Not sure what to title this post.

 **If you would like to keep up with the whole saga that is our life now, there is a link on the left sidebar that you can click (Roller Coaster Ride) and it will show you all of the posts so you don't have to wade through pictures of our kids:)**

**Update (9:32pm): I am so sorry to those that are hearing about this for the first time, especially family. I have barely remembered to eat the last 2 days and have been missing the kids. We have a ton of information thrown at us the last 24-36 hours **

Doom and gloom? Hope and faith? When it rains, it pours?

This is going to be a long, picture free post. I thought it would be much easier for people to get all the information here and we can save our phone batteries (that should totally be run over with a semi truck because it could not make them any worse). There are going to be lots of facts and figures and I am going to say it straight up, no sugar-coating it from me:)

Please forgive any grammatical errors as it is hard to type and intermittently cry at the same time:) Also anything that may not make too much sense. I have gone back through to add things as I remembered them and may have thought of things faster than I can type and left out a few words here and there

On Tuesday morning (22nd of January), Lot woke up with his knee hurting him really bad. It had been bothering him since Sunday, but was now incredibly swollen and very tender. I dropped Drake off at school, arranged for an awesome friend (Hi McDermott Family!) to watch Chloe and Konnor and we were off to urgent care.

Once Lot hobbled into the exam room, we sat to wait. His blood pressure was taken and it was 198 over 133, which is extremely high. We knew Lot had high blood pressure, but this was a total shock to us. The doctor actually asked the nurse to come and ask us if he had high blood pressure. It wasn't long before the doctor came in and ordered some blood work and an x-ray of his right knee. After a long wait, the blood work came back, dun, dun, dun.

There was an elevated white blood count, which could mean an infection, but not so high that the doctor was sure that there was an infection. The worse news was that his creatinine levels were through the roof. The creatinine is a measure of how well your kidneys are functioning. I honestly don't know what his levels were or if the doctor even told us what they were because of what came next.

To put it in simple terms, Lot is a walking time bomb. He could die tomorrow, he could die in a few months. We don't know. Unless his levels come down, that was the reality we were facing. The doctor was so concerned that he called over to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center's E.R. to talk with someone there. After that talk, we were on our way to the E.R.

It is about 11 at this time and we dropped the kids off around 8:30. We thought that we would not be very long, maybe a couple of hours. Boy were we wrong! I called my mom and explained to her what was happening and asked her what she was doing for the next few hours and if she could come and pick Chloe and Konnor up and watch them until we were done.

My mom brought my dad with her and my brother also came over a little later. To make any calls or to text, it was easier to go out in the lobby as all the equipment interferes with a cell signal and reception. I was out in the lobby when my parents showed up and I may have scared my dad a little when I broke down on his shoulder. Not sure. After that crying episode, as there were many and still are, we went back to Lot's room. I think at this point, Lot had been given some morphine and had an ultrasound of his kidneys. It may have been after. The day is kinda a blur.

We talked to him for a little bit, my dad hassled the nurses, and we went to lunch. I didn't want to leave, so we went to the cafeteria. This hospital is the epitome of bad hospital food! I ate because I had to, not because I wanted to.

The next few hours are kinda a blur. It was a ton of waiting around, watching Lot sleep, and crying. My parents stayed for a little bit and then went to pick up Konnor and Chloe around 2. If you will remember, we dropped them off at 8:30. I am going to stop the narration for just a minute. I am so thankful that we have friends that are able and willing to help us out for this long. What was thought to be a 2 hour appointment is now in it's 6th hour. These awesome friends, that we will never be able to re-pay, watched a 9 month old baby and a busy body little girl for 6 hours! And she has 2 kids at home the same ages. I can't say thank you enough to you guys!

Okay, back to the real life story. Lot's step mom stopped by as well has his dad, brother, sister-in-law and their cute little boy. We didn't learn to much in this time.  Lot's knee was drained a little bit in the early afternoon, I think, and it came out pee yellow. Since it should be clear, maybe a little milky, we knew it was not good.But had to wait for the results to come back. It was a busier than normal day in the E.R., so it took quite a while to learn anything new.

