THE INCREDIBLE GIFT OF LIFE

It has been a wild 2 months, but we have seen God move mountains and have felt His presence in a very special way. So, here's our transplant story:

We received our first transplant call on Memorial Day weekend. Most transplants happen on holiday weekends, especially during summer holidays because of drinking and driving, boating accidents, etc. The hospital actually called us a few days before July 4th and told us to not go too far and keep close to the phone in case a kidney became available. Kevin even told his family that he couldn't go on their annual fishing/camping trip this year because he was expecting a kidney. July 4th came and went and no phone call. So we went on with dialysis as usual. Then on Sunday morning, July 14, 2013 we had our Bibles in our hands and getting ready to walk out the door for church when the phone rang. We looked at each other and smiled. We knew this was it. So I called the church and my dear friend, Teri, answered the phone. I told her we weren't going to make it today because we were going to get a new kidney. 

Kevin, Grant & I packed our bags quickly and took off for Oklahoma City. When we got to OU Medical they were waiting for us. They got Kevin in a room quickly and started working on all of the testing they have to do to make sure he is healthy enough for a transplant and if he is a good enough match for this particular kidney. The surgery happened on Monday, July 15 around 7:00 pm. Dr. Sebastian came and talked to Kevin's Mom, Dad & I around 1:00 a.m. or so and told us that the surgery went well. They moved him into ICU a little after 3:00 a.m. I could not believe how good he looked already! The nurse told us that Kevin was making jokes the whole time. She said he sure is funny. Yep, that's my hubby. He was in ICU 2 days where he was blessed to have some of the most amazing nurses. We got so attached to everyone there. Almost ALL of the staff, nurses, assistants, doctors, housekeeping, etc. at OU Medical are professional & knowledgeable, but also very compassionate. I'm not much on doctors or hospitals, but they really go above and beyond at OU Medical. Dr. Sebastian is the transplant surgeon. We LOVE this man! It was obvious the first time we met him that God called him to perform transplant operations. What a gift this precious man is to the State of Oklahoma.

His Dad stayed all week

Dr wrote Kevin speaks Redneck

Every nurse, doctor and medical staff member kept telling us all that day that this was a "beautiful very healthy" kidney. We felt so blessed to receive such an amazing gift, but at the same time, so sad that another family was dealing with losing a loved one. All that we know is that the donor was a young mother and that it was very unexpected. My heart breaks for her children, family and friends. I just have a feeling that she was a wonderful loving person. We thank God every day for this incredible gift and ask God to comfort her family and friends and to bless them and to let them know somehow how thankful we are. I pray that we never take this beautiful kidney for granted and always remember the price that was paid in order for Kevin to be healthy again. 

READY to go home

Leaving hospital

Kevin is doing fantastic! He went back to work 6 weeks after the surgery. His appetite is back and so is his sweet tooth. While on dialysis his phosphorus was always very high so he could not have much ice cream. HE LOVES ICE CREAM! That was probably one of the hardest things for him to do without. After the transplant, his phosphorus was low so the doctor told him to eat more dairy. So he started eating ice cream every day. Some days he was eating 3 bowls a day! He is on a lot of prescriptions and has to do bloodwork every week to monitor all of his levels. But, they have already cut way back on his medicine. We are praying and believing that he will be the healthiest transplant patient there has ever been.

We got all of the dialysis and medical equipment out of our house. Our house is no longer a dialysis clinic. Praise God! For 3 years medical equipment has taken over our home. It filled one bedroom (Cole's old bedroom), part of the dining room and living room. Plus Kevin kept some supplies at his work. We do not miss that at all!

Dialysis water, filters, etc.

Dialysis machine

                                                   

God has truly blessed us with some of the most amazing friends, church family and co-workers. We could not have made it the last 3 1/2 years without the Willinghams, Beanes, Twyfords, our entire church family, Kevin's co-workers and my co-workers. We are incredibly blessed to have all of these people in our lives.

Love & blessings to all,

Lori 

QUINOA CHICKEN SPAGHETTI (GLUTEN FREE)

I'm really excited about sharing this recipe with you. This is a gluten free, high fiber, high protein, no processed foods, casserole dish. My husband, teenage son and his friends can't get enough of it. I'm going to have to start making two pans at a time. It also makes great leftovers.

I used to be the Queen of cooking with canned soups. I bought cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup 5 cans at a time. It was so easy to mix in a can of soup into some rice or pasta or pour over some meat, sprinkle with cheese and everybody loved it. Fast & easy. But, those canned soups are loaded with sodium, preservatives and lots of chemicals that apparently my liver didn't like too well and now I also know aggravates my arthritis. So trying to cook meals my guys enjoy eating without using the canned soups has been very challenging.

