**We are very grateful for our friends, family, and complete strangers who have prayed for us, helped us, comforted us, and just talked to us. There has been a HUGE outpouring of love and kindness directed towards our little family and it has snowballed fast thanks, in part, due to social media. We are speechless and all we can think of to say is thank you.**
While Lot is in dialysis and I am waiting to pick up Drake from school, I thought I would sit down and give an update on our roller coaster ride.
I am going to start with Wednesday morning and then fill you in on what happened Tuesday night at the end.
We were up and off to Bingham Memorial in Blackfoot at 7am Wednesday.
We did a whole lot of this:
We met with the doctor that was going to be doing the surgery as well as the kidney doctor on call. The catheter insertion is a fairly straight forward surgery, so it should have only taken an hour to do. It went very smooth, just 2 hours instead of one. Going off of Lot remembers, when he woke up, he swore several times and told them he hurt:) He was given some pain medication in the i.v. after he was brought to the I.C.U. and they got him settled and vitals taken.
He was able to eat a little dinner, but was really tired and just wanted to rest and try to not cough. The catheter was insert into an incision about 2 inches wide, so he is extremely tender on the left side. There are also 4 very small incisions that they used for all the cameras and placing equipment. Those are not as tender. Once he is not tender anymore, in about 2 weeks, that is when all the hair will start to bug him. They had to shave most of the hair off his stomach and that is going to really itch once it starts to grow back in.
We had a few visitors and we were able to talk and laugh for a little while. Sometime around 10, I think, a nurse came in and started the dialysis that we were first told would happen, and then not happen, but really did happen. It was very painful on Lot and will continue to be as the machine pulls the fluid out. It only lasts for 2 minutes, but that 2 minutes seems to be never-ending. His body will become used to it eventually and the pain will slowly subside, but it will take 3-4 months before he wont feel it at all.
Lot was discharged around 10:30 and we were off to the Idaho Kidney Institute for more torture. Once Lot was hooked up an comfortable, I was given a tour of place and shown the approximate number of boxes that will be arriving at our house the week of the 18th. It is a TON of boxes! Our kids are going to have a grand time playing with them until it is trash day or when I take them to be recycled. Because all of the supplies are coming from the manufacturer, they will be brought in a set up where we need them to be. If they were to be delivered by conventional methods, UPS, FedEx, etc, the boxes would basically be put on the curb and we would have to haul them in. I held one of those boxes and they are heavy. To have to carry in around 30 of those would be very hard to do. Lot cannot life more than 20 pounds, so he would not be able to help, not that I would want him to, either.
It is still up for debate on whether Lot will be doing dialysis 3 or 5 days a week, but the sessions will only last 6 hours instead of the 8 that they thought. It all depends on what the labs say and if his potassium, creatinin, and glucose levels stay down. He will have blood drawn once a month to monitor the numbers.
So now we are in a waiting game. Waiting for insurance to be approved, waiting during dialysis treatments, and waiting on word to start the kidney transplant process. I can't remember if I have said this or not, but we have to wait until Lot has some sort of insurance before he will be considered for a transplant. Once that happens, we will be spending a lot of time in Utah with a transplant team. I am hoping that it happens sooner, but would be okay to happen after school is out for the summer. That way, we don't have to worry about getting Drake to and from school.
If you are still with me, we now move on to the events of Tuesday night. This is mostly going to be religious. If you would like to learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, you may go to mormon.org.
In our church, when someone is sick or needs comfort, they are given the opportunity to have a blessing. These blessings can be highly personal and come from our Father in Heaven.
Lot and I were both given blessings. In them, we were given comfort and knowledge that we WILL make it through this. Lot will gain his quality of life back and we will continue this live on this earth, with our 3 kids for a long time. Everything WILL be okay. We are not sure how this will come about, but it will, and in the Lord's time, not ours. We have put our faith, our lives, in His hands. And He knows what is best for us at this time and will guide us in the decisions that we are and will be facing in the very near future.
We are not 100% sure how we will make it, as Lot can't work for at least a month, but we will make it through, and be better people and a better family for it.
I KNOW that Christ died for us. I KNOW He is right beside us, guiding us, and hears our prayers and pleadings. I KNOW that with whatever happens, as long as we are faithful and put our trust in Him, we WILL live Him and our families again. This is just a small moment in time and we have been chosen to go through this for whatever reason. It is, admittedly, a huge trial to face, but it will make us stronger, and we will NEVER be asked to go through something that the Lord knows we can't handle.
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