Sunday
Saturday night/early Sunday morning was restless. They came in often for vitals, blood sugar, medicine doses, etc. not much sleep was had. He got up and went for a walk around the floor- less than 12 hours after major surgery. He is such a champ!
We woke for the day and he was taken down to dialysis soon after. During that time I got a good long nap, and was able to shower, get ready for the day and grab a quick breakfast at the hospital cafeteria. Around 2 o clock Bryce’s parents arrived and we visited for a little while until he got back from dialysis at about 3. They were only able to take off one liter of fluid because if they took off more his blood pressure would drop but they cleaned his blood and got his potassium and creatinine down (pre-treatment potassium was 6.3 and creatinine was 9.4). He’s still not producing urine but the doctors don’t seem overly concerned.
They had another ultrasound just to make sure blood was flowing and all was connected in the kidney as it should be. They said everything looked great. They mentioned if it’s not giving any urine output in the next few days then they might order a biopsy of the kidney, but would take it one day at a time.
Moff also arrived in the afternoon and we had a good time visiting, playing games and just spending time together. Dave Marriott brought dinner for all of us and our kids to the hospital. They took our kids Saturday-Sunday even though Abby was due with their 5th on Saturday! They are amazing! The kids loved having a short visit with Daddy and kept asking “How are you feeling? Is the new kidney in you? Is it working yet?” They are anxious for what this change will mean, even though they don’t know what that will look like.
Carol left about 7:30 and got the kids home and to bed. Ron left at the same time headed for home. Moff stayed for a while longer and we finished watching the Closing Ceremonies for the Olympics while Bryce dozed.
It was definitely a bright spot to see our kids and reminded us of why we are doing this. And how much better things will be in a year. Sometimes, in the middle of the storm you can forget what a sunny day looks like. Or when you get a cold or stuffy nose you forget what it felt like to breathe unrestricted thru your nose. These hard times help us appreciate the good- “Opposition in all things.” When I was going thru some particularly dark days that stretched into months during my teenage years, I had my friend Netty tell me “Someday this will all be so distant a memory it will feel like a movie you saw. Or something you read in a book. It won’t feel like your life.” She was right! My life got so good that looking back on those years I don’t even recognize the person that I was. I think that’s because I used those experiences as opportunities to learn and grow. I used them as the heavy load that gave me the traction to move ahead and change my life.
I fully expect this experience to be the same. That it will change our lives for the better so much that the hard days will be a distant memory. We just have to keep pushing thru.
This clip is always a good reminder to me when my load seems heavy.
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