Goodness what a couple of weeks

On Wednesday, it will be 3 weeks since my sister donated her kidney to our father. Seester is doing fabulously. In fact, you would never know that she had surgery if you just met her. She's back to exercising and running around like usual. I only hope that she isn't overdoing it. Daddy seems to be doing fairly well. Right now he is staying at the hospital townhouses (which is another story in of itself) and every morning he gets up and heads over to the lab to see how how his new kidney is functioning. For the most part he's been getting pretty good results, but his creatinine has been a little high. They encouraged him to drink more fluids and said that should help. By Thursday, we thought it had resolved itself because his results finally came back good, but then the weekend hit and they went back up again to the point where he might have to be re-admitted to the hospital. So not good.

It's funny because God works in mysterious ways and sometimes He'll speak to you or let you know He's there in the weirdest ways. On Saturday, Daddy was a little frustrated and talking to me about it when something he said registered with me. He was frustrated because he had been drinking the required amount plus coffee and tea. When he said the part about coffee and tea, I asked him if it was caffeinated or decaffeinated. He replied, "Caffeinated." Oddly enough, I had just watched an episode of The Doctors on Friday and they had mentioned the caffeinated drinks are a diuretic and that you should drink an equal amount of water for every caffeinated drink you have. Basically, the gist is that caffeinated drinks will dehydrate you.

After I told Daddy this, he decided to see if he cut back on the caffeine if it would help. Well, today his blood work came back great! I'm not sure if that it truly was the reason or not, but maybe, just maybe, it was divine intervention.

So what else is going on? You can just call me the appliance slayer. In the past two weeks, I have has a little fender bender, a microwave to die, a dust buster croak, plumbing to be repaired and for the piece d' resistance (said with an exaggerated French accent)...my washing machine hit the dust. Really?! Yup. My friend suggested that I give up Modern life and go the Amish way, but I'm afraid of what I might do to a donkey. I replied that what I really needed was a maid. Ha! Anyone want to supply me with one?

Soooo, now I'm on the washing machine hunt. DH contacted a friend who works at Lowe's and he's offering to get us an energy efficient GE for $250-300. The appliance repairman told me whatever I do not to get a GE. He was adamant that they were carp. He told me he could get me a Whirlpool for that price, but when I mentioned my longing for a front load washer, he was good to give me a name of a wholesaler who could get me a great price on a Whirlpool so I just may try that. Now, I just need to convince DH's that we really need a front load machine even if they do cost a bit more upfront. Wish me luck!!

thankful

Tonight, I sit here exhausted, relieved, and more than anything...thankful. Thankful for the gift my sister was able to give to my father. You see, today, my sister "Seester" give my father a kidney and the gift of life renewed.

The Bible says "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." - John 15:13. But today my sister showed great love, amazing love. Thank you God for the gift of my sister. Bless her all the days of her life.

So how was today? Long, emotionally draining and wonderful. I arrived at the hospital a little after 5 am and spent some time visiting with dear seester. Then I went and visited with my father. They got us down to the OR right off the bat, but after there, we spent a lot of time waiting. They rolled both daddy and seester down to pre-op right around 6 am. Seester's surgery was to begin at 7:15 but didn't get started until closer to 8:30. We had been told that they would move daddy into surgery an hour or so after seester's surgery had begun. But at 10:00, they called and said they were having a more difficult time removing the kidney so it would be little longer. Fortunately they had given daddy some "I don't care" meds and he napped while his friend and I wondered if we would ever get to eat breakfast. When he woke from his "I don't care" nap, he fully proceeded to entertain us in his "I don't care" loopiness.

At 10:30, the medical team said "Let's go" and we went. Officially his surgery began a few minutes after 11 am. While daddy's surgery went without hiccups, seester's took a lot longer than we had anticipated and we were getting quite a bit concerned. A 1-1/2 hour surgery had morphed to an over 5 hour journey. Thankfully, it was nothing major and she returned to her room to recoup by late afternoon.

Seester had just been moved to her room when we received notice that daddy was in recovery. I can not really explain how I felt in that moment. I literally felt a weight lift off of me the moment the doctor told that he had done well and the kidney was working fantastically. What a great moment!

We figured that we would see daddy shortly, but that did not happen. Just like every other thing today, our time would drag on out. A little before 6 pm (marking our 12th hour in the waiting room), I went to the patient information desk and worked some magic with the staff. Somehow, I convinced them to allow the 6 of us in groups of 3 to see daddy so we could all go home and get some rest. Thank you, Jesus, you knew we were weary.

When I last saw them, they both were hungry and ready for some real food. I will take that as a good sign. :D

We finally have a new date

Daddy's kidney transplant has finally been rescheduled for September 8th. I'm so happy to have a date to work with. Funny thing is that I'm not as worried about the surgery (UAB has one of the best transplant units in the nation) as I am trying to make sure my boys are taken care of while I am trying to take care of Daddy. (BTW, I have already set-up a carepage for daddy that I will keep everyone updated through when we get to transplant time. That site is: http://www.carepages.com/carepages/crayp.)

You see, daddy will spend roughly one week in the hospital and approximately 2 - 3 weeks in the rehab unit. In the rehab unit, he will be required to have someone there 24/7 to assist him. Since my mother is gone and my sister will be recuperating from donating him her kidney, this responsibility will fall to me. This means that I will practically be living at the hospital for 3 weeks with dad. I'm kind of panicking on how to do it all: take care of daddy, taking care of my babies, making sure laundry and home stuff is done. Thankfully, I have a really good friend who lives close by and who has offered to help with the boys as well as my wonderful Aunt S who has always helped me out with the boys when I'm in a pinch.

(I know y'all are going to think I am nuts but I am putting it out here to help me stay organized.)

Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays: S will drop the boys off my GF's house on his way to work. GF will take the boys to school and pick them up. (They are in school from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.) They will stay will GF until S can pick them up. I'll probably spend the night at the hospital unless a family member offers to relieve me.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are a different story: I need people to keep the boys which one of my aunts has offered to do, but I am also hoping that other family members are willing to stay with daddy during the day (and I'll stay the night) so the kids won't feel like I've totally abandoned them.

And then there are the weekends, I'd love to have someone to stay with daddy on Saturday mornings so I can have a little family time with S and the boys, especially since W starts soccer in September.

Most of all, just pray for peace and healing in all of this. That dad's surgery and transplant goes well. That, his body won't reject the kidney. That everything works out well for him and the care of my children.