Happy anniversary mom and dad! 14 mos old!

Hi everyone!
It's been quite a while - things have been busy around here!

Maddie got out a few days after our last post followed by a week or so break from the hospital then we visited some friends in Pittsburgh and while there Madeline's gtube sprung a leak.. we didn't have extras so we had to take her to the children's hospital in p burgh ! The following week she sprung a fever and went to er but ended up not admitted ..since then it has been about 3 weeks since her last hospital stay which is totally a record for her !...

We had a long meeting about madeline's transplant this week ..we discussed a lot of different things which was pretty overwhelming..this is definitely a long process ! The team told us that Madeline is still going to need a lot of care after her kidney and that life won't get easier just because she has a new kidney.

We talked about the difference between a living and deceased donor..if we can find a living donor they like them to be between 18-50 and the donor can't have hypertension. Diabetes.or obese ..they have to be the same blood type as maddie (o) and there are other tests that will have to be done as well.. once the surgery is done it is 4-6 weeks of recovery for recipient and donor ..

Madeline will have to be on anti rejection (immunosuppressing ) drugs.the rest of her life .they say the average person goes home on about 12 different meds but she will have more likely as she is a baby..there will be frequent monitoring in the beginning to make sure everything is going OK ..

If we can't get a donor by the time she needs one she will have to go on dialysis ..there are two types.. hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. With peritoneal it goes through her belly and we would have to learn how to administer 12 hrs a day every day at home.. if she has to do hemodialysis it would be 3-4 hrs at the hospital 3-4 days a week ..

Hopefully we would get a kidney before either of those would have to be done..

But before any of this occurs we have to start the train a moving ...we have to do intake paperwork ..meet with a surgeon and determine she is medically stable ..meet with a financial specialist.. there's a bunch of diff bloodwork she has to do and potential donors ..she has to get her immunizations.. have to do a few other things..it could be a several month process..

There's other things but we won't bore you with the details ..its just a lot to think about and process ...

In other areas maddie is doing good she is starting to walk which is exciting ..today is mom and dads wedding anniversary which was very nice and we are looking to have a little getaway this weekend :)

Sending love and prayer out to everyone thanks for being there for our family

God bless