Today's news.....better than yesterday!

Well, our amazing social worker at Stanford got right on the phone with Ronald McDonald House when she read my email to her. She said they are going thru a bunch of staff changes over there and so communication isn't the best right now. She explained our situtaion (how far away we live, how long we'd need to stay there, etc.) and we are now on "high priority" and will probably be in a hotel for 1 week....2 at the most! So that is great! I will probably be staying up at the hospital with Daniel anyhow until he released (3-4 weeks after surgery), so that is great!
Labs....I just got an email from our nephrology nurse. Daniel is to have NO potassium (that was one of his REALLY high levels) and keep him "very, very, very hydrated" with repeat labs on Monday. So that was a relief!
Thank you to all of you who have said a prayer or put Daniel's name in the temple. I am not exaggerating when I say our name is in about 10 different temples! Know that we appreciate it all! We know that this is just minor compared to some things people go thru! And for that we are grateful! We feel calm and comforted knowing that things will be OK....no matter what the outcome! Heavenly Father is watching over Daniel and our family. Thank you, again!

Today not a good day to report on!

Well, Ronald McDonald house called and they have no openings for us. So we are on the waiting list for when something opens up. Yet we will have to find something until then.
Also, Daniel's labs came back REALLY bad today. I KNOW I will be getting a phone call from Dr Talley over this one! His creatinine has increased 0.1 for 2 weeks in a row (normally took a month to do). Today's draw (keep in mind we didn't do a draw last week) was up 0.5! That is a weekly increase of 0.25. Needless to say, I shed a few tears and I am packing some things in fear they will call and tell us to get him to a hospital or something! Some of his other levels aren't good, either. Anyhow, that puts his kidney funciton at 11.89% and 10% he needs to be on dialysis. So we'll see what transpires the next few days! thanks for your prayers! 12 days until we are admitted to the hospital. Hopefully we can hold off until then!

Change of Date

Well, as many of you know, yesterday's blood draw didn't go as hoped. It rose again. So we have a new surgery date! Kelle is amazing and is fine with moving it up! I just worry about ruining any of their schedules! But, Wednesday, August 27th is the new day. We have to be there on the 25th, Kelle on the 26th and school starts on the 26th! So mom is going to miss the kid's first day, but it's just a mom thing! Not a kid thing! They could care less, I'm sure! So that gives us about 3 1/2 weeks to get ready! Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts!

We need your prayers!

We got some not so good news this past Friday when we were in Utah at a wedding. Daniel's levels didn't come back good again. They are still rising. They rose in 6 days what normally would rise in a month! His kidneys are shutting down quick. They have worked hard the last 2 1/2 years and they are tired! We need them to last 7 more weeks until his surgery. Wednesday we go to have another blood draw and we really need the level to stay the same or drop a little. Otherwise we will have to move the transplant up. His doctors are trying to avoid dialysis because he'd have to have surgery to do the peritoneal dialysis and that requires a catheter to be surgically placed in his abdomen. Well, according to what I've read, you can't use it for 2-3 weeks....cutting it a little close to surgery and making it a almost a waste to do. He has been activated on the deceased donor list from inactive status to active status. So, if for some reason a kidney comes available and we need one before Kelle could donate, we could. But we don't have to take if we don't want to. But anyhow, what we are asking for is just a little prayer to go up for Daniel that his level will be good on Wednesday. He got a priesthood blessing today from grandpa Lords.....so hopefully we have a enough faith and it's Heavenly Father's will!

Also, I've copied the link to the front page article the Fallon Free Star did on Daniel and Kelle last week. It's a nice article and pretty accurate!
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080725/FALLON/807250312/1029

Thanks everyone! I'll email on Wednesday when we find out his results. We need another little miracle! I hope there isn't a quota, because we are probably pretty close to filling ours! :-)

Kelle Herzog....Our Angel Donor

Below are some pictures that the freelance photographer took for an article in tomorrow's local newspaper. The couple of Daniel laying on the ground and Daniel & Sammy were inside the office. The other ones were outside with Kelle. She is our donor for Daniel. She is an amazing women who lives here in Fallon. We met for the first time and she volunteered. In fact, I don't even think Daniel was awake at the time. I think he was napping. Anyhow, she is a really neat lady that I wish you could all meet! Enjoy the pictures! And 54 days! But who is counting?!

