Here is the latest....
Blake had his treatment on Wednesday. Everything went really well. His creatinine was at a 1.5!!!! They will be back at UCLA tomorrow for another treatment and then they will have treatments next week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then the doctors will determine how much more treatments if any are needed.

Also, I know I told you that I was going to get pictures of Blake's incision, but when he went to the doctor yesterday they took out his staples!!! That is really great for him, but a bummer that I couldn't show you just how grusome his incision was. You can just trust me that it is quite the scar!

I will let you know what tomorrows doctors appointment and treatment hold. Until then.....

Guess Who's Home....

After 12 days in the hospital, Blake got to come home this evening!!!! What a huge answer to prayer. He is very happy to be home and we were all so glad to see him and my mom when they pulled up today. We all went out to greet them at the curb. 

Thank you to the Morris family for the wonderful dinner.  It was a feast! We fed our entire family (9 people) on that!!! It was so good and what perfect timing! 

As for what is to come, the craziness isn't over. Blake has to go back to UCLA at 6am Wednesday morning for labs, check-up with the doctors and another plasmapheresis treatment. He will do this every other day for a few days and then taper off from there. He will basically be under close watch for the next 3-4 months.  Blake still has a long haul ahead of him, but we are definitely on the upswing.

We just wanted to thank you so much for all the love and support all of you have given to the family through this entire process. The prayers, cards, visits, meals, comments on the blog etc have been so wonderful. We can't express our gratitude enough. 

Please continue to pray for Blake and my dad as they are still healing. I will continue to post as we are not completely through the woods yet. I also have had some requests for some pictures of Blake's incision. Yikes! So keep checking because there are pictures to come. :O)

Good News!

Blake got his results back and his creatinine is at a 2.2!!! Praise the Lord! He is doing his 5th treatment right now. We are waiting to hear what the doctors have to say and see when they think he might be able to come home. We are crossing our fingers for maybe tomorrow, but we will have to see.

Praise the Lord!!!

Today's Update...

Good news again! Blake's creatinine levels went down again. I was actually a little off on the numbers yesterday. Yesterday his creatinine level went down from a 5 to a 3.9 and today it is down to a 3.3. This is good progress.

Also, they had to give Blake platelets last night because when you do the plasmapheresis it can effect your coagulation (this is normal); everything is going well. They did another treatment this morning and will do another on Monday morning. We will hear more number hopefully tomorrow. 

I also forgot to thank Mike and Kelly Ferril and their daughter Brenda and her husband, Brett, for coming out to visit Blake yesterday. Thanks guys! 

A Day Without Trauma

Today was a good day. We just got home from the hospital a little while ago and Blake was doing really well. His spirits were up and he was laughing and joking with all of us. We are just so glad that we made it through a day without trauma! It feels so good to be moving in a forward direction and not on an emotional roller coaster. Please pray that this continues.

Thank you so much Rose, Wesley, Andrew and Amanda for coming to see Blake this evening. I know he enjoyed seeing all of you. And many thanks to Vance for driving them all up to the hospital to see him. It was really appreciated. (Thanks Gloria for the amazing brownies!!! YUM!)

Some Comic Relief...

Today we received a package and my dad went to the door with Emily to see what it was. As I walked up my dad started to bend down to look at it and Emily pipes up in a stern voice and says, "Pop! You are not supposed to be lifting!"

We just got such a kick out of that. She is a little mother hen and she wants her Papa to get better. Too funny!

Until tomorrow... ~Shirley

Today's Results...

We have a huge praise today! Blake just got today's test results back after treatment and his creatinine is down from a 5 to a 3.3!!! And his proteins are at a 3 (normal is a 1 or 2).  Praise the Lord! 

Please continue to pray that this treatment continues to work and brings down Blake's levels. We have 2 more days of treatment before they decide what they are going to do next.

I just got home from the hospital and thought I would update you. Blake had his second round of plasmapheresis this morning around 11am and everything went fine. His creatinine was at a 5 yesterday before the 1st round and after the 2nd round it was still at a 5. The way my brother understood the doctors was that the process was not working, but in further talking with the transplant team they seem to think that sometimes it takes several treatments before the levels even out and come back down. However, if his creatinine does not come down by Monday they are going to do another biopsy.

Please pray for the plasmapheresis to work and for the wisdom of the doctors. Blake was in good spirits tonight and was able to finally be up and walking. (This was difficult to do the last couple of days because of the procedures that were being done.)

