Hi all! Well, the doc says it's all normal. However, he did increase his Protonix to twice/day. And the staples are finally OUT! I swear, he was a WRECK, worrying about getting those darn things removed. He was convinced that it was going to be agonizing and he told me that he wanted to be sedated or have numbing medicine put on first. I tried to reassure him that it wouldn't be painful, just a little 'twinghy' (how I describe it! lol), especially the ones where the two incisions cross. Turns out I was right, how 'bout that?! 
The ones that did pinch a little bit weren't the ones that I thought, but the ones on the ends, on his side. Anyway, he managed to survive it with minimal screaming and without general anesthesia!
His labs are looking good - no changes this week! We can have bloodwork done at a local lab from now on, except when he has clinic (which is now every 2 weeks). This is a huge relief because it was getting really difficult to get to TGH twice/week. His docs are pleased with his progress - so far, so good! Robert still has some pain; I'm just not sure how much is actually 'pain' and how much is due to his absolute ZERO tolerance for pain (hope that makes sense!). He is still struggling a bit emotionally. When he goes to sleep, he sometimes fears that he won't wake up. And at times he gets a little freaked out about the whole 'someone else's liver is in my body' thing. I would think that these things are normal. Did anyone else experience these thoughts? Also, he gets himself all worked up about every twinge, 'strange' or 'different' feeling, etc. And then he'll start getting sweaty and his pulse will raise a bit - sometimes he really starts freaking out. It happened the couple of days before this last clinic appt. - and then when everything checked out and the docs told him how well he was doing, he calmed down and he felt fine. He has always had a tendency to do this; he's always been a bit of a hypochondriac! So it makes sense that with something as big as a liver transplant, this would happen to him. I'm sure it will get better with time.
As for me, I find myself thinking about the donor family a LOT. I think some of it is because of the time of year - Thanksgiving, Christmas..... I just hope they are ok and will find their peace soon. We are so, so grateful - I hope that they somehow know that......Post Edited (Splashdancer) : 11/29/2012 11:33:53 PM (GMT-7)