Month: January 2019

Our daughter Emily takes after her dad and writes some awesome poetry….tonight she sent us this:

The Bravest Man I Know:

In life you need a good role model,

One who works hard and doesn’t doddle.

A person who knows right from wrong,

volunteering to help never takes long.

He’s spent his life helping others succeed,

Putting them first even in his time of need.

He doesn’t ask for any help or favors,

Until he needed one that would be a life saver.

Facing this disease and what it takes to defeat,

Takes a very brave man who you’d be lucky to meet.

I love my father and all he’s taught me through the years,

So it’s time for us all to come together and face our fears.

Thanks to a generous soul who is oh so kind,

Dad’s getting his new kidney and some peace of mind.

Thanks to all who sent us prayers and love,

Let’s hope this new kidney fits like a glove!

Love you dad!

So today started at 8 am at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, first with bloodwork, chest X-ray and EKG then on to meet with Transplant social worker, transplant nephrologist, transplant surgeon, transplant coordinator…all this with the donor and his wife, great people by the way,…the Transplant team is GREAT!!! So helpful and kind and answered all our questions…then off the Dialysis at 3pm for the last time…needed to make sure his potassium isn’t too high for tomorrow as that can cause surgery to be postponed….THAT’S NOT GONNA HAPPEN!…tonight a nice dinner with Marc and Chrissi, Tim’s donor and wife….funny thing…we found out that Tim and Marc have a few DNA matches which is unusual but good…guess that’s cause we are now family❤️❤️ #meanttobe

Well we have made it to San Francisco thanks to some amazing friends that drove us here and will come back to pick us up after Tim is released…tomorrow will be filled with tests and meetings with all the transplant specialists…..from 8am to 1pm….then dialysis at 3pm, unless the doctors decide he doesn’t need it…then hopefully to enjoy a nice dinner with the donor and his wife….will update as we go tomorrow.

We have a family tradition that before anyone has surgery, we go out for a “last supper”…. we went tonight as we are headed for SF tomorrow evening…had a yummy dinner at Casa Mexicana

Tim and I (Julie) will be married for 32 years in July…he is my soul mate and I know he feels the same…we have 3 amazing children, Ashley, Emily and Cody…the girls are both married and Ashley has 2 children, Jett, 4 and Peyton 10 months….we feel so blessed as our family is very close, not only emotionally but also physically which is AWESOME!! Tim has a hereditary kidney disease called PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease) this disease causes cysts to grow on the kidneys and there is no cure, but treatment is dialysis or the best treatment is transplant, our children have yet to be tested as there is really not a lot you can do but monitor your blood pressure and your sodium intake…Tim has been on dialysis for just over a year now…right after putting this info on facebook (which took a lot of talking, as Tim is a proud man), we had several people that were willing to be tested to “share their spare” kidney that is…..WE FOUND A MATCH…..it is such a blessing to find someone who so generously would donate a body part, and to have several willing to be tested was humbling. This donor is one of Tim’s co-workers. Tim’s grandfather had PKD as well as his mother and his sister, who just received a transplant a year ago in September….we lost his mom after she was on dialysis for almost 9 years, it takes it toll on your other organs and her heart was just worn out. From what I have read about others with PKD, some have a great amount of pain, so Tim is pretty fortunate that he does not have that, so he is able to continue working and doing things he enjoys just a bit slower as fatigue comes with it.. We would love to have you follow our journey. I am new to blogging and hope that I can make it interesting for you to continue to follow us.

Well just 5 more days to Tim’s kidney transplant surgery….we will be headed over to San Francisco to California Pacific Medical Center on Wednesday evening as he has a full day of things to do on Thursday starting at 8am, blood work, chest x-ray, ekg, (again), then meetings, with Coordinator, Surgeon, Kidney Dr. (nephrologist), pharmacist….etc …last meeting at 12:45pm and then they have him scheduled for a dialysis treatment at 3pm, then it looks like 7am Friday back at the hospital and surgery scheduled for 1pm…..getting anxious…I might be more nervous than Tim…