Tryin to hang in there.

August 14, Saturday. Today was a good day.



We had a protein, they call it a spa treatment but it is anything but a spa treatment, IV and they finally pulled my staples so now I can wear clothes and my incision can heal. We did that at 7:30am & made it home by 11:15. We get to do it all again tomorrow morning. I have a pick line so they don't have to stick me they just plug me in.



I don't believe that I have told you about Pittsburgh We are definitely ducks out of water here. This the BIG CITY. The architecture is absolutely beautiful and some of the buildings go back to the 1700's. There are some incredible homes that are probably historic but across the street there could be slums or abandoned buildings. The city is laid out like "hey, I need to get across this field. I think I'll make a road so I don't have go around." It is absolutely crazy and no one pays any attention to traffic laws. We have never been so lost just trying to go down 5 blocks. We end out in an field. They don't take care of the roads because they are too crowded and they are too busy tearing down old buildings. It is actually worse than Boston, if you can imagine that. There are rivers everywhere and tons of bridges. Hopefully they don't date back to the 1700's. This is a university city with several well known Universities. So students are everywhere. This is where my Dad went to school. He was a math? engineer major and played football at Carnegie Tech, now known as Carnegie Tech Mellon. I sure wish I could talk to him about it. There are several more but I could not tell you anything about them.

We are going to look for an apartment and it looks like I am going to have to learn to live in the city. It is so noisy 24 hours a day & night. We don't want to venture too far from the hospital we may never find our way home.

We are (mostly me) still having moments of depression and tears but I have surrounded myself with God's Word and try to focus on faith and finding joy in all this mess. Having a visceral transplant is going to be very tough and require a lot from us. It is very scary. I pray everyday and night that they are able to separate the liver from the intestines and just transplant the liver. If you are praying for me please do the same, it can be done only through the work of our Lord.

Okay, I miss my family so, my friends and pray that this time next year I will be back in the saddle. We are very lonely although the people of Pittsburgh appear to be nice and very accommodating. Hopefully, we will make a connection with a church family and find some local support. They don't have any support groups here just international groups. How personal can that be?

Yesterday we met with a social worker and she gave us some information about fund raisers. It sounds strange to me because I feel that there are so many more needy people out there. But she encouraged us to look into it. Pittsburgh is twice as expensive as Florida we are probably going to run out of money. I feel very funny about this but if anyone has any ideas we would be happy to hear your ideas. I know one thing I want to do when I get home I want to promote donor organ awareness. People are just not aware of the lives they can save and the lives they can improve. Beware I will be on a mission.

That is enough for now, so saying goodbye from the foreign land of the great Pitts.
Keep the prayers, the comments and love to all,
steph & steve