Morning sans Daddy

David left at 4:15am for a short 2-night trip to Minneapolis for his annual participation in a research study for kidney donors.

Daisy actually slept through ALL of the storms last night, which was a blessing. Although she woke up happy and well-rested, I woke up pretty tired. I had trouble sleeping through the storms and couldn't fall back asleep after David left, especially since I knew he was driving to the airport in the middle of all of the bad weather.

The morning started with breakfast... I ate a bowl of cereal while Daisy enjoyed a scrambled egg and peaches (she has stopped eating cereal for a bit).










Then, after getting Daisy dressed for the day, I brought a few toys to the bathroom so I could get ready. Here's Daisy looking at me while I'm putting on make-up.




Finally, here's a picture that we texted Daddy before we left the house... we miss him already but we are praying for his safe travels in the midst of all of the storms and that his appointments for the study (which involve a few hours worth of IV's and periodic blood draws) go smoothly.
 

Kidney Transplant Update on Chris' Health

Those of you who have been on this blog since the start know it was first created to update everyone on the transplant between David and his brother Chris. David donated a kidney to Chris in April 2008. There have been some challenges for Chris over the past year, but he sent an email earlier today with some great news that we wanted to share.

Here's the email from Chris:

Hey brothers and sis-
For the first time since April of 2008, I have some good news to share with you. As you may or may not know (cause it is the Chinn way to not complain) my health and success post transplant has been challenging to say the least. Kidney function is one item that we have been struggling with. Each of you (including David) have a kidney function of about .03. My kidney function before my transplant was 13.0. You need dialysis when you kidney function is between 7.0-8.0. Post transplant my kidney function was 1.4-1.5. Since transplant is has continued to climb and has stayed between 2.2 and 2.6 for quite some time. We (my doctor) recently made some more medicine changes, and after labs yesterday, my creatinine was 1.6. That is the best it has been in well over a year!
Hopefully this is a sign of more positive things to follow. This is very good news and I just wanted to share it with all of you.
See you all next week.

Chris

Let's praise God for this improvement, and continue to pray that his kidney function will decrease into an even lower range, closer to normal.

chris & papa

david wanted me to let everyone know that his brother chris is back at work full-time now. he and the "new" kidney are doing well as far as we know. this is a huge answered prayer. thank you all who have prayed for chris (and david) and the kidney transplant. we are so thankful God has taken care of everyone.

i wanted to ask you all to pray for my papa. he fell on thursday and broke his pelvis, and has been in the hospital since. it's going to be a long recovery, so he and mema (i wrote about them recently here) could use your prayers. he turns 85 on aug. 16, and he might still be in a rehab center then, so it will be a long few weeks.

thanks for praying!

Update on Chris

David told me that Chris returned to work part-time last week. (He works at a bank). Just wanted to keep people posted on his recovery!

Thanks for all who have been praying. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers -- and we'll keep updating you all!

Wednesday Update

Thank you everyone for praying for Chris.

He just arrived in Brainerd to join the rest of the family, and had encouraging results to share. Basically, the ultrasound was normal and the labs were normal as well!

Praise Jesus! They don't have any thoughts as to why Monday's showed up with rapid decline, but today they were comfortable enough with the results to allow him to travel and join the family.

His next appointment is scheduled for early next week, and we pray that things continue to look good at that time. Keep him and the kidney in your thoughts and prayers.

Thank you for your support of our family during this time. David and I have felt like it was no coincidence that it happened this week while we were physically here. We are praying that we can be the examples God desires us to be in the Chinn family and that we can be the literal hands and feet of Christ this week.

We are humbled that God has answered our prayer for a miracle of normal test results and we look forward to communicating more of God's healing of Chris in the future. Keep praying! God is good. :)

Update on Chris - Prayer Needed

Hello all-

We happen to be in Minnesota right now for Grandpa Miller's 90th Birthday celebration. We flew in this morning and Chris picked us up from the airport after his usual every few day doctor's appointment checking out the kidney.

We were set to drive over to Brainerd to join the rest of the family tonight when Chris got a call about his labs today. There has been a sudden decrease in kidney function, enough that they are very concerned about the health of the kidney.

They are going to bring him in for some extended testing, which includes more labs, ultrasounds, other imaging, etc. Right now, its scheduled for Wednesday morning (the soonest they could schedule him) but they are hoping to squeeze him in tomorrow.