Around 6, I think, the E.R. doctor came back and said that the white blood cell count was 62,000. For an arthritis flair-up, it is anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000. To have a count that high in just the knee, is very abnormal. There was no infection in it however. They are thinking it is a gouty arthritis attack. We are still not quite sure because we still need to see the orthopedist. But in the mean time, Lot was given an immobilizing brace that goes from the top of his thigh down to his shine and a pair of crutches to keep the weight off his knee as much as possible.

They let us leave at 7:30. So we spent 8.5 hours in the E.R. We were more than ready to leave, so with a few prescriptions in hand, lots of papers on gout attacks, and appointments set up for Wednesday to see a family doctor and a nephrologist, we hobbled out of there!

Now to what has happened since we left the E.R.

Our appointment to see the family doctor was at 8 am, so no sleeping in for us. It was the easiest, shortest appointment we have had so far. After talking with the nephrologist, Lot was taken off one of the medications given to him the night before and put on a different, better one. We have a follow-up appointment next week, after all of this settles down a little bit, to see where we need to go from here.

We had to be in Blackfoot at 1:45 for the nephrologist. Again, more waiting around. Dr. Rahim ordered more blood work to be done immediately and then some more tests to be run on Monday. The blood work that was done today was in preparation for an emergency kidney biopsy to take place in the morning (Thursday). We need to be there at 9:30 and hope to be done by 3, but it could be as late as 6. We will know the results in 24-48 hours.

Just in case you didn't know, when you pee, you secrete some protein with it. A normal reading is 150 mg/day. Lot's measured 8600 mg/day. This is a major sign that his kidneys are over worked and tired.

Dr. Rahim wants to do another kidney biopsy (Lot last had one in December of 2005 and was diagnosed with IgA Nephropathy, the most common kidney disease; basically, scar tissue forms on his kidneys) because there could be another kidney disease that has caused such a fast deterioration in kidney function or that there may be something else going on entirely with them. There has also been some great strides made in kidney disease research in the last 7 years so we may be able to treat this without dialysis or a kidney transplant, at least not right now. He WILL need dialysis and a transplant at some point in the future.

Lot's kidney function is sitting at 9% right now. When it gets to 10% or below, that is when dialysis and/or a transplant is done. If we can get it up to even 11% and its holds steady, we will be in much better shape. When Lot has his biopsy 7 years ago, his kidney function was about 80%. To take a nose dive like that, something is off. Hopefully with new, different medications, we can get a handle on it and Lot will be with us for a long time.

We have a few more follow-up appointments and a re-scheduled orthopedist appointment next week (it was supposed to be at 10am on Thursday, but the kidney biopsy takes precedence).

We are really hoping that this can be controlled with medications. The figures we were given is that dialysis costs $60,000+ a year and a transplant will cost upwards of $250,000 a year. With all the bills that we will have rolling in in the next few weeks (no insurance) that is something that just downright scares me. We are working with a couple of people on financial options to cover most, if not all of the expenses. There is an insurance option out there for those with pre-existing conditions (thanks to the Affordable Care Act) but those are still quite expensive and not an option for us right now. We have several hoops to jump through before Lot can even be considered for assistance.

We appreciate your thoughts, prayers and kind words. A big thank you also goes out to those that helped to coordinate meals brought to us, places for our kids to stay. I get very weepy when I think of all that my parents had to drop to take care of our 3 kids since Tuesday. As much as Lot and I have missed the kids, it has been a huge burden lifted from our shoulders to know that the kids are taken care of and happy. I am thankful beyond words that they were able to drop Drake, Chloe, and Konnor off to us tonight and that it works out that we can spend the night with them. I had a minor break down when I found out that we probably would not get to see them today. I will be able to take Drake to school in the morning and I never realized how much I enjoy doing it, even in subzero temperatures (for those that don't know, we live close enough to the school that it is so worth it to walk; there are very cold days that the traffic is backed up almost to our house).

I know I have said (typed?) it already, but we are so grateful to everyone that has thought of us, prayed for us, helped us with kids and meals, everything. I have never been so glad to be a member of the LDS church. We have had so many people offer help and check up on us, it is truly humbling to know that there are  so many people out there willing to help.

We don't know what the future brings, but we are happy to have the time we have been given to be together and are so comforted by the fact that we are a forever family and that whatever happens, be it now or 50 years from now, we WILL be with each other again!