Baptisms and Superbowls

Kate and I spent this morning driving out to Lake Placid with her parents.  Our nephews Gage and Cooper were scheduled to be baptized today.  They had a very nice service and a wonderful lunch afterwards and we were back home by 4, in plenty of time for the Superbowl.  Our church does a Superbowl for the city party for the homeless that I have been a part of for the last several years, and ran the food portion of last year, but when Kate and I got back we decided after the 12 hour work day yesterday and the long travel today that we would be homebodies tonight so we made some buffalo wings and fries and watched from our house, a much needed night of relaxation.

I hope you don’t mind posting the bible verses today.  I didn’t have time to but a blog out and I am going to write something about that passage tomorrow.  When 2012 started Kate and I were expecting to have our case go before the board for approval to donate, and it did.  The only problem was that it turned out that the nephrologist that saw us at UNC also had consulted on Ashley’s case.  According to North Carolina law I am required to see an independent nephrologist that isn’t involved in Ashley’s case so we would be required to see a different nephrologist before they could approve me.

At first I thought I might have to go to a transplant center to see one, which the closest is Miami, but it turns out it could be any nephrologist, so we found one in West Palm Beach.  If you have been reading the blog you know how this turned out, we had to wait until Jan. 21^st, there is that date again, I have had three appointments on the 21^st of the month and now the surgery is scheduled for the 21^st of February as long as we get insurance approval. 

I think that brings us current on the story and brings you up to date.  What we need now is prayer that the insurance company will approve me, and do it quickly so we can have the surgery on the 21^st.  Last we talked to our coordinators the insurance company legally has 15 days to respond and they told the coordinator to stop calling they will take as long as they need too.  We just pray that the right people get the paperwork and push it through for the approval.

From this point on I will give a daily update of what we are going through and what it looks like leading up to the donation.  Tomorrow should be a good day to read I have some thoughts on the following verse.

John 15:13

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

The Vines and the Branches

John 15 1- 17

http://bible.us/John15.1.MSG "I am the Real Vine and my Father is the Farmer. He cuts off every branch of me that doesn't bear grapes. And every branch that is grape-bearing he prunes back so it will bear even more. You are already pruned back by the message I have spoken. "Live in me. Make your home in me just as I do in you. In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself but only by being joined to the vine, you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me. "I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you're joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can't produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is-when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples. "I've loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love. If you keep my commands, you'll remain intimately at home in my love. That's what I've done-kept my Father's commands and made myself at home in his love. "I've told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I'm no longer calling you servants because servants don't understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I've named you friends because I've let you in on everything I've heard from the Father. "You didn't choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won't spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you. "But remember the root command: Love one another."

A Working Saturday

Kate says I don’t have to blog on the weekend, and now with the surgery backed up to the 21^st I probably have plenty of time to finish the story before then so I don’t have to.  Today I have to work, I had to be in at 6:30 and we have an hour drive to Miami to work from our DR site, this gives me plenty of time to write today’s entry while we are in the vans on the way down, but at the same time I really might not be able to concentrate with Billy’s driving.

One other point I will make about writing a blog and pretty much anything else you decide to do in your life is you have to set priorities.  Kate was dying to get out of the house last night, she works from home so when I come home and am just ready to be lazy and sit around she is ready to get up and do something.  So when she texts me midway through the day on a Friday and says she needs to get out of the house, It is not an option to tell her that I can’t because I need to write a blog entry. 

Last night we went out to a place called Longboard’s on Clematis Street, I had bought a groupon so we had $40 dollars to spend on dinner.  It was nice to get out we have been trying to eat better since the beginning of the year and hadn’t eaten out much.   The food was excellent, Kate got the lobster and I got the Mahi, we both stayed away from Potato’s as a side which is pretty impressive for us, and I got Alfalfa sprouts which I had never had before in my life, they had some bacon mixed in so they weren’t bad. 

While we were at dinner we bumped into Becky from church (I know she reads so I figured I would drop the name), but the reason I bring it up is because she offered to run Kate’s show if we are in North Carolina during that time, which really was a huge blessing, especially considering some of the other conversations I had and how I was feeling at the time.  Kate also told me that Julia offered to help on Saturday and Sunday so it looks like Kate might not have to return for that show.  I am just so thankful that we have a network of people that are so generous and available to help.

I’m going to keep today’s entry a little short so I’m not going to get into the next part of the story until a little later  Kate and I spent the holidays at my brother’s house in Jacksonville.  Keith and Stacy did a great job of hosting and all of the food was delicious.  I’m not sure I have ever seen so many presents but Niece Abby (I have to do that because we have a dog named Abby) was really excited about all of them, and it was really fun to see her so excited about all her presents.

