Mom and Dad, Shots

This is my Dad, Keith. He actually looks alot like Danny DeVito!

This is my Mom, Karon, baking cherry pie with the cherries they picked off the tree!

They are both at my brothers' farm near Chicago, Illinois right now. They are escaping the heat in Bullhead City, Arizona where they normally live. Bullhead City was 122 degrees today...now you know why they're in IL where its about 88.

We're back from Sacramento and enjoying the 85 plus weather in Seattle right now. Thank goodness for that.

Kristie has to have two shots tomorrow to prepare for the transplant on July 17th. Say a little prayer...she hates these shots...so I bribe her with eating at her favorite lunch place, Taco Del Mar.

Fun in the Sun

We're headed to Sacramento Sunday for some Callamazoo time and some fun in the sun...believe me the sun in Seattle has been hiding for almost a year now. We've had one day of 80 degree weather in about a year...not good news kids. Nigel and I are going stir crazy. We'll be back on Friday. He's looking forward to golf every day and I'm looking forward to playing with Calla and getting warm.

This has been a crazy week...Kristie is in a play and I've been driving her back and forth to Kent every day. This is in addition to her regular activities every day too. We see the play tonight so while she will be sad its over (until next year) I'll be happy to not be driving so much.

Kristie's new thing now is to use the word "cancel". She heard me talking on the phone the other day and when I hung up she asked who it was. I told her and she said "Oh, I thought it was Dr. Marks calling to cancel the surgery for July 17th." Uh...no.

She's joking about it sometimes but crying about it other times. But she is looking forward to chocolate! As as possible after the surgery, I think we'll take her to the store and let her buy as much as she wants. Oh, and a trip to Baskins & Robbins where chocolate peanut butter ice cream is her favorite.

No dairy, potatoes or tomatoes for the past year has been hard on her...well, all except the tomatoes - she doesn't care for those anyway. She's lost 13 pounds from being on her kidney diet. But that's okay, her doctor wanted her to lose 12 so we're good.

Lunchtime...gotta go.

Medical Update

We met with Dr. Precht today at Swedish Medical Center. He is from Poland and has been doing transplants (kidney and liver) for 8 years now. He sounds the guy on the Ikea commercials...a little bit anyway.

He explained how they are going to take my left kidney out of my body. They actually cut an incision on the left side of my belly button and slide it right out...amazing! He then puts it on ice and makes sure everything is working okay. Then Kristie's surgeon, Dr. Marks, comes over to my surgery room and takes it from him. Sometimes he helps Dr. Marks do the actual transplant and sometimes not.

I'll be in surgery from about 8:30 a.m. for 2 to 3 hours. Kristie's surgery starts an hour after mine starts. They get my kidney ready and then they start her procedure.

Not to change the subject but here's a good tip:

Call 1.800.call411 to get numbers for FREE. I tried it the other day and they'll even text the info immediately to your phone and then repeat the information too and they give you an address. Its cool.

I'm still reading Jack Canfield's new book: The Success Principles and its soooo great! I love it. I made a list today of the things I would do if I weren't afraid. If I weren't afraid, I'd post it for you...ha! Maybe some other time.

I watched Dr. Wayne Dyer on oprah.com the other day. He's so cool. I have his book the Power of Intention and tried to read it once a few years ago...I couldn't because it just went over my head but I felt so great just trying to read it that I got about half way thru it. I think I'm actually ready to read it now and understand it. If you get a chance, watch the podcast of Oprah's interview with him. He rocks.

Well, its movie night and I get to go watch Mr. Magorium's Emporium - Dustin Hoffman - with Kristie and Nigel. Chow.

Medical Update

I told Kristie last Friday while we were driving home from her play practice. She took it well. What did I tell her? That the transplant was scheduled for July 17th. She wasn't surprised because we had been talking about it probably being in July sometime...

