6-20-2006

Yes, Aliyah did maker it home last Thursday afternoon.
A relief for sure. It is nice for all of us to be able
to sleep in our own beds at night. Almost normal. I am
back teaching summer session at Purdue and Dana is
back working also. Aliyah is hoping to start work
again sometime during the second half of July.

Aliyah is a little weaker than at the end of last
April over a year ago when she came home. However, she
gets a little bit stronger, walks a little further,
and her voice sounds a little stronger each day.
Aliyah will slowly get back into the activities she
loves such playing her guitar, singing, writing
poetry, chatting online, and drawing.

She will be doing cardiac rehab again for awhile. She
might be put on the transplant list as early as this
Friday. It is possible they will wait a little bit
longer, but there is no longer a question in the
doctor's minds as to whether or not she needs a new
heart. Soon she will have a pager and be on call 24/7,
for perhaps quite awhile.

To put it simply, when she gets a call on the pager,
we will head immediately to Indy, then they will mix
her blood with the blood from the prospective heart
and see if it fights. If it fights, then she comes
home and waits some more. If the bloods like each
other then she gets a new heart. It is obviously not
quite that simple. Even before heading to Indy there
will be a cross-checking of many different factors
such as size, age, gender, blood type, etc., but that
should give you the basic idea.

Anyway, we are somewhat emotionally drained, but
otherwise pretty healthy and basically okay. Aliyah
certainly will enjoy visitors and phone calls
.... Please do stop by and say hi. Or call
to arrange a time when she will for sure be at home,
she had and has appointments at some point in time
every day this week.

Please do not hesitate to ask questions when you have
them or ask for an update when I get lazy. :-)

Thank you all for your continued support. It has been
wonderful to have so many that have encouraged us,
visited us, and prayed for us.