Switching one set for another set

Last night I hit a the only low so far, I slept in the car. We got to his room and it was a shared room, which made me lose it and cry. I had canceled my plans to sleep at Stacey's house and didn't want to call her at 11:30 ( which would have been fine.)

Stanford really doesn't  have places for family members to rest and this particular unit is the ONLY one I have seen without a waiting area for family. The room is so small, I am in the way and really I want the nurses to be able to take the best care of him possible. So I slept in the car and actually slept, but I was sore and tired this morning.

So I came in to see Marty and then took off to Stacey's. Let me tell you, Dennis and Evelyn Smethers raised a wonderful daughter. She made me breakfast, I chatted with her and her little cutie Arya. We went to Target to pick up some essentials. Then I went and got my haircut, I feel a thousand times better now!

I took a nap and headed back to Marty. Of course, the social worker, transplant coordinator and dietician were all looking for me. We took a two hour class on anti- rejection drugs and how to watch for rejection. Transplant is not a cure but really switching one set of problems for another. Of course, the after transplant problems are way less and much better. Mainly a VERY strict drug regimen added to some things we already do such as taking blood pressure, blood sugars and weight three times a day.

Marty can have milk and cheese again!!!!! The diet is actually the reverse of the renal diet. One sad bit of news, no more yellow five til' I die......only Marty's childhood best friends would understand that one. No more diet Mountain Dew or any caffienated sodas or teas. Caffienated drinks are a dieuretic and he has to be sure the kidney is properly hydrated at all times. But, he loves to drink and this will not be a problem like it was with the dialysis.

He is looking great and feeling really good!! Each time I see him he looks better and better. They cannot be more pleased with things. His blood sugar is under 200 and his kidney is producing tons of urine. All of his numbers are trending downward.

We found out we can send the donor family a letter. I plan on taking this blog and making a book to send to the donor family. We did find out it was only a match on one level but the donor was 18 years old and that is what really mattered. A young pancreas is very important and necessary. This transplant can last up to twenty years and I fully believe it will.

We cannot thank you enough for all of the support we have recieved. It truly blows our mind and it has been such a joy to see God at work.  We have been able to share our story with many and it has already been touching other lives. One friend told me last night, she wants to go back to church now because of our story. Others have contacted me about their health and wanting to get better. It is going to take a long time to thank everyone and reply to the many messages. I intend on saving them all and making a book for our family to have to look back. Look and see what the Lord has done!

Further update

When is Marty getting out of the hospital?

That is the number one question. He will be discharged in four to five days BUT.............we will have to live here One or two months. They have housing available for twenty five dollars a day on the hospital grounds. There is also a condo that might be available to us for the same price but our kids could come stay with us there.


Marty is doing very well.The doctors are just amazed at how well the pancreas is working. His blood sugar has not been higher than 167 without any insulin and he is on 5 percent dextrose. The kidney is producing normal amounts of urine.

He will be moving out of ICU tonight and into a regular room!!!


We are so blessed, amazed by God and overwhelmed with his love and the love of thousands of others! Thank you so much for your love and support!!!

Transplant day and post transplant update

This is the day, The LORD has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

I said those words to Marty before they wheeled him off. It was a very surreal moment, almost unfathomable that it was actually happening. While waiting in the OR, I was reading him the good wishes from around the world.

 I walked out side and updated all accounts, called my friend Melissa in Texas who was the first call I made from Stanford, the day they told us they wanted to dual transplant in 08'.

Our friend's from church Dennis and Evelyn have a daughter Stacey here, she got people to watch her kids and came and sat with me. We ate breakfast while I fielded a influx of messages and calls. Then we came and checked in the surgery area, where they have big screen tv's with surgery status. We walked the halls, looked at the giant Christmas tree, strolled the gardens and grounds. Stanford is very beautiful and the weather was magnificent.

We came back in to find the surgery actually started at 10:30 am., his blood sugar had spiked to over 500 due to the dialysiate and dextrose iv. I told the nurse to check it and should have used our meter to check it myself. So that caused the surgery to be pushed back.

I left around two o'clock with Stacey, we went to her lovely home. I showered and she made me a great panini sandwich. I charged my phone and laptop. I also washed my sweats and jeans so they were clean. In truly Julie fashion, I asked her to let me fold the towels in the dryer to keep me occupied. She laughed, if she only really knew, I am weird like that always.

