Everything's OK

Just wanted to fill everyone in about the possible flare up in Dave's Wegener's I posted a few days ago. We heard from the main nephrologist (UCI) yesterday, and his newest blood tests show that his disease is NOT flaring. Whoo hoo!! Thank God, ...and thank you all for the prayers!!

A Possible Flare....Need Your Prayers!

Last week Dave got some test results that showed a possible flare in his Wegener's. It may be due to the tapering of the Prednisone, so he has been advised to stop where he is for a month. Right now he is at 9mg per day, and was hoping to get down to 5mg by January to be eligible for the transplant list. Evidently this sometimes happens to people who taper down on their meds. It may not be a true sign that the disease has returned, especially since he remains non-symptomatic.

He took another blood test yesterday to recheck the levels, and we should (hopefully) know sometime next week or the week after.

Today he will get his sinuses and chest scanned, to make sure there are no changes in those areas, in case the disease has returned.

Please pray that all goes well....and this is nothing more than a bit of reaction from tapering off the meds.

The specialist in Cleveland did write to me, and tell me that the blood test was only about 50% accurate in determining active disease. So we are very hopeful!!

Thanks and God bless.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!! I hope you are enjoying the weekend with your families, and having fun trying to get everything ready for the BIG day!!

Today I am doing some baking with the kids and my mom. We have already made the traditional cut out cookies and the kids decorated them with icing and sprinkles. Very nice.

This morning I am making two sugar-free pumpkin pies (so I can have something without the guilt) and some Krusczycki cookies. They are the fried Polish cookies that Dave grew up loving, and now the kids love them too. Very yummy....fried dough, sprinkled with powdered sugar. What's not to love! Then we do our traditional birthday cake for Jesus. That's a tradition that we all love.

Tomorrow night my family will be here, so we will have our tradition of Tamales, beans and rice. I'll have a ham for the "gringos" in the group! But I can't imagine how anyone wouldn't love tamales! :) On Christmas Day we will do the Prime Rib thing...with all the trimmings. A very low fat week is in store for us, evidently. :)

We are looking forward to going to church tomorrow afternoon. The music and message are always so awesome on Christmas!! One of our other traditions is to read the story of Christmas to the kids before bedtime. It's nice to remember what it is we are really celebrating.

May this Christmas bring you and your family joy, peace and love as we celebrate the coming of our Savior, Jesus!

Merry Christmas!

So thankful...

On this Thanksgiving Eve (is there such a thing?) I am brining the bird, baking the yams and mixing the stuffing. I am also thinking about so many of our wonderful friends and family members who have helped us get through this tough year.

We are so thankful for YOU!! Before we lose sight of what tomorrow really is, I wanted to at least write that down.

Have a wonderful, calorie-laden, high-fat, yummy Thanksgiving!

What we've been up to....

Hello to all our friends! Wow, it's been a while since I posted anything here. There's not much going on with Dave, right now. Well, that's not true..there's still a lot going on with Dave right now, but nothing I haven't already covered. He's still in dialysis three times a week, and still waiting to get on the kidney transplant list in January.

There are some really neat things that have happened over the last couple weeks. He was able to finally wear a dress shirt and tie into work last week, for the first time in a year. It was such a wonderful surprise to have him come downstairs, all dressed up, like he used to! Davey was so thrilled! He must have hugged his dad, that morning, for five straight minutes!

With all the mess that has gone on with his health, I am proud to say that he was acknowledged within his branch for having a 20% increase in his business for the last quarter. Ladies and gentlemen.....he's back!!

We had a fun Halloween. David was a soldier, and Joey was Spiderman ( the black costume). They looked so cute! Dave did Davey's camo make-up and he really looked authentic!

Now I am trying to plan Thanksgiving, and figure out the particulars. While I'm no Martha Stewart, I haven't killed anyone (as far as I know) with my cooking. But my mom has started to drop hints that she wants to go out! Go out??? On Thanksgiving? I'm getting a complex!

Oh yes...I turned 40 last week. I know, I don't look a day over 30, right? RIGHT!?!?! This birthday was a tough one for me. But I made it to the other side of the hill; kicking and screaming all the way, and surprisingly, it really isn't all that bad. I got a beautiful necklace from Dave and the one present I REALLY wanted....I was actually carded when buying cough syrup this week! OK, it was done half jokingly....but I don't care, it was awesome!!

Trying to make up for the lack of energy Dave had last year and the inability to put up our outside Christmas lights, I'm afraid we might be giving Clark Griswold a run for his money, this year! Dave has started planning what he is going to do outside, and it either is going to look amazing or we're going to end up with a letter from our homeowner's association! Either way I am just thrilled!

I guess that's it for now. Thanks for the emails. I have taken on a few more responsibilities this year; I am room mom for both boy's classes, doing a Tuesday night Bible study, and Chairing the Drama/ Music Booster club at school. What can I say, life is way better when I am busy!! I hear it keeps you looking young!

Update

It’s been a few weeks since the biopsy, and Dave and I are coming to terms with the fact that no matter what, he needs a kidney transplant. We are now going forward with two different locations; UCLA and Scripps, in San Diego. One of his nephrologists told us that you can be on more than one list, as long as you are in a different “zone”.

There are a few people who have requested to be tested to be his donor. I’m still going to go forward with my plan to donate, if everything checks out with the testing. My brother wants to be used as a last resort, and we have a couple friends who have offered to be tested, too. We are trusting God that something will work out in this area. Thinking of Dave going through dialysis for another 7 years makes my heart break! It’s so hard on him…and doing it three times a week makes him physically exhausted.

He’s been through so much! He has remained so faithful during all these months. He is my hero in so many ways!

My new endeavor is to get word out to everyone we know about becoming an organ donor. It’s so easy, and all it takes (in CA, anyway) is a signature on record with the Dept of Motor Vehicles. There are so many lives that can be saved by just one person!

Also, I have purchased some awareness bracelets that I will be handing out or sending out to all our friends. This is just another way you can outwardly stand with us on this journey of getting through kidney failure and finally finding a matching kidney donor for transplant.

Be looking for those bracelets. :)

Biopsy

I think most people who actively read this blog have been sent an email, but in case you didn't receive something from me tonight; we did get the biopsy results late this evening. It looks like there is complete loss of the kidneys. No hope in them returning to function on their own. We are very sad, and sort of shocked, to be honest. It's hard to think that Dave will have to go through this awful dialysis until a perfect match is found. We are also praying that the Wegener's doesn't flare while we are waiting.

It's a hard night, and one which we will have to pray our way through. We are extremely thankful for all of our friends and family, and all you prayers.

God will get him and all of us through this.