Many thanks for the Jillson's for coming out to visit this evening. The cake was AMAZING! And, thanks to all of you who have come down to visit. Even though it is nice to have your family surrounding you, I think it is even better at times when friends come. You know your family loves and cares for you. It is nice when you see friends that do too.

Also, many thanks to Chad for staying home all evening to watch Emily for me. I can't express how much it meant to me to have some time with my family and a little break. You are the best!

Finally Some Pictures! 

Here are some pictures from the surgery. I hope this helps you get an idea of what is going on. In order to see caption on picture, put your cursor over the picture.

Update... (Sorry this is so late. I tried to update at the hospital but they were having issues with their network.)

The doctors came in and did the line in Blake's neck for the plasmapheresis and everything went really well. They were able to drug Blake enough that he didn't feel anything. After the line was in they had to wait to get an x-ray to make sure the line was in correctly. We finally got the okay and now they have done their first round of the plasmapheresis. (You have got to see this process! I took pictures and hope to get them posted soon now that I have a connection.)

The process takes several hours to complete and a hematologist has to be there the entire time to monitor everything. She was literally doing something with the machine or Blake the entire time! Blake will do this everyday for the next 5 days and then, based on his levels, every other day for some period of time. So Blake will definitely be in the hospital for at least 5 more days.

We also received the rest of the biopsy results this evening and no rejection showed. This is why the doctors feel that it has to be FSGS. So, they will be monitoring him after this process to make sure that it doesn't come back and if/when it starts to come back in the future, they will complete the plasmapheresis again.

Thank you for your prayers. Blake is groggy and tired but comfortable. Pray that this process will work and that the FSGS won't come back. The surgeon says that they don't know much about FSGS. All they know is that doing the plasmapheresis works and the amount of time between episodes is different for everyone. One guy had FSGS and lost his kidney in a year and some other guy hasn't had any problems since they did the initial plasmapheresis. So, as we know, it is all in God's hands. We will just pray that this process works and that the FSGS will not come back.

Keeping you posted the best I can. :O) ~Shirley

Please Pray...

I am asking for you to all start praying because the doctors are starting to think that Blake does have FSGS even though the biopsy came back negative yesterday for it. I guess that the kidney could have FSGS in partial sections of the kidney and it would not show up on a biopsy. They are still waiting for more results from the biopsy but they don't want to mess around with it. They want to start this process immediately. The unfortunate thing about it is that they have to put a larger line in my brothers neck to start the plasmapheresis (blood cleansing using a machine to remove the patient's blood plasma and replace it with donor plasma), and they will not be able to completely knock Blake out because they don't have an anesthesiologist available to do it. My brother is really scared and worried that he will feel the entire procedure like he did yesterday during the biopsy. He is doing his best to trust the doctors on this because he knows this is for the greater good. Once the line is in they will start the plasmapheresis and they will do it once a day for 5 days. 

Please pray that this will work! My poor brother is feeling so defeated and my mom is just about ready to go down with the stress. She is trying so hard to stay strong, but is really hard when you see your son have to go through all of this and the ups and downs during the day with all the information changing constantly.  We are confident that Blake has the best care he could possibly have and we know the Lord will pull us through this; it is just the things in the middle that are hard.

Thank you for your prayers. I can not express to all of you how much your support means to us during this time.  We love all of you so much!!!

The 1st Round of Results are in...
We just got the 1st set of results from the biopsy and they have eliminated 2 things. The good thing is that Blake does NOT have FSGS. Praise the Lord! They also have eliminated cellular rejection.

Tomorrow they should have the 2nd set of results. They are looking to find out if he has developed some antibodies and that is why his creatinine levels are going up (antibody rejection). There are a few other scenarios they are looking into but they are way too complicated to try to explain. :O)

The good news is that whatever it ends up being IT IS TREATABLE! :O) YEAH! It is just a matter of figuring out what is going on and starting to treat it appropriately. So it is just at matter of time.

Also, good news, Blake's new kidney is working great from a blood flow and function aspect. It is filtering well and has excellent blood flow. The surgeon was very pleased with the way things were going from that aspect. So once these kinks are worked out, this should be a spectacular kidney for Blake.

Thank you for your prayers. Keep them coming. They are so appreciated! Continue to pray for wisdom of the doctors and patience as we wait for results. Also, Blake's meds give him the hiccups and he has had hiccups literally for 2 days straight and it HURTS. So pray that they might subside so he can get some comfort and get off his pain meds.