Wednesday Nigel and I meet with my surgeon, Dr. Precht. I'm feeling good. In fact, I listened to a Pat Pearson tape today titled "Happier" and even though it wasn't her best production, it still made me take stock of my life. She had you rate your overall happiness on a scale of 1 to 10. At first, I rated my life a 7 (which I found out later on the tape was average.) Then, after I really thought about it, I would have to say my life is a definite 9 right now. Overall, I am very happy.

I just have a few glitches to take care of...#1 is a kidney transplant.

The kidney transplant is my total focus right now and the rest of the glitches in my life are but a mere nuisance. I mean, really, a FREAKIN KIDNEY TRANSPLANT! Are you kidding me?

My brother, who is a brilliant attorney, told me to get my affairs in order. After all, it is surgery. Thanks bro...but, alas, he's right. Its the perfect time to do it...I suppose. I hate it when he's right. He's my little brother Ken; he used to beat me up when we were younger. He never made his bed or matched his socks. He also used to...oh, I can't tell you that.

Free legal advice...priceless!

I tell you a secret though...if I hadn't gone thru this, I would not have realized how precious life is and how precious family time should be.

Please slow down and appreciate your immediate family. Life slides by us so quickly. Pretty soon you're 47 and having a transplant in your family.

So, today we had Kristie's June doctor appt...2 shots today. Her creatinine was 3.1; her GFR was 18%; her potassium was 4. All about the same as before.

I was thinking today that having one's kidneys only function at an 18% level is probably not too good for the overall body...whatcha think? I'm thinkin not.

P.S. Did I tell you Kristie was in a play? She is...its in Kent...20 miles away...practice is too far to drop off and come home so I've been reading alot or taking a nap in my car or shopping at TJ Maxx or having dinner out. The play is this weekend...she's excited and so am I. I love plays.

Encouragement

Got a new do...was so inspired by Katie's new do that I decided I needed one.

At the salon, my stylist was mixing my color and there was a little old lady who came in for her weekly style appt. and she overhead me say that I needed to make an appt. before the kidney transplant. She asked me if I was having a transplant and I said no, I was donating my kidney to my daughter. She then told me that one of the stylists at the salon (its a mid-size salon) donated her kidney to her sister a few years ago. Then off she went to have her hair done.

About 20 minutes later, we overheard her say to her stylist that I was donating my kidney to my daughter. A few minutes after that, "Debbie" came over and asked if I was the one donating my kidney. She said that she was the one who donated her kidney to her sister.

I started asking questions right away! Thank goodness for little old ladies and their big mouths! Here's a recap of the info I gleaned.

Debbie gave a kidney to her sister 7 years ago and everyone is doing GREAT to this day. Debbie has 4 brothers and sisters and she was the only one to match. The surgery was done at Virginia Mason and they took her kidney laproscopically. She was only in pain for about 3 days and then it was a "piece of cake" after that. She said she was ready to go back to work the next week! She said she had a small 2 - 3 inch scar and a couple of other tiny scars. She said if she had two kidneys again, she would donate to a total stranger because it was so easy.

I asked her if the kidney started working right away in her sister and she said the minute they hooked it up, it started working!

She said her sister had to stay in the hospital longer than usual because they ended up taking out one of her bad kidneys - it weighed 7 pounds! And last year they took out the other one - it weighed 8 pounds! With her particular disease, it was a necessity to take them out.

In Kristie's situation, they told us they would leave her old kidneys in.

The talk with Debbie was VERY ENCOURAGING. This was a total God run-in kind of thing. I mean, there are not that many people who donate a kidney that you would just run into like that! I think he knew I needed a word. Not just for my piece of mind but for Kristie too.

Today was a good day.

Today was a cryyy day.

Ramblings

So, Kristie said today "When I get my new kidney, I can have a big bag of M&Ms at the theatre"! Absolutely, Kristie, absolutely!

