Wait- he has WIRES in his chest?!

(Originally published on 8/8/14 on cotaforjensh.com)

We have some great news to report from Pittsburgh... Jens's bronchoscopy (last Friday) showed no rejection! Now, it is still a possibility that his body could still reject the organs. You may remember that he had mild rejection last month, which was treated with a high dose of steroids. It was good to see that the treatment worked, but we know that he may need more treatments in the future if rejection occurs. We are still waiting on all of the cultures to come back to see if there are any infections (bacteria, fungi, etc.). If these come back negative, the doctors may take a few months "off" of bronchs/biopsies (unless Jens shows signs of rejection sooner).

With this news, they have said that he can go to a baseball game. Although, Jens is currently hoping that the hometown Pirates hit a slump, so his beloved Reds can gain some ground in the standings...

Jens is still struggling with chest pain. We learned last week that he has some wires holding his sternum together. They never told us this at the transplant classes or at any point before last week, so we were surprised that some pokey wires could be causing some irritation. We met with the cardiothoracic surgeon today, and he shared with us that after Jens's transplant, he has since changed how he positions the wires in people with thin sternums (like Jens had). While it was neat to hear that Jens's case may be helping others, he was kind of bummed that he has the "old" way of wiring, which may be causing this pain. We're told (once again) that the pain should subside with time and that he "looks great."

Jens eating a favorite "snack"

Another reason that they've given us as to why he is still experiencing pain is that there is not a lot of "cushion" on him in that area of his chest. Since getting home from the hospital, we have really tried to help Jens get some good weight on him. He's probably gained 5 or so pounds since then, so he is not back up to his pre-transplant weight yet. The past few weeks, he has had a REALLY great appetite, and we're fitting in 4-5 meals per day. Hopefully, all the eating (and work in pulmonary rehab) will pay off and he will gain good weight and muscle.

Stretching at pulmonary rehab 

Thanks for continuing to follow along! If there's anything you're curious about, shoot us an email/text/call and maybe we'll blog about it. For now, we're going on a walk to enjoy the cooler night temps here in Pittsburgh!