Update...
Well, Blake is out of his biopsy and is awake. I guess that the biopsy was a little rough because he felt it! He said that even though he was sedated he felt the needle go in for the biopsy and was in a lot of pain. So he is trying to rest and is feeling very frustrated.

We should have the first set of results by five tonight and then the secondary results in the next 2-3 days. So he will be here for at least 2-3 more days and maybe even more depending on what the results are. In the meantime they are giving him a steriod treatment just in case he is rejecting.

That is about all for now. My dad, Emily and I are at the hospital right now spending some much needed time with my mom and Blake. I will give you an update as soon as I hear anything.

Here is the Latest...

The newest news is that they are going to do the biopsy tomorrow at 10am.  They will have an anesthesiologist available so they will be able to sedate Blake to complete the procedure. In the meantime, they are going to start a steroid therapy just in case the kidney is rejecting. His creatinine is now at 3.7. 

That is all I have for now. Just continue to pray.

Update...

Okay, so much has happened in the last few hours and at the same time nothing has happened! (If that makes since?!?!) I am going to do my best to explain what is going on without completely confusing everyone...

Here is some history....

Basically, Blake has had since he was a small child an additional kidney disease called nephrotic syndrome that has come and gone. Nephrotic syndrome is a nonspecific disorder in which the kidneys are damaged because they leak large amounts of protein from the blood into the urine. This is ultimately caused by FSGS (focal segmental glomerulosclerosis). This is a genetic disease that is caused by Blake's blood. 

SO, now that I have told you all of that...

The doctors were planning on doing a biopsy at 10am (on his new kidney) this morning in order to test if 1) Blake's anti-rejection meds were too high, 2) if Blake was rejecting his kidney, or 3) he has FSGS. However, they have not done the biopsy yet because Blake needs to be sedated during a biopsy.  He has bad reactions to the local anesthesia in the past and starts to vomit, which results in the doctors having to stop the procedure. So they have to wait until they have an anesthesiologist available to monitor him. We are also waiting to hear his latest blood test results to hear how his levels are.

SO, even though we have not made any progress with the biopsy we do have a direction in which we are going and it is just a matter of time and testing in order to figure out what is going on.

If the biopsy shows that his kidney is rejecting they will start adjusting his meds accordingly in order to help reverse the process. This is something common.  If the problem is FSGS (which is worst case scenario) Blake will be in the hospital for another week. They will perform plasmapheresis, which is a blood cleansing using a machine to remove the patients blood plasma and replacing it with donor plasma. They will do this every day for  week and hopefully this would take care of the problem.

I hope that this is helpful. I know it is A LOT of information! Trust me we are on information overload here. 

I also wanted to say thank you to all of you who have called, visited and left messages on the blog, and of course prayed. They mean so much to us and really help to keep up Blake's and the family's spirits during this difficult and frustrating time. Thank you so much for your continual support. We will let you know as soon as we hear anything new.

Some good friends of ours left us the message and reminder of Jeremiah 29:11-13 "For I know the plan I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. An you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."

Our God is so good! He is always there for us and has a plan for us every step of the way!

Pray...

We just talked to my mom and she said that Blake's creatinine was up to a 3 this morning. So the doctors are going to be doing a biopsy this morning sometime. Please pray for my brother's safety through the biopsy. Pray that the doctors will be able to figure out what is going on and fix it quickly. Please pray for peace for my brother and for my family. We are all very scared and worried. This is also particularly hard because my mom and dad are not together. It is really difficult on my dad that he is not able to be with my mom to comfort and support her. It is very difficult to do things over the phone. Fortunately, we were able to go up to visit them briefly last night. My dad and I drove up to the hospital after dinner, while Dawnel and Ben watched Emily. My dad just needed to have contact with them and we all needed to pray together. 

Thank you for your prayers. They are so needed right now. I will post as soon as Blake is out of the biopsy.

Update...
I don't have anything exciting to report. We are hoping to have more information by tomorrow. However, as of now, they have lowered Blake's meds and will test his levels again tomorrow. They also did an ultrasound to eliminate the chance of some sort of blockage or blood clot. We have not heard the results on this either. They threw out the idea that his native kidneys could possibly be causing some trouble too. Basically, the doctors are starting with the simplest things to rule out and are working into the more difficult things. We are continuing to pray that this is just a medicine adjustment thing and will be an easy fix.

