Urine!!!

1:00 pm

Success!!! Just got the call that his new kidney is in!! Nurse said that its doing great and is already making urine!!!

God is sooooo good!! 

Preacher

12:30

So sweet!! Rick Hudson, the pastor who married us, stopped by just now to say hello and check on Anthony. 

He lives near Winston and I'm so glad he was thinking of us!

Branching

11:00 am

Just got another call from the OR. They successfully removed Amy's kidney and are branching it. That means they're cleaning up the arteries and veins to prepare them for Anthony. He's doing well. The nurse even commented it was a really good sized kidney. 

They have already begun stitching Amy up and have come to talk to her family. They will get to see her in about an hour. 

More updates as they come. 

Incision

I got a call at 9:10 am that they had officially made the first incision on Anthony. We're sitting in the HUGE surgical waiting room with tons of other people who are waiting patiently for news of their loved one. 

I am surrounded by love and prayers. My company: Anna, Mom, Anthony's parents: Carroll & Toni, one of our pastors: Gray Williams. 

I kissed him goodbye from the anesthesia holding room at about 8:00. I requested they give him the "loopy" medicine so I could make fun of him before he left....it didn't work out that way. :)

They said the entire process should take until about 1 or 2 pm. That sure is a long time to wait. 

The hardest part is not having a "home." There's nowhere for us to leave our stuff or Anthony's stuff. We have to just keep it here with us. Thankfully we're all here together and can take turns going to the restroom or grabbing food. 

The OR will call us again around 10:30 to give another update. They make an announcement on a loud speaker for Anthony Vance's family and all we have to do is pick up a phone to talk to them. I think that's really awesome. They called Amy's family up at the same time they called us at 9:10 to say they were about to remove her kidney for him. 

What an amazing act of kindness. 

Almost K-Day

Well here we are...we checked into the hospital this morning. We reported to Baptist Hospital around 9 this morning and Anthony was admitted to the day hospital for a full body work up. 

Pretty much as soon as we got here the vampires came to visit! Beth & Jackie took 17 vials of blood this morning...at least they were lots of fun to hang out with! 

About an hour later he had a EKG to check on his heart. Gotta make sure it's kicking strong!

Shortly after that he had a chest X-Ray. I guess to make sure there was no infection or anything.

I really think that part of Anthony's reason for having a kidney transplant was revealed to me today. He is touching everyone he comes in contact with. In a positive way. No one comes into our room or takes him somewhere for testing that he doesn't make smile. He truly has a personality that everyone loves and he makes a point to talk to everyone and treat them well. Everyone who helped us today kept telling us they wanted to come back and check on us, to make sure he was doing OK. They said they would miss him if they didn't see him tomorrow. I know there are tons of patients who aren't very easy to be around but Anthony is not one of them. He's so charming and such a blessing in everyone's lives. You can truly see God's love through him as he reaches out to everyone.

We also met with his surgical team today. Dr. Rogers is his name and we really like him. He just has a likable personality and he's really easy to talk to. He's saying that Anthony should have a super easy surgery and a relatively quick and easy recovery. He's feeding Anthony's unhealthy desire to leave the hospital early. He's already asking when he can leave...and when he can ride his bike. Ugh. Dr. Rogers said it's not unusual for healthy people to leave the hospital within 3-4 days. We shall see. I won't let him leave until I know I can take care of him at home...and his pain meds are working well!

We talked to anesthesiology today too. He signed several waivers...the usual stuff. 

Anna came over to say hi at lunch and hung out with us for a while. She just left, actually. Thankfully we have a friendly face nearby who knows her way around here so she can show us where we need to go. She's coming back tomorrow morning to be with us, too.

I checked in at the Holiday Inn that's literally across the street from the hospital so I have a comfy place to stay. My mom is coming in tonight so she doesn't have to be here super early. 

Tomorrow's plan is early. They are going to take Amy down for surgery prep at 7 am. Anthony will follow shortly after that around 7:45 or 8. They're hooking him up with some great meds in the morning so hopefully some funny videos will be captured! :)

The whole surgical process will take roughly 6-7 hours. The surgery itself only lasts about 3-4 of those hours. The rest of the time accounts for anesthesiology, putting in a central line, a catheter, and all the closing up and waking up process. I'll be sure to post updates as it goes. 