Please pray for Chris and the kidney right now. Pray that God would do a miraculous healing and restore the kidney to full health.

We'll send an update as soon as we have one.

Thanks all.

Update on Chris - June 23

So David talked to Chris this weekend, and so far there have been no other affects that they can tell from him missing the one pill. They kidney is working well and he is down to one doctor's appointment per week. He said he is doing well.

Thanks for all of your continued prayers! We'll be going to Minnesota a week from today to see all of David's siblings as well as his Mom & her sister's family. We'll be celebrating Grandpa Miller's 90th birthday up in Brainerd.

Chris has some friends who are putting on a benefit dinner on Sunday to help Chris and Katie raise some money for health expenses related to the donation. We'd love to be there, but we couldn't get plane tickets until Monday, so we'll miss the dinner.

I'll try to take some pics to post of David, Chris, and all the Chinns while up there, and will post them sometime in the next few weeks!

Update on Chris

We get a lot of questions about how Chris is doing, and David received an update from him just today. He did have the drains removed last week after all of the excess fluid his body was building up was gone. That was a huge blessing, as he had expected to have them in until possibly July.

The bad news is that yesterday he noticed he wasn't going to the bathroom like he should be. He had consumed over 100 ounces but had only gone twice, and normally he typically goes 5 or 6 times. He also realized he missed one of the anti-rejection pills (he takes two a day in addition to about 30 other pills daily). He'll call in this morning to see what if any consequences there are from missing the pills and hopefully will find out some info from the work-up they did yesterday in relation to the urination issue.

Let's hope that the issue is not any indication of problems with the kidney working. Pray for a good report! We'll post an update when we have one.

Update & Transition...

David and Chris both continue to heal. David's been back at work 2 weeks and although he is very tired, his energy level slowly improves each day. He still cannot do any strenuous activities and when he tries (like cutting the grass while I'm out), he does experience quite a bit of discomfort. But that is supposedly normal, and he's trying to stay patient.

Chris will have the drains on for 6-8 weeks to help his body manage the fluid retention caused by one of the anti-rejection medications. But the kidney is still working well. Praise God! Keep praying that it continues to "fit in" well in his body.

To this point, I've mostly used this blog for updates about the surgery. But since the guys are improving, I'm going to begin transitioning this blog to something more...

From now on, it will include family updates, happenings, prayer requests, pictures, and thoughts on what I'm learning. The best way to sift through what's here is to use the LABEL bar on the right side of the screen. Each post has a label (like a keyword), and you can click on the label you are interested in and the posts for that label will appear.

Make sense? I hope so. I look forward to sharing more of our lives and thoughts with you all...

Prayer for Chris

Chris e-mailed David last night to let him know that he's having a little recovery issue was heading in for a little surgery tomorrow. As mentioned in the last post, he has too much fluid in his body, which includes around my kidney. They are concerned about this, so they are putting a drain in to assist with the fluid loss. Chris says it should be an out patient procedure, and he'll update us once its over and done with. Be praying that this would help his recovery and protect the kidney David gave him.

Update on Chris

David talked to Chris recently, and he is doing well, making progress. He's also still in some pain and very sore. He's going in (as scheduled) 3x a week for check-ups and is taking an extraordinary amount of pills daily (anti-rejection).

Chris does have one prayer request. One of the anti-rejection meds he is taking is causing him to retain a lot of water (something like 40 pounds in a few days) and it is making him uncomfortable. They took him off that med and he dropped it, but they had to put him back on it last week when some of his tests came back somewhat concerning.

He has talked to his doc about it, who said that he would watch it even closer now since they know he was having an adverse affect to it. Although he is a big guy anyway, he said the extra weight (it's been a couple weeks that this has been going on) is making him really uncomfortable and sore, hard to sleep, etc.

So pray for the docs to figure out this water retention thing. Otherwise, the kidney has been accepted so far, which remains positive news.

David's Back to Work

David headed back to work yesterday (Monday, May 19) in order to get caught up on some stuff that's happened the past month. He has a big meeting today on a project he's helping head up for his office, and he didn't want to miss it.

He has promised me he's taking it easy, as I think he overworked himself a little this weekend while I was in Richmond for my cousin's wedding. He was pretty tired when I got back Sunday night, and I think he was also pretty sore.

