Lows and Highs

Well, the last time I updated the blog was on February 5th, the day I had the dialysis catheter placed. It’s been a little over two weeks since then, and a lot has happened. The rest of that week following the surgery, I continued to get sick. I wasn’t sure if it was related to the surgery and anesthesia or if it was just that my body finally remembered that a pretty crucial part was not functioning properly. In any case, I called my doctor on Friday and he said that on Monday when I was planning to go to the dialysis center to have my bandage changed, he wanted them to go ahead and start me on low-volume dialysis. Saturday and Sunday I ended up feeling great and thought I was “better”, but on Monday morning I was getting sick again.

My sweet friend Kelly ended up taking off work on Monday to accompany me to the dialysis center and Amy took me on Tuesday – I was definitely thankful to have someone there since Chase was still in Nica. I think if I’d gone alone, I would’ve cried the whole time, but instead I had someone to laugh with about the video on how to clean the catheter exit site or to be horrified with at the multiple pictures of infected exit sites. Anyway, Chase came home late Tuesday night and he came with me on Wednesday to the center. That afternoon, we went home with several boxes of supplies and the knowledge of how to do “manual” dialysis at home. So from Thursday to Monday, Chase played PD nurse.

…and then I went to Nicaragua!

I (Chase) just spent the last several days in tropical Managua, Nicaragua. Very few people knew about this beforehand since I wasn't sure if I would be able to go until just a few days before the trip. We didn't know if Julie would need to have the dialysis port put in (she did) and if so, if I would need to be there for it (technically no, but it would have been better if I had).

For several weeks I had been thinking about going and had been talking with our director Jeremy about when would be the best time, and then I found a great deal on Spirit airlines a small number of days before I actually got on the plane.

This was primarily a work trip—I've been working on creating a science lab-based curriculum for use in our kids' program (and in other churches with similar programs), and I wanted to help with designing stage props and other things to help give a sciencey atmosphere (background videos, sound effects, etc.). A lot of my ideas didn't end up working out, but I did paint a couple of large backdrops that I was pretty proud of, one of which broke a few days later.

I also met with Yeril, our  Nicaraguan kids' director to explain some ideas I had, like the use of a large periodic table of elements to talk about attributes of God (that's the thing that broke, but not beyond repair) as well as how to make strong bubbles and fog, and how to burn money without damaging it and stuff.

It’s done. And just beginning.

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks! My creatinine was 9.6 a week ago, and I had lab work again today but don’t know the results yet. Since it became clear a few weeks  ago that the only realistic way to move forward with the transplant and have it paid for was to start dialysis (so that I would have Medicare), we were trying to figure out the perfect timing to have surgery to put in the PD (peritoneal dialysis) catheter. At that point, I was told there were no potential donors for them to start testing. So we wanted to wait to put in the catheter until they were at a point where they could start testing a donor. Less time on dialysis = better. Well, I called again on Friday (4 days ago) and was told that they had 8 packets turned in and that they thought they had some great candidates. Praise God for providing in such a huge way! (And thank you to everyone who found out your blood type or turned in a packet to be a donor!)

Since they were ready to start testing soon, it seemed it was time to put in the dialysis port. I called Friday but the lady who schedules surgery was gone and I was told to expect a call on Monday. Sunday after church (in Norman), Chase and I drove to Dallas to visit my dad in the hospital and see my mom and brothers for a delayed Christmas. Monday, I dropped Chase off at DFW airport because he is headed to Nicaragua for the week to work with One by One. He has several meetings lined up and plans to help set up and decorate for the new kids curriculum we are using this year. They finished their sailing curriculum last year and are now going with a science theme. Chase has been working really hard to design and write this new curriculum and he is really excited to go down and help them get started. So anyway, I dropped him off and started driving back to Norman. At about 5:30, I got a call back from the schedule lady, and I asked her if she had any availability for Tuesday (the next day) or Wednesday since that is when Amy Frederick (our home host) was able to take me.