Day 16

Everything went really well today on dialysis. We were in-out-and home by noon! We have a new set-up with Benson's preschool too. He goes to preschool Mon. Wed. and Fri mornings. I still take both of them with me to the hospital at 8:00 a.m. to get Claire started and comfortable. Then I leave her there with the nurse and drive him to preschool, about 10 minutes away, then come back to Claire. But instead of me driving back and forth, I had a friend offer to save us some time and pick both of us up outside the hospital doors, drive us to preschool, and bring me back to the hospital. Benson isn't quite comfortable with her taking him alone, but it saves me so much time to simply have her pick both of us up, let me walk him into preschool, and then drop me back off.....instead of me having to go get the car in the underground parking and then sometimes wait 5-10 minutes when I get back to try to find a parking spot again! Another blessing!

A few of our favorite things

Day 15

Here are a few random facts I found out today about transplant stuff:

The region we are a part of, in which Claire could get the kidney and liver from, includes Minnesota, Illinois, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. As of 9/25/09, there are currently 6,820 people on the wait list in this region to receive a kidney transplant and 1,366 people on the wait list to receive a liver. Organs are first offered to patients within the area from which they were donated. From there they go to the region, if no match is found locally. Then nationally, if it get's that far.

Benson came to dialysis again and we had a great day painting

Watching Dora, Diego, and Boots

Then cuddled up for a nice long nap for the rest of the time!

Well at least two out of the three are true...but the third one was just too precious!

Day 14

Yeah, we had a great Monday! We barley escaped an extra hour and a half at dialysis because Claire's red port on her catheter wasn't working so well, again. BUT it ended up working good enough to get the job done. We put medicine (TPA) in it again after dialysis so it should work well tomorrow. I've just been smiling at Claire all day today. She is such a character and her little personality is just starting to BURST through! She sings funny songs all the time like using the words of 'row row row your boat' to the tune of 'twinkle twinkle little star!' Now that takes talent! She loves to just randomly break out with "Eeee I Eeeee I Oooooo!" at the top of her lungs! She makes funniest faces and had Benson and I cracking up numerous times today!

Here she is walking around the house with her vacuum, using a magnet as a phone, saying "hello, ya ya ya, okay, bye bye"

Day 13

Sundays are definitely a much-needed day of rest for our family. It is such a blessing to have the day off from dialysis and be home as a family, together, doing family things! We have enjoyed getting to know new friends here in Rochester through our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and have felt extremely welcomed by them!

Benson took part in the primary program today during Church and said his line up to the microphone just as perfect as can be: "Jesus taught, in Matthew 23, that he that is greatest among you shall be your servant." We've been practicing that line over and over these past few weeks. He was so proud to do it all by himself, without help from the teacher. Claire enjoyed watching him and the other children sing and speak today during sacrament meeting and kept telling us, "Brother, look Mommy (Daddy), Brother!" He was a 'superstar' in her eyes today (and ours)!

The kids found the funnels today in the kitchen and quickly realized talking in them, really loud, was really fun! They were later used as mitts to play catch with the bouncy balls. Who needs expensive toys?!!! Kids are so creative!

Day 12

Bubbles bubbles POP!

Day 11

Fridays are good days. We're happy to have another one. We had to run a half an hour longer today because they had the wrong/smaller tubing set up on her machine. To make up for the smaller tubes, we did 3 1/2 hours instead. Good thing I'm a good smiler! Hopefully next week things run a bit smoother. Glad it's the weekend!

Dr. Skinner

Claire cleaning her medicine port with an alcohol whip.

Day 10

Today we got off to a slow start because the machine wasn't ready when we got there. Only slightly bothersome...but can't let something like that throw things off. It could be a lot worse (as we've experienced in days past). A half and hour later we were up and going and had a smooth run from there on out. The medicine (TPA) we put in her catheter ports helps her run a lot better and we're going to start putting that in more often. Benson came to with us again and he was such a good boy today. He watched Cars while we watched Baby Einstein, we played bubbles, had a tea party, read a book or two, played puppets, and sang a few songs. Benson and I took a walk around the hospital, which inevitably turned into a race that he won, of course.

Claire got her dressing changed today on her catheter. (Meaning they take off the old bandage/tegaderm/tape that holds the line in place, clean it, and tape it all back up again). We do this once a week. I think today is the first day I can remember that she hasn't fussed a single word about it. I held her the whole time and she seriously never whimpered a word of complaint. She holds her arm up the whole time and takes it all in like a champ. Amazing.