I came back and answered hundreds of messages from around the world. Made a few important phone calls and waited. I was being prayed with by our Pastor over the phone and I looked up to see the surgery was over.

The surgeon came out and told me, the surgery was very successful. The organs were very young and healthy, they took immediately. The fat in his stomach caused from the dialysiate was hard to move but other than that everything was good. His BP was stable the entire surgery. His new kidney made 1.5 liters of urine on it's own and his pancreas has his blood sugar at 140 since the surgery, no insulin.

They felt he was very swollen and he was having a hard time coming around. So they kept him on Propofol ( yes, that milk of amenesia) and a breathing tube for tonight. They will take that out in the morning.

I was able to see him along with the rest of the OR staff who were all very positive. In fact, there has not been one rude or unkind staff member here today.

I cried for the second time when it hit me, the number praying today was over a thousand. People all over the world joining our good friends and family in prayer. I was literally overwhelmed by the love and support for our family today.

The kids are staying at home with my mom. I am sleeping in the waiting room tonight, just to be close by.

Thank you all from the bottom of our heart!

God told Elizabeth

It started at 7 a.m. November 12, 2010. I got a frantic call from my friend Danielle in Georgia, " I had to call you, I have a very strong feeling that you will get a call in 72- 48 hours. God just would not let me rest until I called you."

72 hours on the dot later, our very close friend Michelle called crying, She had been praying and reading her bible and she said, " God told me, time is near and everything is in place." She isn't a internet person and I hadn't even spoken to her for a week. She had no clue about the first phone call.

Then my friend Janeen in Maryland sent me a message, December 15th. She had a very strong feeling that something would happen that day. I told Marty and nobody else. Janeen and I are in a prayer group of 10 and we all prayed over it.

December 15th came and went. Our friend in the prayer circle Viviana felt a decision had been made that day.  I believe the donor made a decision that day.

On Thursday December 16th, I was helping Marty with dialysis and Elizabeth was playing Angry Birds on my phone in the kitchen. We heard a tap on our bedroom door, "It's me Poohnky, I need to come in." She opened the door and was pale, visibly shaken and on the verge of tears. "What's wrong Elizabeth?" and she said, "God just told me, Elizabeth go tell your parents, your dad is going to be called in a month. I heard it mommy, I really did,"

We told her we believed her and prayed with her right then. We assured her that we believed her but not to be too upset if it didn't happen.

Four days later, the warning call came. Marty was a back up for a transplant surgery. We kind of knew it wasn't the time, but can you imagine how Elizabeth felt? "I told you, I told you!" In fact, I had just shared the story with my Dad the night before and he was blown away to get a call on his birthday, he said, "God did tell your daughter."

The past week, Elizabeth has been packing and cleaning away. She has been anxious and jumpy at every phone call. So yesterday, when Stanford called for real, you can just imagine her joy. " I told you, I told you." What a amazing gift for a young girl, what a story to have. I was so happy for her, to see that God is real and he does speak to us with a still small voice.

I wonder how often this happens and people just don't listen? How many times have I not listened? It is so true the faith of a child. Thankful for Danielle, Michelle, Viviana and Elizabeth who all listened to God's voice speaking to them.


A/N Please pray for Janeen and her husband Bucky. He is in the hospital fighting lung cancer and they have had to call in hospice. It is a very bittersweet time for our group of friends.

We got "THE CALL"!!!!!!

We had just come home from Dr.Heaney's, I was making baked potato bar for dinner. Marty's phone rang and it said, "unknown" which is how Stanford shows up. He couldn't get it and then my phone rang with Stanford area code.

 IT WAS THE CALL!!!! Three years, three months and 3 days later!

 "How soon can you be here?" and we told them four hours. We called the person set up to watch the kids. She had company. So I called my best friend Heather and she took them for the night. She came to pick them up. Elizabeth has been packing for a week. She knew God told her Marty would get called in a month on December 16th, that date has been fast approaching. Conner, Marty and I threw bags together, kicked our little dog outside and took off. I didn't have time to text or Facebook anybody. I called my friend Di and she graciously updated everyone for me. I made phone calls all the way here on my nifty headpiece that came with my new phone.