Daniel's Update

I have had some people ask me if I could switch Daniel's updates to our family blog. I agree....it's easier to access. So we will no longer update the Caring Bridge website. It will be easier for me, too, when Daniel's surgery happens next month! THAT'S RIGHT! We just got back from Stanford and we got some great news! Our transplant coordinator, Gerri, said that she had met Kelle and she was 'adorable' and she is doing great! Kelle went over and met with her team of 'people'....her surgeon, her social worker, her pschyiatrist (sp?), etc. Anyhow, apparently Gerri had no doubt that everything would be good and we'd get the green light to go ahead. She told us that nephrology transplant has the operating room every other Monday. August is full, but she is going to put us on the waiting list (in case there is another surgery that doesn't happen for some reason) if she can get us in the #1, #2 or #3 spot. So we are excited and hope that we get a date soon!

It's a good thing, too. Daniel's creatinie level went up to 3.3 . That is the highest he's ever jumped, so Dr. Talley is happy we have a donor and we are close to transplant because he is officially Stage 5 (the worse stage) - Chronic Renal Failure. We have 14% kidney function. So in one month we went from 16.6% to 14%. Anyhow, a few changes in his meds....his hemoglobin count was low. We have to do a couple more tests before the surgery: tuberculosis (sp?) and urinalysis. We are redoing his blood work on Monday to make sure his creatinine is as high as it really is and a few other levels weren't very good.

4th of July Activities

We started out the day with our ward's traditional breakfast of pancakes, sausage, eggs, milk & juice. I think Bryce went up 3 times! He was in heaven!

























Nathan and Sammy were playing on the picnic blanket. Nathan would roll up in it and Sammy would step on him. When Nathan would act injured Sammy would laugh and laugh!















Some friend of ours, the Hubbards, have been inviting us up to their 4th of July tradition outside of Carson/Reno (right between the 2 cities)....Bower's Park. We finally took them up on it this year! We are glad we did! The weather was beautiful (cooler the higher up in the mountains we went!) and the view was amazing! The park was huge which was nice because there were easily over 1,000 people there and yet there was a lot of space for people to set up volleyball nets, play soccer or just lounge and watch the kids play....which is what we did!














We did take a walk past the pool to Bower's Mansion. It's now set up for tours, but use to be owned by a wealthy family (the Bower family.....believe it or not!) They made their money in the mines. Beautiful home with a gorgeous wrap around porch! My dream! We didn't do the tour, but promised the kids we would sometime, along with go to the pool!





The playground equipment was fun. There was a little kids (twins size) section and then the older kids had a separate area. Comptyn got blisters on his hands he did this so many times!





Bryce...striking a pose!




Daniel & Sammy! CUTE!



Ryan also developed blisters trying to get across this. He worked really hard....and he FINALLY got it!







Despite what Nathan's face looks like, he breezed across these bars EVERY time! His hardest part was trying to touch on the other side. His toes BARELY touched the platform! He was pretty proud of himself! He did it before any of his brothers !












We then drove home (it's a little over an hour away from Fallon) and repacked the car and drove to 'our' spot to watch the fireworks. We played some football and some "Snorta!" (our new favorite game to play with the kids!)


























Daniel, not even 60 seconds after we got to Numa Elementary School to watch fireworks, slipped in a BIG puddle and DRENCHED his clothes....so he was in the diaper all night. Good thing it was warm! Anyhow, him and Sammy sat on the edge of the curb of the parking lot and chattered at each other for quite a while! It was fun to watch them interact! It always is!







The next day when daddy was mowing the lawn a frog jumped out from one of my lilac bushes! So of course the kids had to catch it and play with it! Ryan loved it the most. The other kids liked the "look but don't touch" philosophy of life! Of course, his name was Kermit!

And Comptyn found a praying mantis. He'd pick that up but not the frog!