内容摘要：When Meredith McKenzie got a notice days before of the heightened fire risk, she asked people at her barn to help evacuate her horse so she could focus on caring for her sister who has Alzheimer’s.

When Meredith McKenzie got a notice days before of the heightened fire risk, she asked people at her barn to help evacuate her horse so she could focus on caring for her sister who has Alzheimer’s.

One big question was cardiac fitness: Mass General’shad underlying heart disease that killed him. But Riella said intense exams showed Andrews’ “heart was in the best shape possible.”

Still, Andrews was a little nervous and sought advice from the only other person who knew what a pig kidney transplant was like — the NYU patient, Towana Looney.“We just prayed together and talked about how it would be,” Andrews said of their phone calls before and after his transplant. He said Looney advised “to just stay strong and that’s what I’m doing.”Doctors said Andrews’ pig kidney turned pink and quickly began producing urine in the operating room, and since then has cleared waste normally with no signs of rejection. Andrews spent the week after his discharge in a nearby Boston hotel for daily checkups but is expected to return home to New Hampshire soon.

NYU transplant surgeon Dr. Robert Montgomery said patients like those in Mass General’s pilot study could be “the sweet spot” for early xenotransplants — not yet too sick from years of dialysis but unlikely to survive long enough for a human transplant.“Those are the patients where it really makes sense for them to try something else,” said Montgomery. His hospital is one of two that will be part of United Therapeutics’ clinical trial later this year, which will include similar patients.

It’s too early to know how Andrews will fare but if the pig kidney were to fail, Riella said he’d still qualify for a human transplant and, now deemed inactive on the transplant list, wouldn’t lose his “waiting time” that helps determine priority.

Andrews now wants to return to his old dialysis clinic and “tell these people there’s hope, because no hope is not a good thing,” he said.If you go this route, take care to keep them out of the path of the water stream. Tropical plants like humidity but not soggy soil. In fact, they’ll likely need less water than their out-of-shower counterparts.

Plants best suited for jungle showers include prayer plant (Calathea), moth orchid (Phalaenopsis), golden pothos/devil’s ivy (Pothos), flamingo flower (Anthurium), Chinese money plant (Pilea), heart-leaf philodendron (Philodendron), spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum), peacock/prayer plant (Calathea), Peperomia spp., bird’s nest fern (Asplenium nidus) and lucky bamboo (Dracaena sanderiana).Although eucalyptus plants aren’t ideal for growing in a shower (they don’t like moist soil), you can benefit from their aromatherapy and decongestant properties by gathering a bundle of fresh-cut stems, running them over with a rolling pin to release their oils, and tying them into a bouquet. Hang the bundle from the shower head for several weeks of scented steam showers. Replace it when the fragrance fades, or the bouquet looks wilted or begins to mold.

Outside the shower, place aloe vera, Chinese money plant, most Dracaena species, ficus spp. and wandering dude (Tradescantia zebrina) to the side of a bright window.Boston fern (Nephrolepis exaltata), flamingo flower and Monstera spp. require direct light, so should sit right in front of one.