  We were blessed with clear driving conditions, no traffic and made it here in three and half hours. We got here and were told surgery was in the morning. They are running blood work,ekg and chest x-ray. They are checking for infection, heart issues and anything major. They are pretty sure it is a go though. I felt peace. Marty has been very anxious and nervous the whole night. I got scared when we got here, just scared they would say no.

  Of course, today was a bad health day. His bp was 234/113 at the doctor. His ankles were swollen this morning and all day. So this is not good to the doctors here. But his BP had dropped considerably, his blood sugar was great, ankles..............very swollen. Of course, we missed a treatment on the way here and then they are just hooking him up now.

  The dialysis nurse is loading the "evil machine" remember the machine that gave us so much heck before?? Well he is setting it up wrong, I tried to tell him but he didn't listen to me. He is now wondering why is isn't flushing and I am happily blogging in silence. He told me to be quiet........ We took out Marty's insulin pump tonight, for what is the last time, we hope! That was quite a emotional moment.

 So, we are getting ready for bed and hopefully will have great surgery in the morning. Of course tonight, I thought of the other family somewhere out there, hurting and sad. Think of them tonight and pray for them. Thanks for all your support these last three years, this is just as much your day as it is ours!!

Polar opposites

Conner and Elizabeth are such opposites. It is funny to see it play out in little trivial things such as birthday parties.

Sunday, Elizabeth was invited to a birthday party. She thoughtfully picked out her gift and rushed home to wrap it herself. That night Conner wanted to sleep in our room on the floor since his sister was gone. They don't share a room but he took advantage of his mom and dad time.

Today, Conner went to a birthday party. He went and walked around until he found something suitable. As we are driving home, he says, "Your gonna wrap that right? I don't want to wrap it." that just cracked me up.

Tonight, we asked Elizabeth if she wanted to sleep on our floor. She turned us down, she would rather sleep in her own bed.

I thought it was a perfect case study to share on my blog. This is how they are, one extreme to the next. We have a picture that Marty loves, he says it describes our children perfectly.

Happy Birthday Clare, Pen Friends for Life

In honor of my dear friend Clare's birthday today, I thought that it would be fun to share how we met. In 1992, I was a sophmore in high school. I was taking french as my foreign language and our teacher Mme. Nghiem mentioned pen pal program. You paid two dollars and they would set you up with a pen pal. I filled out a form and paid four dollars. Of course, I paid for a french pen pal but as it is well recorded, I am a Anglophile and wanted a British pen pal.

 A few months later a letter appeared in my mail box, it was from Clare. She included her picture and a nice letter telling me about her life. I wrote back telling her of my life and including a picture. We would write letters about school, music, family life. We sent each other packages with goodies from our countries. Eventually we graduated to phone calls. For the rest of our school careers and beyond we were confidants and friends.

It was always my intention to go visit her, but every year I would fail math and have to go to summer school. Finally, when I married Marty she came over here for my wedding. What a joyous day to meet and be together. We had the best time the week before my wedding traveling all over Southern California and sightseeing. It was truly a wonderful memorable time together.

Sadly, after that we lost touch for a couple of years. We grew apart and went our seperate ways. Then in 1999 we reconnected with each other via the worldwide web. Our first phone call was a rather teary affair where we shared about where life had taken us. We both had become mothers and it was so exciting to share all about our sons.  After that we took to emailing and sharing pictures via the web.

I still owe her a trip and promise that will be sooner than later. My lifelong dream is to go see the UK and spend time with Clare. Now we Skype instead of phone chat and talk everyday on Facebook. Boy, how far we have come from our letter writing days. This is actually a good thing for us, because we both have TERRIBLE penmanship! ( which was probably a saving grace for both of us, a girl with nice handwriting might have kicked the other to the curb..hee hee)

The best part of all is our sons have become good friends. They love to Skype chat and meet up on PS3 to play video games with each other. Who would have ever imagined that? I don't think either of us. We have to girls coming up and I am sure someday they will be friends too.


Next year, we will celebrate 20 years of being friends. GAH! That makes one feel old saying that! She is one of the special people in my life, one of the people who has been there through it all.  Can't wait until the day we can hug each other again. Happy birthday my friend, you truly are one of the sisters of my heart.




A/N The french pen pal never wrote me back.