I just realized that it has been almost a month since my previous update.  No news has been great news.  Brent and Craig are both doing awesome.  Brent is followed very closely with bloodwork twice a week and everything has been good.  The kidneys have shown no sign of rejection and they are working beautifully.  And Brent is feeling great with lots of energy.  Every day feels like such a gift and we are so happy to not have to fit dialysis into our daily schedule.   Every day we are overwhelmed with God's healing and His gift to our family. 

Craig and his family have moved to St. Louis, MO and they are raising support as the prepare to move to Chile.  If anyone is interested in donating to them, please let us know.

We also wanted to give an update on the tuberculosis machine(BP4TB).  The machine is fully paid for and is on order and Partners in Hope Clinic in Malawi, Africa is awaiting its arrival this spring.  The timing is perfect and we thank you for everyone who gave toward this dream of Brent's.  It is amazing to think that this will save thousands of lives.

Thank you again to everyone for all that you did for us! 

I wanted to write a quick update and let everyone know that Brent and Craig are both doing great.  Recovery is slow but steady and there have not been any problems.  Brent gets blood work done Mondays and Wednesdays and sees his doctor each Wednesday.  Thursday he gets an infusion of Eculizumab which is to prevent the aHUS from coming back and causing damage to the new kidney.  This is the medicine that they toyed around with giving him a year ago, but it was just FDA approved for aHUS a few weeks ago -- again another huge praise. 

We are looking forward to spending a relaxing and quiet Christmas break here with Craig's family.  We will not even have to cook because we were just informed that we won a contest for a free Christmas dinner for 10!  Brent entered a contest by writing a paragraph about someone that deserves to have a free Christmas dinner.  Unbeknownst to me, he wrote why I deserved to have a break from cooking after all we have been through this year, and we won!

 The house looks different with the dialysis machine moved out and we are very happy that dialysis is not a part of our daily ritual anymore.  Our thankfulness is just overflowing.  Craig and his family are our heroes, what a huge blessing.

Brent is home!  His creatinine is down to 1.1 today.  The kids are thrilled and it is so nice not to be down at the hospital all day.  He is tired and very happy. 

"The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble.  He cares for those who trust in him...."  Nahum 1:7

 

I just talked to Brent.  They are talking about letting him go as early as tomorrow or Monday.  His creatinine has been staying steady at 1.3 for the last three days, which is on the high end on normal.  Brent was retaining some fluid from surgery so they gave him some Lasix last night (a diuretic) and he took a lot of the fluid off.  He has been up and walking and feeling a lot more mobile.  He even went 12 hours without pain medicine last night.  Craig came up to the room again yesterday and did a lap around the hall with him.  Craig was discharged yesterday afternoon!  My kids are doing well and have had a good couple of days.  Every few days they are drawing antibodies, since Craig wasn't a perfect match, so make sure that Brent isn't creating new antibodies against Craig's kidney.  So far, they have been great, and not elevating at all.

Okay, here is the picture of us.  This was the first meeting of the brothers after surgery.  Continue to pray for Craig, as he has not been feeling great.  Brent has been enjoying his first taste of chocolate and ice cream in over a year, since they were not allowed before.  Our kids had a much better day today which was awesome!  Please pray for me to stop trusting in anything other than God for my well-being.  I am feeling anxious over things like lab values or urine output dropping.  There is a big picture of a dollar bill in the hallway outside of Brent's room, but the words have been changed on the bill to, "In Johns Hopkins we trust."  It hit me that I don't want to trust anything other than God.  In fact, this morning I read three words from the Bible that just reinforce this, "Trust in Him" from psalm 37.  However, sometimes is seems easier to say than to actually do it.  
Thanks for your continued support and prayers

day 2 post op

everything with the kidney is looking great.  the urine output has been good and the creatinine, which measures kidney function, is down to 1.3 which is normal!  the doctors say his kidney is doing bette than average.  brent is still hooked up to  various tubes and lines lines in different places, which bothers him more than anything.  his appetite is really good and he is starting to slowly move around.  last night craig was able to get in a wheelchair and come up for a visit, which was awesome to see him.  brent cant leave the floor because he is so immunosuppressed right now.  here is a picture of them together.

Day 1 - Post-Op

Today was a great day, still producing a lot of urine! Brent's lab numbers are excellent, creatinine is down to 2 (was 4 pre-op) and is trending toward normal.  Both brothers were able to get out of bed and go for a walk around their separate floors. They have not been allowed to see each other yet due to Brent's immunosuppression.