Also, since throwing out most of the processed foods, Kevin's blood tests have improved greatly. We have to draw blood once or twice a month and mail it to a lab for testing. The lab sends the results to his nephrologist that he sees once a month. The doctor and nurses are just amazed that his numbers have improved so much (i.e., calcium, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, etc.). If that's what eating REAL food can do for someone whose kidneys don't work, just imagine what it can do for a normal person! All of those chemicals and preservatives put so much stress on all of your organs.

Since I can't eat regular pasta because of diabetes and arthritis, finding good pasta alternatives has been a challenge as well. I like whole wheat pasta and can tolerate it in small amounts, but have noticed my body feels better when I use brown rice pasta or quinoa pasta.

Quinoa is now considered a superfood. It is gluten free, anti inflammatory, high in fiber, high in protein, loaded with heart healthy fats, magnesium, Vitamin E, calcium and many other "good for you" things too numerous to list. Quinoa is great for diabetics and of course, anyone with celiac disease or gluten intolerance. This quinoa pasta can be found at any natural food store or in the organic section of the grocery store.

QUINOA CHICKEN SPAGHETTI

16 ounces quinoa spaghetti

3-4 cups chicken, cooked & shredded

 

½ stick butter or olive oil

2 shallots, chopped

1 bell pepper, chopped (green or red)

1 cup mushrooms, sliced or chopped

3 tbsp flour (all purpose or gluten free) 

2 cups chicken broth

2 cups milk

2 tsp minced garlic

Salt & pepper

2 cups of shredded cheese (cheddar, Italian, your favorite)

Cook quinoa according to package directions MINUS 1-2 minutes, pasta will finish cooking in the oven. Drain & place in large bowl with shredded chicken.

Melt butter or heat olive oil over medium to medium high heat. Add chopped veggies and cook until veggies are soft.

Add flour to veggies in skillet and sauté until flour is incorporated into mixture. Whisk in chicken broth. Whisk a couple of minutes, then add milk. Continue to whisk until it reaches gravy like consistency. Add garlic, salt & pepper and mix in well.

Add sauce to pasta and chicken and stir together until thoroughly combined. Transfer to greased 13x9 casserole dish.  Top with your favorite shredded cheese.  Bake at 375 degrees 25-35 minutes or until cheese is melted. 

NOTE:  My husband loves cheddar cheese and I love white cheeses (provolone, mozzarella, etc.), so I put cheddar on half and shredded Italian cheese blend on the other half. My son's friend scooped out of the middle because he wanted both. Ha ha!

I hope your family enjoys this as much as mine does.

Blessings to you all,

Lori  

PROS AND CONS OF HOME DIALYSIS

Kidney failure has become a common disease. Just 10 years ago it was a rarity and mostly from complications of diabetes. But, now there are more and more otherwise healthy people having to go on dialysis and/or get a kidney transplant. We have had several people ask us about it and Kevin's nephrologist has Kevin talk to patients that are considering home dialysis. So, I thought it might be helpful to post a blog about the pros and cons of home dialysis from a patient and caregiver point of view. Chances are that you know someone that will have to go on dialysis, so please feel free to share this post with them.

There are different types of dialysis. Peritoneal is done through a port in the abdomen and usually done at night while the patient is sleeping. Since this is not the type that we do, I do not know much about it.  

Kevin does hemo-dialysis which is done by inserting 2 needles in the patient's arm, one needle pulls the blood out and runs the blood through a filter on the machine which cleans the blood and then the other line pushes the cleaned blood back to the patient. They say that hemo is the most efficient type. Hemo is done in dialysis clinics usually 4 hours a day 3 days a week. Or you can choose to to do it at home. 

PROS OF HOME HEMO-DIALYSIS: 

1) The home machines are smaller and gentler than the clinic machines, therefore they are easier on the patients' bodies. 

2)  Does not leave the patient "wiped out" like the clinic machines do. 

3)  Since you are cleaning the blood 6 days a week instead of only 3, the patient feels much better. "Bad" feeling days are much less frequent. 

4)  Fluid buildup (swelling) is almost non-existent since you are pulling the excess fluid off 6 days a week instead of only 3. FYI - since their kidneys don't work, the fluid that normal kidneys get rid of everyday, just sits in their bodies and accumulates which could result in fluid building up around their heart and/or lungs which would lead to death. The machine takes the excess fluid off while it is cleaning the blood.
5)  Can be done anytime that you are home. Do not have to work around clinic hours, which is very beneficial if you continue to work.
6)  You can load up the machine & supplies and take them on vacation with you.

