Hi friends. The last two nights I have been in bed by 9p but tonight I find myself wanting to get some late evening writing done while the house is quiet. Finn and my mom are asleep upstairs and I have some things to share with y’all.

First, did anyone else find this week a bit much on the socials with Amazon Prime Day madness? I decided to fully opt out of all things Prime Day this year for several reasons and I’m totally at peace with it. Please know there is zero judgement from me if you scored some amazing deals or had yourself organized enough to pre-plan for holiday gifts…but I was just not there this year. I was surprised by how bothered I was by the overwhelming amount of Prime Day content was out there making me feel like I was missing out.

I’ll keep the remainder of this post in a more positive space…my mom has been with us for the last week.

Finn and I made a trip to the Charlotte Regional Farmers Market last Saturday and then scooted over to the airport to pick up my mom. We shopped from Bluebird Farm, Hoffman Heritage and Southern Greens Farm.

We spent the first few days of her visit mostly enjoying downtime at home. We did make it to the pool a couple of times. Finn has been on a kick lately where if we are hanging out at home, he changes into PJs. He likes to mix and match so we end up with quite the combo of pajamas and socks.

The reason for my mom’s visit was clinic visits at Duke. It’s hard to believe that it’s been six months since our last trip and 18 months since her transplant. It was a big deal that they let her go six months between appointments for the first time! We had been on a three month rotation prior.

We were scheduled to be in Durham for three days but our trip got cut short because her team decided to cancel a surgical procedure that she was supposed to have on the final day.

I will offer an abbreviated version of the visit in bullet points…

• Her lungs are doing GREAT! No signs of rejections. Clear x-rays. Highest pulmonary function tests she’s ever had. YAY.
• Her kidneys are NOT doing great. Unfortunately, the drugs you have to take for the rest of your life after a transplant are very hard on the kidneys. Her team is constantly monitoring labs (every two weeks) to keep her at ideal levels of her anti-rejection drugs so her kidneys are as happy and functional as possible. There are frequent adjustments to medication dosing to help with this. She’s currently in stage 3b of chronic kidney disease.
• My mom was supposed to undergo an endoscopy procedure where the surgeon injected Botox into her lower stomach and was possibly going to use a balloon to stretch some muscles in her stomach to help with some weight gain issues she’s been having since transplant. Due to her creatine levels/kidney function during her labs at Duke, the team decided it was best to postpone the procedure since it required her going under general anesthesia. We’re adjusting some medication dosing and will repeat labs again next week. She’ll continue to focus on weight gain and we’ll try the procedure again in three months if she continues to lose instead of gain. If she does gain, we don’t have to go back for another six months!
• We also talked a LOT about managing the neurological side effects that the drugs have. My mom has a lot of bad headaches, memory loss, trouble finding words, etc. It’s hard on her – and hard for us as a family to see her struggling. <3 Unfortunately, there is no simple fix but they’ll continue to vigilantly monitor her levels and make adjustments as needed to make sure her dosing is as ideal as possible.

While we spent 10 hours at the hospital during our 24 hours in Durham, we did get a good dinner in at Bleu Olive.

We also stopped into my favorite cafe/bakery in Durham, Dulce, for lunch before we hit the road back to Charlotte. We both had paninis and then got desserts to bring home. My mom got strawberry cheesecake and I got carrot cake. This is my current favorite carrot cake in all the land.

Back in Charlotte, I was reunited with my boy. I picked him up today from a summer camp program that he’s doing for the next few weeks. I was nice and sweaty from a run. It was my first workout in four days and omg so hard. The summer humidity is crushing me during my runs right now.

We took an afternoon trip to Sam’s Club since my mom is a member and I needed some household stuff. Finn was pumped to get a box of Cheez-Its bigger than his head. But let’s be real here – I’ll likely eat as many of these as he does, haha. I love going to Sam’s or Costco from time-to-time but our trip today reminded me that I definitely do not need my own membership for our two-person household. I looked at 90% of things and either thought 1) I have nowhere to store this or 2) we will never eat all of this! Like, six heads of romaine lettuce for $4? Awesome! But I can barely get through three (which costs the same at the grocery) on my own in a week. There were four gorgeous ahi tuna steaks for $20 but that’s a lot for one person eating ahi tuna. And they probably came frozen so I don’t want to refreeze them.

I fully expect to change my tune on this in the future as Finn continues to get bigger, eats a broader range of foods and has a teenage appetite. 😉

Okay. That brings us up to speed. I’ll leave you with these uplifting words that I screenshotted from We’re Not Really Strangers Instagram.

QUESTIONS

What time do you usually go to bed? 

Did you shop Prime Day? 

Do you shop regularly at places like Sam’s, Costco or BJs? What about as a small household?