I was sick of not eating fast food...I know, I'm weird...so we went to Arby's for lunch. Since we're watching protein, sodium, and potassium (which almost eliminates potatoes, tomatoes and dairy) this was probably not a good idea but sometimes you gotta do it anyway to get it out of your system.

We ate lunch and THEN I asked for the nutrition information. Did you know in a regular Roast Beef there is 870 mgs of sodium. Potato cakes? 340 mgs of sodium. Large Roast Beef is 1870 mgs of sodium. Kristie is not supposed to have more than 2000 mgs of sodium a day. She had the regular roast beef and one potato cake which amounted to about 1000 mgs of sodium. A little high but not too bad. We won't talk about MY sodium intake.

Then, we went to Costco and stocked up on a few things for the big event. That took about 2 hours. I'm always amazed at how much time it takes at Costco. Then, my card had expired and I had to pay an extra $100 for the yearly dues...I shouldn't complain because I did receive an $85 rebate check from Costco that I used the last time I shopped there.

Kristie and I are now watching Evan Almighty...a good family movie...funny and a good story...think Noah's Ark.

Last Summer we started "movie night" on Tuesdays nights. This year we decided Wednesdays would be better so we started yesterday. Movie night means we watch a movie we've never watched before.

I'm rambling so I'll quit.

We're diligently working on the schedule for the big event. By the way, we're not telling Kristie until June 16th - we're going to tell her when we're at her doctor's appt with Dr. O'Neill. I always make him the bad guy anyway so he's used to it by now.

The Big Decision

Okay, we've decided. The transplant has been scheduled for July 17th.


I have peace about the decision.


But I'm not looking forward to the recovery process for both of us.


Here's what I know so far.


The family will meet with Kristie's surgeon on July 14th where he will explain the procedure. Kristie and I will have our blood drawn to make sure the antigens are still compatible. Kristie will have another EKG and chest x-ray. (Haven't told her that part yet.) All of this will take about 4 hours.


I meet with my surgeon previous to this appt., probably in June sometime. The whole family doesn't have to attend that meeting but I'll have Nigel come with me.


The 17th is on a Thursday, so on Wednesday, I can only have clear liquids. Kristie can have anything she wants to eat, well, that's on her kidney diet anyway.

We're both admitted at 6 a.m. on the 17th. Kristie has to take a shower with a special soap beforehand. Me? I'll just be starving, but I figure its a good way to lose a few pounds. My goal is to lose 10! Yay!

I'll be in the hospital until Sunday or Monday. I'll be in recovery for 2 to 3 weeks.

Kristie will be in the hospital about a week. She'll be in recovery for about 4 to 6 weeks.

Kristie asked me at lunch the other day, "What do you think caused my kidneys to not function properly?" Now, this stunned me. First of all this is a very complex question for Kristie to ask. And for her to even have thought of this to ask me is astonishing! I told her that Dr. O'Neill thought it was part of her genetic disease Leber's Congenital Amaurosis deal. She was okay with that answer.

Then, (same lunch) she pipes up and says: "Well, a part of me wants to have the new kidney, but a part of me doesn't want to have the surgery because it will hurt." Okay, another astonishing moment!!! Kristie just doesn't normally talk like that. I told her I understood that and felt the same way too.

She is just an angel. We are truly blessed to have Kristie on earth. Anyone she comes in contact with becomes a better person.

In fact, I think that will be the title of our book "How to be a Better Person". Did I tell you I'm writing a book about the life lessons that Kristie has taught me? It will be a best seller...trust me. She's taught me a lot!

You can be part of the book too! Write me and let me know how Kristie has touched your life and we'll put it in the book!

By the way, Joyce Meyer WAS FANTASTIC! More than fantastic, she was soooo much better in person that on TV or a CD!! Kristie and I attended her conference at the Tacoma Dome on Thursday evening, Friday morning, and Saturday morning. Saturday was THE BEST! I loaded up on books for the summer and am a happy girl!