I love knowing they're going to be in side-by-side operating rooms..Amy in 12 and An

thony in 13. Dr. Rogers said they will actually take it out of Amy, walk through the door and hand it off to him to insert into Anthony. 13 is Anthony's favorite number so it's only fitting! They're taking Amy's left kidney and putting it in Anthony's left side. It will be inserted "backwards" or facing the opposite way from usual so it will be more protected from any impacts or falls. They both have marks written on them to show the side where the kidney will be removed or inserted. 

We met Amy today. I cried. How do I say thank you to someone for willingly donating a part of her body to save my husband? To save my family? To keep us together forever? To let Anthony walk Aspen down the aisle? To be there when our children graduate college...or when our grandchildren are born?

Amazing. God is so good. We are so blessed. 

Am I Pregnant?!

I'm crazy emotional..I mean crying at the drop of a hat here.

I'm nesting...like have a sudden unexplained desire to clean my fridge.

I feel anxious...like something's coming...something big.

Oh, wait. I'm not pregnant. My husband's about to get a kidney. HUGE deal. GIANT! I'm trying to wrap my head around it and I just can't seem to. I have to stay away from the Hallmark channel right now because even commercials are making me cry! Every time someone asks me how I'm doing or if I need anything I cry. If I can't get something done that I thought should be done already, I cry.

I know someone else will be at my house and sleeping in my bed so I feel the need to clean my shower, change my sheets, vacuum, do the laundry. I want to stockpile diapers, medicine, food, milk, etc, since I won't be here to buy it for them.

I still haven't packed my hospital bag..I can't even decide what I want to take. Selling Thirty-One does not help in this instance since I have just about everything in the catalog. Super...now how do I choose?! And what do I want to take to the hotel v/s the hospital? I want to take my computer to do some photo editing while I'm there. I'll also want to have Facebook and the internet for updates. So that's a no-brainer. But what else? My Kindle Fire for reading. A real book I'm not finished with yet. (I'm rereading Catching Fire since the movie's about to come out!) Snacks? Drinks? My phone of course. Which camera do I take? The little one that's easy to handle and carry, or the big one that takes better pictures. We do blog...I record everything. I plan on over-sharing. Get ready.

I have organized my medical files and papers. I got a Timeless Beauty Bag and embroidered it with "Life Saver." I'm going to keep up with all our mileage, meals, hotel receipts, thank yous and everything. Hopefully I'll actually keep up with it all. We'll get reimbursed for my hotel stay and my food while we're in the hospital. What a welcome relief and burden lifted.

I'm so overwhelmed with things I feel like I need to do right now that it's crazy. I'm a big ball of nerves. Anthony is as cool as a cucumber. Figures.

18 Months & Updates

  

I can't believe it's here...my baby is officially one and a half. It just doesn't seem possible. Here are her 18 month check up stats:

Weight: 24 lbs, 14 ozs (60th percentile)

Height: 32.5 inches (80th percentile)

They measured her head but didn't write it down for me...bummer. 

She is doing everything just fine, Kate says she looks great. 

She has 14 teeth and is about to cut the top two canines. She's chewing on everything! I hope her amber teething necklace really works and gets us though this!

What she's wearing:

12-18 month clothes fit perfectly

We're buying 18-24 month for the fall/winter but they're a little big still

Size 4 disposable diapers, but we do cloth most of the time

Size 6 1/2 shoe!!

We went into Our Hearts and Sole, a kid's shoe store in Hickory, with Aspen wearing a size 5 in Stride Rite. We walked out in a 6 1/2. What a moment of mommy failure! I had no idea her shoes were so small! Mom of the Year. Right here.

What she's "saying"

Aspen can sign

help

outside

more

cup

water

milk

eat

all done

bear

dog

bird

duck

sleep

music

hat

yogurt

daddy

bath

diaper
airplane

She can actually say

mommy

daddy

baby

Every once in a while she tries to say

nana

dadaw

buhbuh (brother)

Overall she's still pretty quiet. She makes jibberish noises and acts like she's talking to herself alot. Kate said she scored a 25 on communication skills and she had to score a minimum of 15. They don't refer for speech until 2 1/2, but she said Aspen doesn't have a problem with speech. She has a problem with verbalizing, she can communicate fine. We're working with her to get her to speak more, but she just doesn't seem interested. She will not try to repeat what you say like Lincoln did. Lincoln made every sound you made, like a parrot. She doesn't have any desire to do that. So I hear mommy and baby about a million times every day!!