So, that is all I have to report for now. I will report as soon as I hear anything. Hopefully I will have more information tomorrow.

Thank you for your continual prayers.

PLEASE PRAY!!!

As you know we were thinking that Blake would be able to come home today, however, plans have changed. When they checked Blake's creatinine levels (these are chemical levels that they monitor to check for rejection) yesterday they were down to 1. something which is great. A normal level is 1. But, when they checked his levels this morning to see if he was ready to go home the creatinine level was back up to a 2. This is not a huge jump however it could mean 1 of 2 things; either his kidney is rejecting or his anti-rejection meds are too high. 

Please pray that it is just that his meds are too high and causing toxicity in  his body. Pray that the doctors will have wisdom as to what to do and what is going on and that they will be able to get this under control fast. Pray for my brother. He is very frustrated and I am sure is feeling scared. Please pray for peace and patience for all of us as we are waiting to see how things change.

I will keep you posted every step of the way as I hear new information. Thank you for your prayers. 

Dad's Home!!!

Well, I got a call from my mom around 1pm and told me to come get my dad! He has been walking all morning and they want him to try to continue life as normal. It is so amazing. He is still in pain but it is manageable and they have sent him home with Vicadon to help with the pain. He seems to be doing very well.

Blake is doing great! His kreatney(sp?) is down to a 3! Normal is 1 or lower. They have had him up to walk already today too. His pain is manageable at the time and they are giving him morphine to manage it. He is expected to come home on Monday!

Good Morning!

I say "Good Morning" because it truly is a "good" morning. Everyone is feeling much better with sleep and some time to process the crazy day yesterday. Blake is doing much better as of this morning and he is even feeling like his pain is manageable. They got him up to stand this morning!!!! The goal of the transplant nurses today is to get both guys up and walking today. Amazing!  Also, my mom said that Blake's kreatny(Sp? chemical in body) was at a 10 before the surgery and when they tested it last night it had already come down to a 6!! That is so good. It is probably even lower as of this morning.

 I haven't officially heard word on my dad yet but he was just resting. His surgery site was starting to hurt last night when my mom left the hospital, but nothing major. 

Praise the Lord for a successful transplant and that the small little issues are worked out. The Lord is so good! He is our protector and our healer! 

Oh! I also have pictures. They are to come when I can get on a different computer that can take the card from my camera. Keep checking back. :O)

Greetings from UCLA Medical Center...

So much has happened in the last couple hours. I am going to try to update you without making it too confusing or lengthy. As of almost 6pm we hadn't heard anything about Blake, so we were naturally starting to get a little antsy. My mom started asking around for Blake and somewhere along the line communications got crossed and they weren't completely sure where Blake was! So in the process of figuring out that confusion they called down to the waiting room and told me to come up, that one person could go see Blake. So I headed upstairs to the "Patient Trauma Unit" and he wasn't there. HMMMM.... So they took me over to the "Critical Care Unit" to see him and apparently no one is supposed to be back there unless you are there with a pediatric patient. I was there very briefly, just long enough to say hi to Blake, when I was intercepted by one of his nurses and was told that they were having "issues". The nurse would not share anything with me and told me she would call me in the waiting area when they got things taken care of. WHAT!?!?! I was very worried and confused at this point. To make a long story short, Blake's incision was seeping but they were worried that he might be bleeding internally. They ran a blood test to check his levels and there is NOT any internal bleeding. He is still stable and producing lots of urine. They changed his dressings and the doctors are aware of everything that is going on. He apparently was just having a lot of oozing from his site. He is in a lot of pain, but that is to be expected for the next 24 hours. Blake is now in his own room and has 24 hour care with 2 nurses! It is crazy just how much they are monitoring his every move. They are also keeping an eye on his incision and changing the dressing often because it is oozing and bleeding a little more than they would like. I will keep you posted on that.

As for my dad, he is doing well.  He finally is in his own room and hopefully will be more comfortable. He was feeling very nauseous earlier so they gave him a shot for the nausea, however, that caused him to have a headache. They then gave him something for his headache and that was enough to basically knock him out for a while. He is just resting for the moment and they will be getting him up to walk sometime tomorrow. We haven't heard when they think he will be coming home. I am expecting Saturday at this point, but I will let you know.

My mom is holding up strong. She is very tired but seems to be doing really well with all the ups and downs of waiting and the recent confusions. She will be staying at a hotel that is only .7 miles away from the hospital, so she can literally be at the hospital in 2 minutes if need be or she could walk if she wanted.

