It has been about a year since my last blog post and I'm ready to get back into blogging about my life. This blog post will be a recap of the last year.
Last June our family and friends put on a benefit for Charlie and it was amazing! We were able to pay off $36,000 in medical bills from Charlie's hospital stays. Yes, you read that right. When Charlie first got sick we didn't have very good insurance with a high deductible. Then Jeff switched jobs and got better insurance and because Charlie had Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) he also got his own insurance. We also got enough money to save some for some of Charlie's future medical bills. All in all we were just blown away by the benefit. So many people spent hours planning and putting together such a fantastic event. The turn out was just humbling so many people came out to support us truly amazing!
July we were just living life with 3 kids waiting for a donor for Charlie and keeping up with Charlie's appointments and his nightly dialysis. Pretty uneventful.
August Natalie our oldest turned 4. Jeff and I had out 5th wedding anniversary. We worked on some house construction and we had our yard landscaped. I also had my 30th birthday and just a few days before I turned 30 we got a call telling us that they had decided to take Jeff off of the back burner and that he could be Charlie's donor. We were very excited and scared all at the same time. We knew Charlie needed his gift of life but Jeff being donor meant that I would I would have both Jeff and Charlie having major surgeries on the same day and I would be in the hospital with Charlie and Willa. Willa was 6 months old and was still nursing. It also meant that Natalie would be staying at my parents without her parents. It was decided that Transplant would be September 3rd. That gave us only a few weeks to get ready for transplant. Jeff had to try and get a project done at work and we were trying to finish up a remodeling project. We did not finish our project but that's ok we did it after transplant and some amazing people from our church helped us get some work done while we were in the hospital.
September was a very full month. Charlie and Jeff had transplant surgery on the 3rd Charlie was 2 1/2 at the time of his transplant. Jeff was told that it would take 6 weeks to recover and that was pretty right on. He stayed in the hospital for a few days then he went to my parents to stay with Natalie and our dog Hank. Meanwhile Charlie had his surgery and he did wonderful. There were so many people who came to the hospital to be with me while I waited for Charlie to get out of surgery. and my amazing cousin in law stayed at the hospital with me for a few days and helped out so much. Charlie was in the hospital for a few weeks and once he got out we had to bring him in for labs 3 times a week. Charlie has had blood drawn so many times and he has never had a pic line and he freaks out more when you put numbing cream on him then when he just gets poked. He is one brave little boy.
Fall
Life after transplant has been amazing. We were able to finish our back entry remodel project. Jeff and Charlie are feeling good. Charlie went from labs 3 times a week to twice a week then once a week and now Charlie is getting labs every other week. He also has monthly appointments with his Dr.
Winter
We had an awesome Christmas with family. I think that Willa really enjoyed her first Christmas she thought that presents were pretty cool. Natalie and Charlie also got lots of fun stuff. In January Jeff turned 34 and we also started our upstairs bathroom remodel project. We managed to keep our family healthy most of winter. Some people think that a transplant means cure but really its like a really big band aid. Charlie will be on meds that suppress his immune system for the rest of his life. There is also no guarantee on how long Jeff's kidney will last before Charlie's body starts rejecting it. We hope it will last over 30 years because Jeff and Charlie were such a close match, but there are so many things that could trigger Charlie's body to reject his new kidney. Charlie turned 3 and Willa turned 1 in February. We had an awesome pool party planned for the kids that we had to cancel for all of our friends because Natalie was really sick. We were praying that Charlie wouldn't get What Natalie had but he did and he ended up going to the hospital for the first time since transplant the day after his party that only family went to. He was really sick and his body just couldn't fight it off. I believe Jeff told me that Charlie's fever got so high that they had to put ice packs on his body to cool him off. Then a few weeks later Charlie was in the hospital again due to another fever.
Spring
We signed Natalie up for kindergarten in the Watertown Mayer school district. She is so excited to start School in the fall and keeps telling everyone that she is going to be going to go to daddy's old school. We finished our bathroom remodel and started our kitchen remodel project. I have been spending time learning and using Young Living essential oils and at the end of march I took a MPS scar release therapy class. I learned about how scars affect your body and I think that what scar release does for your body is really cool. I had no idea how much scars can affect your body in different ways. Charlie also got his wish granted from Make a Wish. We all get to go on a Disney cruse to the Bahamas this fall/winter we don't have dates picked yet we are waiting on passports for everyone because they need them before the tickets can be picked up.
I hope to get back to blogging on a regular basis and I'm sorry it has been so long since my last blog.
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