She LOVES music and makes the sign every time she hears it and starts dancing with a big smile on her face. She plants her feet apart and swings her hips. Precious! Her current favorite toy is her Cabbage Patch Aspen doll. Anna Fitzwater got it for her when she was born. It's a specially made doll named Aspen Ensley, so we call her Little Aspen! Aspen carries her everywhere she goes and always needs a baby. She also likes Lincoln's cars, trucks, and trains. The little house/door play center that Anna also gave to us is one of her favorite things to do in the house. She loves pushing the buttons and listening to the music. If I'm working on Thirty-One business at the table she wants to sit with me and draw. She loves making doodles on the paper. She's also the only one at the table when we eat out that colors. Lincoln only has eyes for his trucks! She can blow her nose, and tells us when her diaper is stinky. She's very interested in the potty and likes to sit on it. Let's hope potty training goes quickly!

What Lincoln is wearing

2T-3T shorts (3T only if they have adjustable waist, some are even 24 months!!)

3T-4T pants (adjustable waist, needs 4T for length this fall)

3T-4T shirts - we are buying 4T for fall/winter

Size 10 shoes

Lincoln is still very much in love with the Cars movies. He has all the cars at home and plays with them every day. He still loves music and dances all the time. You'll often hear him singing or humming to himself while he plays. He sings songs from Cars movies, Sunday School, Mickey's Sing Along, and the Disney Movies we watch all the time. Right now it appears that The Little Mermaid is his favorite. With Tarzan or The Little Engine that Could being very close runners up. We got him his very first "big boy bike" with training wheels last month. He LOVES it!! He would ride it all day, every day if we would let him!! It's a Schwinn, and very nice! I hope Aspen likes it, she'll probably be riding it too!

Lincoln started Pre-School this month!! He is on Bust'r Bus, a free mobile pre-k program for Burke County. He goes Tuesday and Thursday from 10:15-12. The first day he went he screamed the ENTIRE ride there, "I don't want to go to Bust'r Bus! I don't want to get on the bus!!" He screamed the entire way up the stairs of the bus and was still crying when I walked away. Aspen and I went to the Food Lion just around the corner so we'd be close if they  had to call us to come get him. Fortunately, he made it through with no problems! His teachers said he didn't cry for more than 5 minutes and then was just fine and played with everyone. Phew. We've been back twice now and he's seemed to enjoy it. No more crying or tears. Here is our first day...soo sad! Notice the tears on his shirt!

We visited with mamaw a few weeks ago, a BIG surprise for her as Mom didn't tell her we were coming! We played in the creek and everyone got deliciously dirty!

Anthony was in the Soldier's Reunion parade in Newton for Carolina Orthopaedic Sepcialists. I had the joy of wrangling both kids while we watched the LONGEST PARADE OF MY LIFE! 

On the kidney front there is no news. Just continuing to do dialysis manually 4 times a day, sucking away 2 hours of our lives. No one else has been tested as a living donor, all the others who turned in paperwork were refused for one reason or another. We don't know why, and wouldn't know they were refused without them telling us. Unfortunately, the living donor coordinator at Baptist has left and there is a new girl in her place. That means that poor girl is trying to catch up, figure things out, and take over. When Anthony called a few weeks ago to check up on his possible donors she seemed very frazzled and not entire sure she knew what she was doing. There is one woman from Anthony's mom's church who was a potential donor and was called in to be tested, the week before Thanksgiving. She declined that appointment because of the holiday. They took that as dismissal entirely and shelved her info and didn't call her for a repeat appointment. So she is now filling out paperwork again and hopefully she will be allowed to be tested this time. Everything just feels like "hurry up and wait."

As of August Anthony has officially been on the transplant list for a year. The average for Baptist's wait list is 2-3 years. Hopefully we're getting close. I'm not sure how ready I am to take care of a patient recovering from a kidney transplant, but I'm ready for Anthony to be back to his old self again without dialysis sucking away his time.

On a sadder note, my grandmother, Moppy, is at Hospice. She's been home with hospice care for several months now and she continues to go downhill. She is in congestive heart failure and every single breath is a struggle. She is swelling from the fluids and needs constant oxygen.  I went to visit her at Hospice House yesterday and it made me very sad. She was heavily drugged and couldn't even make it through a sentence without falling asleep. I took her SweetFrog yogurt as a treat, but she could only eat a few bites. After talking with Mom last night she told me they had given her a new antibiotic for her kidney infection and had reacted poorly, that's why she was so swollen and out of it when I visited yesterday. Hopefully she will be well enough to come home again, but I fear she won't be around to see another Christmas.