CONS: 
1)  Machine and medical supplies take up a LOT of room. You need to have a room just for your medical supplies. We had to turn our college son's room into the medical supply room.
2)  If the patient and caregiver work full time, as we both do, your free time is extremely limited. We get off at 5 & have to rush home to get him hooked up so that we can get in bed by a decent hour. It takes 30-45 minutes to get machine & supplies ready. Treatment time is anywhere from 2.5 to 3.5 hours. Then it takes about 20 minutes to unhook & tear down machine. You only get 1 day a week off of dialysis, so how you spend that time is so precious. No more spur of the moment dinners or movies or time with friends. If anyone wants to see us they have to come to our house & visit while Kevin is on machine. We only make it to one church service a week and we miss being with our church family so much. We have to miss a lot of our nieces' & others' ballgames, birthday parties, weddings, showers, etc.
3)  If you are a homeowner and work full time you know how hard it is  to keep up with maintenance, repairs, etc. It is almost impossible to take care of your home and yard when you work full time and do home dialysis.
4) Machines break down and have problems. Technical support for dialysis machines is just as bad as they are for cell phones & everything else. Except you have the added pressure of having a person hooked up to the machine with a pint of his blood hanging out there waiting for you to do something.
5)  Experience in nursing is very handy for the caregiver. Medical terminology, procedures, drawing blood, etc. are not normal to most people. I went to college to be a legal assistant and have worked in oil & gas for 25 years. I can tell you how to drill a well from start to finish. Division Order Title Opinions (DOTO), Joint Operating Agreements (JOA), assignments, deeds, drilling reports, etc. are my "normal" & I am very confident at what I do. I did not go to medical school & never had a desire to be a nurse. My brain is not "wired" that way. I have got it figured out now, but it does not come as easy to me as chains of title, legal descriptions & that type of thing does.
6)  Insurance and medicare will not approve for home health nurses to help a patient with dialysis in the patient's home. We have been told it is because dialysis is such a specific type of nursing that the nurses would have to be specially trained and since they would have to be in the home about 4 hours everyday it would be too expensive.

I could list more pros and cons, but I'm sure you get the idea. We are so thankful that we can do dialysis at home so that Kevin can continue to work and he feels so much better than he did when doing it in the clinic. However, we are so ready for him to get a new healthy kidney so that we can get our lives back. I told him that once he gets his kidney and feels good that we are not going to be home for a long time. I get so tired of staying home. I am ready to go have fun with our friends and family again. I look forward to the day when we can drive to Durant after work and have dinner with my precious son and daughter in law. It's only an hour away, but is impossible right now because of dialysis.

Of course, if the patient and caregiver do not work, then they do not have the time constraints and added stress. A patient is eligible for disability immediately upon starting dialysis. Kevin still feels good enough to work. He just tires more easily and has to be careful with his left arm because of the fistula. He is not supposed to lift anything over 50 pounds. He works for a great company that has been very supportive and he has a great co-worker that doesn't let him do the heavy stuff. Because he has such great insurance through his employer, medicare was going to cost us more than it was going to help, so he opted out of medicare and disability. We are so thankful that God has kept his hand upon him and allowed him to continue to work. All of the doctors say that he is the healthiest dialysis patient they have ever seen. They believe that once he gets a transplant that he will heal quickly and be back to his old self in record time. I can't wait to have a big party with all of the wonderful friends and family that have been so supportive throughout this journey.

I hope this post helps someone to better understand dialysis. If you know of anyone that needs someone to talk to about it, let me know. We would be glad to talk them. We believe that God allows us to go through things so that we can glorify Him and help others along the way.

Wishing you all many blessings and good health,
Lori 

FABULOUS FRIENDS & FAJITAS

Since 1995, our family has camped for a week at Lake Texoma with my husband's dad, stepmom, siblings and their families. Grant was only 3 weeks old the first time he went camping. Luckily we all have RV's, so it's not roughing it too bad. It has been wonderful for our sons to spend an entire week with their cousins every year. They have made great memories. I don't like the heat, but I went every year while the boys were little. However, the last few years, the boys were old enough to take care of themselves and I only have 10 days of vacation at my current job, so I have stayed home and worked while the guys go play.

Kevin takes the dialysis machine and LOTS of bags of dialysis water and needles and gloves and all the other medical supplies with him to do dialysis in the RV. Since I was not going, his little brother, Brad, came over every weekend for a month so that I could train him to be Kevin's nurse. They would fish early in the mornings, then do dialysis in the afternoon when it was too hot to go outside anyway. I'm so thankful for Brad and glad that Kevin still got to spend time with his family.

