Kammy loves being a winter baby because many times her birthday pictures can be taken in the snow. Such was the case this year. We ran down to the park near the lake and got a few fun shots.
She especially loved the country scenes and horses! You can take the horse away from the girl, but you can't take the love from her heart!
Kammy has grown up so much this year. She has become such a sweet, loving mature young lady. We are indeed proud and blessed to be her parents!
As mentioned, my mother has been sick for a few months. Her kidney function kept going down and even after a successful stent was placed in the artery leading to one kidney, the counts still kept dropping. Her journey with kidney failure began during her first pregnancy and was complicated by a variety of conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes and certain medications known to cause kidney damage. After waiting as long as possible, in hopes of improvement, the decision was finally made to place her on dialysis. Dialysis isn't a perfect plan and is very hard on the body, but the doctors told us that without this life-saving treatment, her time was very brief. The days between the decision and the fact, were especially long and trying. She needed the dialysis immediately, but it was also important to wait and clear certain medications from her system. One of her greatest concerns was Kammy's birthday, so we had a small party at her house. She was too sick to enjoy it, but I think knowing Kammy was celebrated gave her some small comfort.
Kammy never once complained. She was thrilled to have out-of-state family here and enjoyed her special day in spite of the circumstances. She also climbed up on the bed by grandma and gave her teary-eyed loves. The highlighted gift was "Liberty", a stuffed horse. The one from the Rush Revere history books. If you haven't read those, or gotten your children hooked on them, you need to! They make history so fun and interesting! I very quickly threw together a simple cake, but it really turned out adorable and was yummy too! The arrows on her wall were a gift from mommy and daddy. Daddy cut them from some of his scrap boards and mommy put them together and painted them.
There have been bad days and worse days since we started this dialysis journey with my mom. I'm so proud of how brave she has been! They've told us that the first 90 days are the worst as they make medication and other adjustments and learn how her body responds. I feel hopeful that given time, prayer and her continued positive attitude, we will adjust to this new "normal." My blogging time is limited so here is a recent facebook post to bring you up to date.
Friends: Thanks so much to all for the calls, texts, food, flowers, visits, many many cards, and most of all the prayers!
Mom: I'm so proud of how bravely she is handling this. It's a bit of a roller coaster ride at the moment, but I believe with continuation of prayer and her positive attitude, we will adjust to this "new normal." I am thankful for modern medicine...I am not ready to say "goodnight" to my parents. (Not that I expect to ever be.)
Kiddos: I have the best and that's all there is to it! Kayla has made a temporary move to Greenleaf and is doing a great job nursing, housekeeping, cooking renal friendly meals and doing schoolwork. She's almost all grown up and I'm so proud! Kalli has been in charge of running things here at home, babysitting and cooking meals while I run back and forth and here and there. The little people have been sick off and on and it complicates things trying to keep them from exposing grandma. Kammy and Kaite have worked hard on schoolwork and helping to keep Kade occupied.
On a little lighter note, Kaite wondered why grown-ups need KID-neys anyway? 😛
Kade has been in urgent care with croup and then today he had his post op follow up with the urologist. He checked out well, meaning we believe his surgery was successful. His pediatrician believes that his medication could eventually damage his kidneys, and after what's happened to my mom, we are especially concerned and are trying to back him off on them. This is causing a whole set of issues on its own. It's just hard to know exactly when one risk outweighs another.
Hubby: he's been just amazing. He's been there for me over the past few weeks while I cried my eyes and poured my heart out. He has to work of course, but his job (since bringing him home from Hawaii) has been so understanding and he's been able to do a lot from home. He's also been able to work a little magic for my parentsin regards to finances and insurance. The cost of dialysis is close to $500/treatment and she's going 3X/week!
We miss my brother and his family, who were here visiting, but know they are supporting from afar. They did all they could to help while here and it didn't go unnoticed.
I feel like I'm always in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's impossible to be everywhere and during those crazy times I just have to trust God who has the benefit of omnipresence to be where I can't. Don't feel sorry for me though....I don't "honor my parents" because the Bible commands it or because I feel in bondage to scripture, I do it because I love them. Same goes for the "train up a child" part. 💗
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