05/14/2026
Day 19 post heart transplant
Today was the day. Staci officially got RELEASED from the hospital 🎉❤️
Still honestly kind of hard to believe we’re even at this point after everything the last few weeks have looked like. Feels like we’ve lived about 10 different lives in 19 days.
Now before everybody starts thinking this means life instantly goes back to normal… absolutely not 🤣 We still have a long road ahead with biopsies, appointments, medications, rehab, and all the transplant stuff that comes with this journey.
So for now we’ll be staying up here in St. Louis at the apartment close to the transplant team while she keeps recovering and going to all her follow-up appointments.
She’s still holding some extra water, but they’re managing it and keeping a close eye on everything. She’ll also have PT and other medical staff checking on her daily while we’re here, so she’s definitely still being monitored very closely.
But this is still a HUGE milestone.
Nineteen days ago we were terrified walking into surgery not knowing what the future looked like. Today we walked out of that hospital together with her new heart doing its job. That’s something I’ll never be able to fully put into words.
Now I’m probably about to get in trouble because apparently “getting released from the hospital” does not count as having the apartment fully stocked with snacks, decorations, and all the random little things she wants 🤣 Human beings survive a literal heart transplant then immediately start nesting. Science should study it.