Please pray that everyone will get good sleep tonight. Most of us have been up for 36 or more hours on only 1-3 hours of sleep. Pray that my dad starts to feel more comfortable. Please continue to pray for the acceptance of the new kidney in Blake's body and that the bleeding on his incision will subside.

THIS JUST IN.... so since I have written the last paragraph, I have talked to my mom and the doctors got the bleed to stop on Blake! Praise the Lord! They said that if it started up again there is a way for them to go in and tighten it up and it is not a big deal. 

Thanks so much again for your prayers and support!

UPDATE....

First, the update on my dad is that his surgery went very well. They were able to do everything laproscopicly (sp?) and did not have to open him up. The surgery went very well; just as expected.

Great news number 2....Blake is out of surgery and everything went perfectly and he is in recovery. My dad's kidney was placed into Blake and even before it was connected to his bladder it was producing urine!!! YIPEE! So the doctor decided to go ahead and take out his dialysis line. Thank the Lord, no more dialysis!!!

My mom is actually heading up to see my dad for the first time right now. She is so happy! He should be able to go home in 24 hours to 2 days as long as things go as planned.

Again, thank you for your prayers. They have definitely been felt today.

I will be in touch as soon as there is any new news.

Update...

Here is the update.... We got to the hospital this morning and everything went very smoothly with check in. My dad's surgery started right on time and so did Blake's. Praise the Lord! Everyone seems to be in good spirits (especially with only having a few hours sleep.)

We just got word from the nurse that my dad is out of surgery and is in recovery. He will be in recovery for 2-3 hours before we will be able to see him. We don't have any real details though about the surgery itself and how things went. I will let you know details as soon as I know anything.

As for Blake, he is currently still in surgery, as far as we know. We are hoping to hear soon about how things went with him.

Thank you so much for your prayers! Keep praying! Pray that Blake's new kidney will start working very soon after they put it in him. Sometimes people have to do dialysis for a short period of time until the new kidney takes over. It would just be so nice for him to put dialysis behind him and start recovering.

Keeping you posted as I hear anything...Shirley

Surgery Time...

We found out this afternoon that my dad and Blake have to check in to UCLA Medical at 4:45am! My dad surgery is scheduled for 6am and then they will start Blake's at 7:30am after the kidney has been harvested. So, we are going to be leaving here at 3:15am!!!! And I am writing this at 1:00am, so you can be praying for energy for all of us. I am sure we will crash when this is all over.

The surgery is about 3-4 hours long.

Thank you for all of your prayers! I will post as soon as I have information to share.

A Brief History...

As many of you know Blake was born with kidney disease (chronic renal failure). After a short time on dialysis, when Blake was 5 years old, my mom donated her kidney to him. That was 15 years ago and recently we were faced with the reality that dialysis and eventually a new kidney was inevitable.
Blake started dialysis in February and the process of finding a new donor was started. My brother Brad and my dad were both the first to step up and offer to start the donation process. After some paper work and a simple blood test the results showed that both my dad and my brother were matches and that they both matched in 3 out of 6 categories. The transplant team made the decision to go with my dad since he was older. This would allow for more donor options in the future.

This, of course, was exactly the way my dad wanted to see things go, and understandably. However, I have to say that I respect my brother so much, even more then I did before. He stepped up to the plate knowing full well what the end result was, and he not only did it for Blake but also for the rest of the family. He said he did not want us girls (Shirley, Dawnel and Noel) to have to make the decision to donate. He knew we would have done whatever was necessary for Blake, but he wanted to make it easy on us. What a true act of love! And also to mention his wife, Sarah, and her dedication to not only her husband but to the family. I know it would not have been easy to let my brother go through this process, but she was unselfish and supportive the entire time. We are truly blessed to have a family that loves each other so much!
So here we are one week and 3 days away from transplant. My dad passed all his tests with flying colors and we are ready to roll. The surgery date is set for Thursday, July 17th at UCLA Medical. I have set up this website to help keep everyone updated with the progress and what is going on. I will keep you updated as I hear new things.

Here are a few pictures of Blake before surgery and his dialysis gear. This just gives you a small idea on what he has been going through.

This is Blake's whole set up. He spends about 10 or so hours as day in his room doing dialysis. The big bags you see with fluid fill his body cavity up and through osmosis, pull out the toxins in his system.
The actually "brains" of the dialysis machine.

This is the port used for dialysis.