Hello folks. Hot enough for you? I have decided that it doesn’t change much of the turbulence in the life of the Matthews. It has been almost 3 weeks since we have updated things on here, that is too long. We keep trying to get Amelia to post something, but we are still struggling. Maybe we can blame the heat for that.
Over the last few weeks, Amelia’s kidney has started to level out. it has gone from over-working to working like it should and it has now kicked in to help regulate her blood pressure. It regulates very well, and as of now, she is only on 1 blood pressure medication. We had some worries as this was happening though. She got really low on her blood pressure and almost passed out more than once. But the doctors have a handle on it now, and they are keeping Amelia in the right range with only the one medication. She has been on so many meds for blood pressure over the years, I am sure that the rest of her body is trying to figure out what is going on.
She is very excited that her clinic appointments are every other week now. She is looking forward to getting back to quarterly appointments. They still have to draw blood 2 times a week, just to keep tabs on her. That will go to once a week and then every other, and then once a month in the future as her transplant ages and she gets more balanced. I am looking forward to only loading her medicine box with her anti-rejection stuff and a vitamin or two. That will be so much easier. I am sitting here looking at a picture from when we brought Tristan home from the hospital and we got all of the kids together on the couch. Amelia was 4 and 1 year out from her first transplant. And just out of the hospital herself, but that is another story. I was thinking back to giving her medications then. She couldn’t swallow pills yet so we had everything in elixir form for her to drink. The pills are definitely easier.
We are also watching a virus called BK. That has reared its ugly head before and resulted in PTLD and a few rounds of chemotherapy. Last week the virus was on the low end of positive, but this week it is up slightly. They are adjusting her immuno-compromising medications to try and let Amelia combat this virus, so it doesn’t get into her kidney. Don’t google this, just trust me, the doctors are concerned and watching it closely so it doesn’t get to the PTLD again. Your prayers are appreciated.
Otherwise Amelia is feeling better and getting outside and doing things. She was a big help moving stuff out of one storage area to another even though it was the hottest day of the year. She has been walking a lot, and we even got her fishing again on Father’s day. She didn’t think she wanted to fish, but by the end of the trip, she was telling me that her pole was too old and her reel was broken so she needed a new one. Easy fix, I work in a sporting goods store. Then she decided that she was going to fish enough to need a license. She hasn’t had one of those for years. I told her that we had to go fishing enough to justify the cost (I really don’t care about the cost, but that is an excuse to get out and fish more…) and she agreed! That is miles and miles better than the past few years where she would just want to go for the drive and then just sit and watch. Next up will be fly fishing….or maybe ice fishing….
As for the rest of us, we are settling into our temporary house pretty well. Everyone is learning that minimalism isn’t so bad and we can get by. But then we realize that all of my camping gear is stored in the storage unit. In the back of the storage unit. and I don’t want to unload it all in the heat. So we are making do, and it is working. We are still looking for a house, but the market is still screwy. We tried to look at 4 houses last week, and our real estate agent came back and said that one was already sold, 2 didn’t take FHA loans, and the last only wanted cash offers in a hurry. Yea, thanks for that. So we are still looking. We have some great friends that are keeping an ear out for anyone who is looking to get their home for sale and maybe we can get in on that before it hits the open market. That may be the only way we get into a house right now. We will see.
Overall, we are doing well. It is so nice to have Amelia getting better that it isn’t even funny. I don’t have a ton of stuff to report, and that is a good thing. I firmly believe that our family is going in the direction that the good Lord wants us to go in. Even with all of the chaos and things happening, I see too many little things that happen just the right way or just at the right time to be coincidence. I know that there are more prayers than mine contributing to the things that we are doing. I want to thank each of you again for sending those prayers and well wishes, they are effective and answered in a very real way. I am a big believer in group and directed faith, it most definitely does work miracles. I only hope that I am able to pay it forward in sufficient quantity. Thank you again.
Well, that’s all for today. There will be more to come as we know it.
Still coming to you live, 75 days into the new kidney,
-Justin
