Great visit to Shands

Sunday afternoon Vernon and I drove to Gainesville to spend the night in advance of his clinic appointment with Dr. Hill Monday morning. We like to have extra time at Shands in order to visit the two areas that he spent lots of time during the 10 months we were there. Here are 3 of the CICU nurses we saw that night. We shared hugs and heard, "You look great!" They always thank us for stopping by, explaining they seldom see a patient after they leave CICU, and when the patient leaves, they aren't in good health yet. And recently there have been some deaths, so to see a healthy former patient really encourages them. Of course, we are glad to do that!

We were well-stocked with Dove chocolates, Werther's creamy caramels and Reisen chocolate caramels. Vernon offers candy to everyone he meets, even on the elevator. Some doctors or nurses people don't recognize Vernon until they see the candy and then we hear, "Oh you're the candy man."

This picture shows Jean, our post-transplant coordinator, with Vernon in the clinic examination room. She is the one we call with any questions. She assists Dr. Hill and gives us expert care and attention. One outcome of the office visit was some medications were changed. He's now off Slo-Niacin, which has a very unpleasant side effect: hot flashes. He won't miss that torment.
Vernon is very happy while we're at Shands, whether we are talking to nurses or doctors we know or meeting new patients (he talked to 2 men waiting for transplant) or even family members of patients. We encouraged one family group whose father/grandfather/husband was in emergency surgery by telling them how excellent the surgeons and the nurses are. Of course, the fact that he'd recieved heart transplant there nearly 3 years ago added weight to what he said. We first talked to them Sunday evening and were glad to learn Monday noon from one of the family that he'd come through surgery well at 6 AM.

We enjoyed this trip to Shands very much and look forward to the next one, Feb. 18. That one will involve a biopsy to check for any rejection and "full study" to check all the functioning of Vernon's heart.