We have had a busy and lovely weekend catching up with my cousins that live in Sydney and some other transplant recipients we have developed a friendship with. I have also been getting more familiar with Centennial park and Queens park, for exercise purposes!

Last week was quite a busy one too as we had to move out of our lovely appartment in Coogee beach on Thursday into The Centre (the accomodation that we stayed in the first weekend we came to Sydney). It is quite comfortable and serving us well for now. Adam had more tests through the week and his liver enzymes are finally starting to very slowly decrease and some decisions were made about his unsettled chest. It looks like we may be able to think about coming home soon, which would be great.

Darren and the boys had a busy week too and seem to still be coping famously at home. The continued support from family and our church family has helped a lot. We are so thankful for all the prayers and practical support from so many, thank you all.

Hope to have more good news soon.
Love
Marian and Adam and the crew from home.