He doesn't have his full level of energy back yet, but I think getting back to work will be positive for him, as long as he doesn't push too hard.

He spoke with Chris on Sunday and Chris is doing well. So far, so good with all of his test results. Keep praying the kidney continues to work strong in Chris.

Meal Thank You

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who have provided some meals for us. I cannot express how much this has helped. With me getting back in town, graduating the next day, and then jumping right back into work at NRCC at the close of the spring semester (a busy time), I haven't had time to even really go grocery shopping. Not having to worry about what to cook for dinner has allowed me to focus at work and not stress out. I just really cannot express how much of a blessing this has been.

Also, thanks to those who have stopped by to visit and "check in" on David. I know he has appreciated the company and he is officially stir crazy. He is anxiously awaiting the green light to go back to work, and anticipates that it will be sometime next week. (I think it may be a little soon but he has promised to take it easy.)

He is getting better daily, and although he still has moments of discomfort, his appetite and sleep routines are getting much closer to normal. It will be awhile before his energy level gets back to normal, but the doctors say that is expected and they estimate it really can be several months before he's feeling 100%.

Thank you everyone for all you have done for us. We feel truly blessed to have the friends and family we do.

I'll try to post an update on Chris later today.

-wendy

Those who signed up and have provided meals:
Dave & Kati Williams
Bill & Irene Sembello
Jackie & Evan Oster
Jeanette Staats
Jorie & Steve Schmidt & Lane Mattox
My coworkers at NRCC (Susy, Hilda, Glenda, and probably more I don't know about)
Ryan & Lisa Hartsook
Steve & Amy Englund
Jesse Losse & JD Newcomb (and the rest of our HG peeps)
Peter Laver (who just left to go back to South Africa)
and anyone else I may have forgotten or not even known about!

Update on Chris

David talked to Chris this afternoon to get an update. Chris has developed a urinary tract infection and is on medication for that. Pray that infection will heal quickly and not cause any serious complications. Also, the doctors told Chris he was doing too much and that he needed to not do as much walking. He had been walking several miles per day, and they have told him to slow down some to give his body time to heal. So keep praying for Chris, for him to have patience, and for his body to continue to make progress!

Update on David

David's body continues to heal, but he also continues to struggle sleeping. Since the surgery, he has consistently suffered from night sweats when he tries to sleep. This has really caused him to not get good rest, and has left him extremely tired. We spoke to the nurses about it on Thursday, but they didn't have any good answers. We found out it was side effect of the oxycodone, so David went without the pain medication for 24 hours, but still had the night sweats afterwards. Starting to get concerned and knowing he needs sleep, I consulted our favorite nurse, Chris Roberts, who we trust with our lives. I knew Chris would give me straight and sound advice on what I should do. He reassured me that without a fever (David hasn't registered a fever) that he was probably not suffering from an infection and instead it was likely just his body adapting coupled with the pain management and medication. He spoke to me in language I understood but also with enough medical information to feel good about the situation. (Thanks Chris!)

Please keep praying for David's body to heal, and specifically, pray he can sleep and that the night sweats will subside. Part of today's mini-message in church was asking the question, "How big is your God?" I know and believe God is big enough to take away the night sweats and allow David to truly sleep solidly for the first time in weeks. Help me pray for this and believe in this as well. Thanks all!

Home Sweet Home

It's been a few days since I've had a chance to sit down and update. A lot has happened since we left Minnesota on Friday morning.

After two flights and a 3-hour layover in between in Philly, we finally landed safely in Roanoke around 3:00pm. My parents, sister and nephews were on there way into town from Richmond for my graduation, so we arranged for them to stop in Roanoke to pick us up. We made it back to Blacksburg around 4:30, in time enough to take my nephews to "the 'boose park" (Caboose Park) to run around. David and my dad stayed home and ordered Chinese food, and the ladies and nephews picked it up after the park visit.

After dinner, my mom and I went grocery shopping for Saturday's lunch and got home around 10:00pm, just in time to get everyone settled in and situated for the night. I then looked up all the info about Radford's graduation online to figure out where to go/park on Saturday to pass along the next morning.

