month two

It has now been two months since Stu received a healthy liver. He has gained ten pounds, which may be related to the prednisone he still takes, but is gradually stopping, or it may be that his body requires fewer of the calories he takes in for healing and is using more for growing new muscle and other tissue. Either way, he looks better. His color is healthy, his cheeks are more full, and he has greater endurance, as in, he can come over for dinner and not look exhausted after two hours away from his home.

His incision is all scar tissue except for one little bit on his side that is still a bit of scab. But if my eyes were seeing clearly tonight, when I asked him to show me his belly, (which, by the way, I haven't said to him since he was a toddler) he lifted his shirt and he wasn't wearing his binder, yet another indication that he is healing and gaining strength.

He did say that he's noticed that he has no feeling below his horizontal scar, which was probably caused by the surgeons cutting through the nerves in the area. They may grow back and regain feeling, or they may not. He is not complaining about the loss of feeling in the skin on part of his belly.

In fact, I don't remember the last time he complained about anything. I know, I'm not married to him and I don't live with him all of the time anymore, but considering everything, he seems more than a little content.

The other day at work, a coworker asked about Stu and as I told him about the surgery, he asked about Stu's age and whether he was married or not, had children or not. I told him about the major events in Stu's life over the past ten years (amazingly, I'm getting pretty good at telling that story briefly--I know, who would have thought?). I finished by saying that Stu has a good employer that has been very accommodating through all of this. My coworker paused for a moment and said that while the past few months seem almost miraculous considering the way that everything has fallen into place, that none of it could have happened unless Stu was the person he is. My coworker pointed out that good things often--not always, but often--happen to people who do their part of the work. I had to agree when he said that Stu went to college, earned two bachelor's degrees--one in computer science and one in math--married a great girl, kept going to school even when he was very ill, interviewed well and got a good job with good benefits, bought a home they could afford and felt comfortable living in, and are raising two sweet girls, that it wasn't really all just luck. He's done his part of the work.

I'm very proud of that boy.