Hello shower!

Tom, Katie, and I went out of town for the first time in nearly a year. Tom's doctors gave him clearance to leave Atlanta for a weekend as long as it wasn't too far away. We went to Knoxville to visit my grandmother and stay overnight in a hotel. Even though we were only 3.5 hours away from home it was still wonderful to be away.

Tom is feeling well and nothing has really changed. There is some exciting news though that I must share with you: Tom is going to have outpatient surgery on Thursday to remove his "lines" or port as some call it. Since his transplant a year ago, he has had to deal with three slim, rubber tubes hanging out of his chest about six inches in length. These lines served as a convenient way to extract and inject fluids, in the hopital and in the clinic. Without these lines, he would have been pricked and proded by needles on a daily basis. These lines provided a more humane way to access his veins regularly.

After his lines are removed and his incision area has healed a bit, Tom will be able to (drumroll, please).......... take a shower!!! He hasn't been able to shower in almost a year, confined to taking baths. Before each bath, he has to adhere to a ritual of putting Saran wrap over his lines and taping the perimeter of the wrap; this prevents bathwater from seeping into his lines. As you can imagine, there is a serious risk of severe infection with that scenario. Because of this he has had to really be creative in avoiding "that Saran area" when moving around in in the tub to wash his hair, rinse his back, wash his neck, etc. Let me tell you - he's a real contortionist.
Yoga + bathwater = sweet-smelling Tom!