After a short sleep, I awoke at 5:53 realizing I had overslept my alarm. I was being picked up by two friends (thanks Rachel & Jesse) who would be driving me over early to graduation. My family and a few other friends/former roommates would come later. My graduation/hooding ceremony was at 8:00am. The ceremony was good although my name was mispronounced. The man said "Rendy" instead of "Wendy." Kind of strange. Anyway, we took some pictures afterwards and then headed home to get lunch ready.

I invited some folks over for a celebration lunch, which consisted of grilled chicken salads and made to order grilled cheese sandwiches. David helped me plan the menu even though he wasn't really up for partying. We had a great time celebrating, and my family headed back to Richmond in the afternoon. Then, while David napped, I enjoyed the company of Steve, Jorie, and Lane as we watched the Kentucky Derby. We then went out to dinner (minus David but plus Peter) at Macado's. Finally, I topped the evening off with dessert at Macado's with Rachel and Jesse, which Rach and I had been planning for months. Nothing says celebration like a Madison Mud Pie!!!!

Anyway, that's the main gist of what happened Friday and Saturday. Today has been filled with the last "big" church service of the semester, which included a farewell to graduating seniors and a send-off/commissioning for the Richmond-church-plant team. Our staff team then had a going away party for our friends of 7 years Chris and Rachel Backert, who are helping lead the team in Richmond. An exciting but bittersweet celebration.

To close, here are some pics from graduation:

Last Check-up Today

So yesterday was a fairly "busy" day around the house just because everyone was here pretty much all day. Chris had gotten home the evening before, and other than a doctor's appointment in the morning, we were all around. This is in stark contrast to the days prior when it was just David and I from early morning until late at night, when Katie and her mom would come home in time for bed.

We ate Nathan's hotdogs for lunch yesterday and listened to the White Sox game on the radio. It was being played here in Minnesota but was blacked out on TV. I also went for a run, and it was great to get outside, although I was definitely feeling out of shape.

We also watched a few movies Chris had rented prior to surgery that needed to be returned today, so that took quite a bit of time. All in all, it was a full day at the house.

David continues to seem stronger each day, although he tires very fast. Just a short walk will zap his strength for some time. I know he is getting cabin fever, though, so he is looking forward to getting out of the neighborhood today for his doctor's appointment.

At 11:00 (central) this morning, we go for his check-out at the transplant office. They'll look over his incisions and do some labs and make sure we're okay to leave. Assuming all goes as planned, we'll pack up tonight and leave here early, early tomorrow morning. We have a 6:00am flight, so it will be an early day.

I'll post more after the check-up today...

A Walk Outside & Good News About Chris!

David woke up this morning in more pain than previous days, but after getting a dose of pain medication (good ol' oxycodone), he was feeling better. We ate breakfast and finished watching a movie, and then decided it was time for him to stand up and walk around a bit. After days of cabin fever, David decided he was feeling up for a short walk outside. It's a cold but sunny day, so we bundled up and went for a leisurely stroll.

Once we got back, we sat outside for a while and just chatted. Since Thursday morning, David had only been outside for the ride home Saturday. It was nice to soak in the sun and breathe in fresh air.

Back inside the house, Katie's mom was on the phone with Katie at the hospital. She got off and shared with us the good news. Chris is coming home today! That's right. A huge answered prayer. After the morning blood work, they said Chris' creatinine level was down to a 1.8 (from a 2.5). This was what we were praying for! They had intended to do a biopsy today after yesterday's ultrasound was clear, but the improved blood work allowed them to cancel the biopsy.

Please keep praying for Chris' creatinine level. It needs to stay low, as that shows that the kidney is functioning optimally. There is always the possibility that even if the kidney is accepted in his body, that the kidney disease could return to the new kidney. So right now, we have 3 prayer requests for Chris: 1) a low creatinine level, 2) the kidney to be accepted, and 3) that the new kidney from David stays healthy and does not get the disease.

Thanks for everyone's prayers. I can feel them working and know that it is because of these prayers that we have seen an immediate improvement in Chris today!

Pics from the walk:

Update on Chris

Chris has had a few tests today that weren't as positive regarding kidney function, and they have him back on some IV meds. Please keep praying. He still hopes to get discharged in the next 24-48 hours, but we'll update when that happens and we know more.

Thank You from David!

We wanted to record a message from David for everyone to view.





(P.S. The snow is gone and the sun has peeked through in Minnesota!)