Why do we have a dog with the same name as our niece?

Good question and I will admit that Niece Abby came before dog Abby.  Kate and  I rescued Dog Abby from a family that was going through a divorce, about 3 years ago.  She was a 6 year old dog at the time and her name was Abby already.  We knew it would be confusing but we really couldn’t come up with a good name to change it to, and it seemed mean to change a dog’s name after 6 years that was going on its 3^rd family, we thought she could use some stability.  But don’t get me wrong, anytime I am around my Niece and I have to yell at the dog she gets really confused and I feel really guilty. 

Tomorrow I will touch on the next stumbling block we come across, I will have to see a new nephrologists in January.

The Waiting

Kate wrote today about a synopsis of our week was like, and you might be thinking to yourself, well the surgery only got delayed a week why is it so frustrating.  As you read this you will realize where the frustration comes from, also you need to remember that to this point we haven’t told my work yet, and we haven’t gone public with the news.  So for most of you, you have only known about the donation for a couple of months.

Back to the story: December 2011

After Ashley’s insurance approved her we were contacted by the UNC coordinators and they informed me that we would need to go through with the colonoscopy and endoscopy.  To be honest I was trying to get around having to do this, I wasn’t particularly excited about it, and as a man it is something you grow up dreading the thought of.  There is one other problem with this though, UNC knew they were going to make me have this test since June, I asked them on multiple occasions if I should get this done while we had time, and they told me not to do it, they could make it happen quickly when it was time (I honestly wasn’t sure what that meant, I thought maybe they would do it when I went back up there).  But it meant for me to go back to Dr. Gilbert and schedule an appt with a local Gastroenterologist.

Well I don’t know how many of you have had to setup one of these appointments but they don’t take you next day, so I had to go meet with Dr. Gilbert so he could get me a referral to Dr. Niemark. The first available appointment they had was on Dec. 14th, which to be honest seemed fairly quick to me, however this was just to meet him and schedule the procedure at a later date. 

At this point I guess I should mention that for my Tuesday night men’s group we had been reading a book called the mystery of marriage (make your own joke).  I brought the book with me to do some studying and make some notes while I was waiting. Dr. Niemark was an incredibly nice man and when he found out what I was doing he was very interested and immediately suggests that they would waive my co-pay.  It was a huge blessing and totally unexpected but very much appreciated.  This also was the first Dr. appt. where I sat in an actual doctor’s office to discuss what was going on. 

When he walked me down to the examining room I put the book down on the table, he noticed it and remarked that marriage really was a mystery and he asked if he could have it when I was done with it. Kate and I have gone back and forth on this, she says I should have given him the book right then and there, but the copy that I had with me was my copy for the bible study, I had already read it and highlighted all the important points so I couldn’t give it to him. 

We Scheduled the Colonoscopy/Endoscopy for Dec. 21^st which 3 of my appointments have been on, including my nephrologist appt. in January and now the surgery is scheduled for that date as well so maybe it is a sign.  He told me that they would do everything they could to make sure that insurance would cover as much as possible; since I was so young he thought insurance might decline to cover the procedure.

Now a colonoscopy itself is not that big a deal, they knock you out for it so you don’t feel anything (this would be the first time I was ever put under) it is the preparation that is the bad part.  My preparation involved something called citrus nitrate you buy it in a 14oz bottle it tastes like cough medicine, followed by 64 ounces of Gatorade mixed with miralax over 2 hours.  Basically you spend a whole night on the toilet, the only redeeming fact is you really aren’t allowed to eat anything the day before so there aren’t many solids coming out; my only piece of advice is to make sure you get the moist toilet wipes, they are a life saver.

The next day Kate took me to the office because you can’t drive home and we waited to go in the room.  It was also my first experience in a hospital gown, which for this particular procedure make perfect sense.  I heard one guy come out and the doctor said everything looked good but there was still some stool so they couldn’t see everything (I thought to myself that guy really didn’t do the prep right cause there is no way there could be anything left in there).   

They rolled me into the room, turned me on my side, told me to take a deep breath and I woke up in another room. (i was going to post the pictures but Kate said that was just wrong) It is crazy what they can do to you without you knowing, when Dr. Niemark came out to check on me I gave him a copy of the book (you didn’t think I would forget did you?) which he appreciated and when we got the bill several weeks later he had written of $140 dollars of the charges.  What an amazing blessing.

All of the tests  from the procedures came back negative and we were once again cleared to donate at least that’s what we thought, but there is always more to the story.