A year ago today Michael had his miracle.

A year ago today a stranger gave him his life.

A year ago today we got our prayers answered.

A year ago today we cried, we laughed, we prayed, we thanked and we cherished the gift that has been given us.

May God shine upon you as He shown upon us by giving us the miracle that is our son.

With all the thanks and the love in our hearts we thank all who have sweated, cried and sacrificed with us for our little boy.  Michael is growing and thriving. He is a walking talking miracle.

Thank you all,

Debby and Ted

Had a good clinic visit last Monday but turned around on Tuesday and had to go back down. Michael had a fever so of course they thought he was rejecting, but thank goodness he wasn't. They contributed it to a viral infection. His transplant doc was frustrated because he let Michael go to day care, in his words 'too soon'. Anyway the fever is gone and he gav e it to his dad and sister. I have not gotten it yet "knock on wood" hopefully this time I will squeak by.

Well here it is as promised. The picture of his big yellow sunglasses chilling in his crib and some birthday pics. Enjoy:

Michael had his dialysis catheter out today!! It seems so strange to see him without a tube hanging off his little body.

The surgery went fast. It took longer in recovery than it did for the whole surgery. We had some bumps on the way. He threw up in the van a couple of times. Right now he is sitting in his highchair eating a piece of toast. Hopefully he will keep it down. He slept most of the way home and right now he seems to be coming out of it a bit. Enough for him to drag his highchair across the room before I could stop him.

Our many thanks again to all the thoughts and prayers from everyone. 

Michael is doing great. Still having to adjust his anti rejection medication a little bit. Had a horrible case of diarrhea from one of them and it made some of his labs go out of whack. Anyway, he is doing well and is very happy and energetic. I asked the transplant doctor today if he gave me the right kid back. He just laughed. I was kind of serious. :)

Yesterday we went to Fun FX to look for a costume for Sara and out of the blue he yells "glasses!!!" And pointed to the largest yellowest pair of sunglasses. He would not let them go. Anyway $7.00 later he is happy and content with an over large pair of sunglasses on his face causing many people to stop and stare. And yes he wore them today when we went to Riley. I wil post a picture as soon as I get it off my camera. I caught him last night in his Spongebob pajamas lounging in his crib. It was adorable.

We just got home last night. What a long trip and a long journey. Things are going very well for Michael. He is feeling good and doing well. We have to go back to clinic tomorrow, but I just wanted to go home even though it was only for one day. It felt good to sleep in my own bed and I am sure Michael felt the same.  Today was just about resting and preparing for another trip down to Indy. No big deal we can do it. It sometimes feels like I can do that trip in my sleep. Actually I feel like I did do it in my sleep a couple of times.

Clinic visits will be twice a week for a few weeks then once a week. Just until he gets stable and we don't have to worry about rejection as much.  Then it will go down to once a month. The first 6-8 weeks are the most critical. If he goes out he has to wear a mask and we have to limit the visitors. But in about 6 weeks he can probably go back to day care.

All the days are blending in together. I think today is Tuesday. :) At any rate Michael is doing really well. Yesterday he was running around the unit like a chicken. I had a hard time keeping up with him. He is such a ladies man, he has all the nurses in love with him. They all think he is just adorable. He is also very polite. Even when they come in to draw his blood he says thank you.

We are probably going to be here at least until the end of the week. The doctor is trying to get his anti-rejection med levels right. One went really high and they had to stop it for a day. They just started it back up yesterday. So far all is going OK. The hardest part is being so far away from Sara and daddy. He asks about them daily but he gets to talk to them on the phone.

Things are going really well for Michael. His output is good and he has been up walking around twice. He is still a bit sleepy from all the pain medications yesterday but they are wearing off. He does not seem to be in as much pain as he has been.

He was just up in the chair watching Spongebob and he actually smiled and laughed for the first time in days. He is getting back to his old self.

Grandma and grandpa from the UP were here today as well as his sister Sara. He didn't seem all that thrilled at their visit. He slept through most of it.

His fever is completely gone, he has a good rosy glow to his cheeks and he is doing very well. His labs are coming along really well. His kidney function is now normal.

The doctor is very pleased with Michael's progress. His creatinine (kidney blood level) was 4 before transplant and now it's 1.9 which means his new kidney is working well. He has some swelling in his feet but I was told it was normal. He is in a lot of pain which is normal also. He has been sleeping quite a bit but does not seem to be getting enough rest due to the pain.

The nurses just got him up and walking which he did great. Hopefully he will be taking a nap soon and get some rest. It has been a long 2 days but I wouldn't have it any other way. We are very happy that this has happened for Michael. He does not quite understand what is going on but someday he will.

We are not sure who the donor is but if their family is out there they are getting a huge thank you from us for their donation. No words can describe how we feel in regards to this.

We have a kidney!!! We received the call last night and took off to Riley. We arrived about 9:30 pm and they did lots and lots of blood work and tests. He is currently in surgery right now. I will keep you all posted with his progress.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers. It worked!!! Our little boy has his miracle.

Love, Debby

Had to go to Riley in the middle of the night again. Michael had been running a low grade fever for about a week and it spiked to 102 on Thursday afternoon. Did a manual exchange and his fluid was cloudy which means peritonitis again. Really not sure how he got it but we caught it before it got too bad. He was given antiobiotics in his dialysate fluid and we were sent home.

He is doing well otherwise. Aside from the fever you would not know he was ill. He was acting his usual happy-go-lucky self and playing as usual. The bad news is we have to wait 6 weeks before he can get his transplant. So if we get the call we can't go. The doctors won't transplant with any type of infection at all. We have not had much luck with all of this. It's hard not to become discouraged buit we still hope for the best. We just keep praying for a miracle.