I stayed busy every evening after work doing things that I don't have time to do because I usually have to run home as soon as I get off work and get him hooked up. I got a massage, got my hair done, spent one evening with my lovely BCF (best cousin forever) and her wonderful hubby, and spent a glorious evening with two of  my best friends celebrating a big birthday for one of them. I didn't get much rest, but I had so much fun all week long.

My friend, Fran, loves Mexican food. My other friend, Jaree, is trying to watch what she eats just like I am, so I made healthy Mexican food. We had chicken fajitas with whole grain tortillas, avocados and corn & cabbage salad. Fran's favorite dessert is coconut cream pie. I am not ashamed to admit that meringue intimidates me. I have made it and it turned out okay, but it stresses me out! However, my friend, Kathy, is one of the best pie makers in the universe!! Here is a picture of one of Kathy's incredible pies. She was nice enough to make a coconut cream pie for Fran. God has truly blessed me with the most incredible friends.

Now that you've read my ramblings, here is my recipe for fajitas. Bottled marinades can have HFCS or other sugars & lots of artificial & unnecessary ingredients. This marinade is very simple & uses ingredients that most people keep on hand. It works great with chicken, steak or shrimp. Making your own fajitas is easy, plus much healthier and less expensive than a restaurant.

FAJITA MARINADE

1/4 cup lime juice

1/2 cup Lea & Perrin's worcestershire sauce        

1 1/2 tbsp garlic powder

2 tbsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp onion powder

Whisk all ingredients together and pour over chicken, steak or shrimp. My favorite is a combination of all three. Place marinating meat in refrigerator and let set overnight or at least a few hours.

I make this up the night before (or in the morning before work) and when I get home from work it’s fast & easy to throw it in a skillet with a little hot oil, sliced onions, peppers, mushrooms, etc.

Serve with your favorite tortillas & toppings. Add a side salad or veggies and you’ve got a delicious healthy meal. 

NOTE:  Lea & Perrin's is the most natural worcestershire sauce I have found. All of the other brands have HFCS & artificial junk in them. I actually wrote to Lea & Perrin's thanking them for making such a great product with great ingredients and they sent me several coupons. Woo hoo!

COCONUT OIL - If you are trying to use more coconut oil for the great health benefits, fajitas is a great way to get your coconut oil. Cook your fajitas in a little coconut oil. And put a little coconut oil in a skillet, when it gets hot, put your tortillas in the hot oil for 2-4 minutes on each side. It makes the tortillas absolutely delicious!

when dialysis machine crashes

Well, tonight was a first since starting home dialysis in August 2010. I got Kevin all hooked up to the machine and got his vitals & machine numbers all written down. Then usually it is 15 minutes until the alarm goes off & I have to take his vitals & machine numbers again. Then every 30 minutes after that. However, after about 10 minutes, the alarm goes off. I check the screen & it is a RED 610. FYI - Red is bad, yellow is cautionary.We are used to alarms, they are part of life with dialysis, but we have never seen 610 before. I try rebooting the machine & it wouldn't let me. I turned the power off & back on. It tried to power back up, but then back to RED 610. After 3 attempts, we tried to call dialysis nurse & got no answer. So we called NXStage, the dialysis company. Of course, it is like talking to any support desk. I got a foreigner that wants to read from a computer screen.

During dialysis a pint of his blood is out of his body until the very end when we use the machine to push his blood back to him. We were taught in dialysis class & it is in all of our manuals that you only have a few minutes to get his blood back to him before it clots off, then you lose all of the blood that is in the machine. So, it's been awhile now & the support guy wants me to keep going through all of the same steps that I've already done 3 times. I notice that Kevin's blood is getting pretty dark, so I know that I need to get his blood back to him as soon as I can.

I tell the guy to just tell me what RED 610 means! He finally says that it is a machine pump failure. Really!? Why couldn't you have told me that 10 minutes ago!? I told him that I am just going to get his blood back to him now & forget it. Then he says that he will send a new machine tomorrow. Great! Thanks!

I got all of his blood back to him. And for now all is good. Except, he did not get the dialysis that he needed tonight. In order to keep feeling good & keep the toxins from building up in his body, he has to do dialysis 6 days a week. He has had a fishing trip with his buddies from church planned for several weeks, so was planning on using tomorrow as his night off. If he goes 2 days without dialysis, he swells up, chest starts hurting & he gets really tired.

Most dialysis days are not this dramatic, thank goodness. He has been on the transplant list for a year now. He is an O blood type, which has the longest waiting list. We still hold tightly to our faith and know that God has a plan and when the purpose of that plan is revealed, we know it is going to be spectacular.

Lori

CRAZY BLOOD SUGAR & YUMMY PIZZA

NOTE: I wrote this on 2/1/2012, but apparently forgot to "publish" it.

The wedding is getting close! I am at a standstill with my weightloss and wanted to lose more before the wedding, so the last 2 weeks I have ate NO bread, rice, pasta, etc, even whole grain. I have just been eating meat, veggies, fruit & eggs. I dropped 3.5 pounds, but was feeling pretty shaky & light headed. I took my blood sugar and it was 54. I drank a big glass of 100% Blueberry Pomegranate juice & ate a piece of whole grain toast with All Fruit Jelly, then checked it again & it was 116. So this week, I have been eating whole grain toast for breakfast with my eggs and about every other day I eat tuna on pita bread or whole grain bread. It seems like the only way I can drop pounds is to cut out ALL carbs, but then my blood sugar bottoms out & I know that our bodies need some carbs. It looks like I am not going to be the size I wanted to be for the wedding, but at least I can walk without limping and hopefully won't be passing out.

So, the day my blood sugar bottomed out was last Saturday. We had a wedding that evening & had to get dialysis done early. I can't get very far from Kevin while he is hooked up to the machine. So, I took a shower while he was getting the machine ready because there would not be time for me to shower & get ready after dialysis. I had not had time to go to the grocery store, so the pickings were slim for lunch. I made cheese pizza out of pita bread. It was absolutely YUMMY! 

PITA PIZZA

Organic whole grain pita bread

olive oil

marinara sauce

garlic powder

Italian seasonings

Basil

Provolone cheese

Shredded Italian cheese

Place the pita bread on a cookie sheet. Drizzle pita with olive oil. Spread marinara sauce on pita. Sprinkle garlic powder, Italian seasonings, basil, etc. whatever your favorite herbs are. I tend to go heavy on the garlic & basil. I placed Provolone (oh how I love Provolone) circle slices in the middle of the pita. Sprinkle with shredded Italian cheese. Bake in oven at 450 degrees about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted & gooey. 

You can add any veggies you like or meats, etc.

Life is crazy - so adopt some puppies

Did anybody get the number of that bus? Wow! What a busy few days. Friday night watched our niece & some kids from church play basketball. Great kids & very talented. Saturday attended another niece's bridal shower, then took Tiffany to set up her bridal registry. That morning, before the shower, we adopted two 5 week old puppies. We haven't had a puppy in 9 years, so had to get the house set up for the new babies. We only get one day a week off from dialysis, so everything that we do revolves around "will we have time to still do dialysis?" or "is that the day we want to take off this week?".  Dialysis takes a total of about 4 hours. Actual treatment time is between 2 hrs 40 mins to 3 hrs 15 mins, but the set up & take down time is about another hour. We hadn't gone to a basketball game all season, so we decided to take our day off on Friday to go to the game. So, that means we had to still had to do 4 hrs of dialysis Saturday & Sunday no matter what.

Hank & Lucy

Sunday we drove to Durant to help Cole get moved into his & Tiffany's new apartment. Most weeks we only make it to the Sunday morning church service because of dialysis, but since we had to do dialysis that evening, we decided to not go to church Sunday morning, so we could get Cole moved & get back home & get Kevin hooked up. Their apartment is absoutely adorable! I am so happy for them. They got a loft apartment in downtown Durant over one of the businesses. How they got that apartment is a story in itself. Basically, God gave them favor in a big way. We are still in awe of how it all came about. God is faithful. The only thing is that the stairs are extremely steep, but I managed. This time last year, I would not have been able to climb those stairs. Praise God! I made it up & down them twice. I mainly worked on his laundry & getting things set up while Cole & Kevin moved in the furniture & boxes.



Hank



Lucy



We took the puppies, Hank & Lucy, to Durant with us. They did great! They whimpered a little, but not too bad. They are 1/2 Australian Shepard and 1/2 Heeler. They are a lot of work right now, but it will be worth it. Having puppies is like having a baby. Some people don't take being a pet owner seriously, which really upsets me. A pet, especially dogs, will be a loyal loving companion if you just take care of it & spend time with it.



Slick



Our 19 year old dachsund, Slick, does NOT like Hank & Lucy at all. She is a dog snob anyway, but she definitely wants no part of these puppies. They laid on her favorite blanket and now she refuses to have anything to do with the blanket and I think she is mad at us for letting the puppies lay on her blanket.

Life is crazy. Life is hectic. Life is stressful. But, my family, my wonderful friends and my dogs make it all worthwhile.