After surgery...

Before surgery.....

All is going good. Ryan got some medicine for nausea this morning which made him pretty drowsy. Les and I got a surprise when we saw him since he was pretty out of it and we were not expecting it. Within an hour he was sitting up and walked over to Neal. It was a miracle! Ryan walked around a little more the rest of the day. Neal was able to sit up and eat his lunch and then walked over to his new room. Both guys are having some pain, but are doing fine.


Visitors are welcome. Neal has moved to room 912.

Thanks for giving me my life back

Those were Neal's first words to Ryan over the phone. Today the guys should get to see each other as they both will be moving around. That will be a Kodak moment if I have ever seen one!

Ryan got his catheter out and is doing well. Les and I stayed at her place and got some rest. We are headed back to see our guys shortly.

Visitors are welcome. Neal will be immunosuppressed, so no sick people and only 2 at a time. The guys are still pretty tired.

Someone once told me there are angels all around us on earth. Neal and I were lucky enough to find our angels...Ryan and Leslie.

This is it!!!

The guys are in. They were actually wheeled away at the same time. The surgeon is very optimistic that the kidney will work well given Neal's last transplant. We are all sitting in the atrium doing the only thing we can do....wait. We hope to hear some news by early afternoon.

Neal will be on a lot of drugs over the next five days. He will be getting high dosages of steroids for five days, so he will most likely gain quite a bit of water weight. He will only be able to have 2 people in his room at a time. He will also be getting large doses of medicine to kill off all of his T-cells (the cells that essentially attack/ our immune system). Last time he received this medicine, it made him pretty sick, so the first couple of days will not be fun. Neal will be on immunosuppression drugs forever. We were informed the drugs cost about $1,200. Luckily our out of pocket max is $2,000.

Ryan has moved to Room 916. They have a private room!!! Ryan will have 3 or 4 1 centimeter incisions in his front side for instruments and one two inch incision by his belly button (enough to get the kidney out). His restrictions on lifting Connor are not as bad as we originally thought. Basically he needs to be sure his incisions are healed. Ryan should be out by Friday. He will have a morphine pump, so the first day he should be pretty happy. They will try to get both of the guys up and moving today!

I will try to post pictures tonight if I can figure out our new camera. If my internet hook up sticks around, I will post when we hear more. I am just going to keep updating below.

10:50am - We spoke with Ryan's surgeon and he is doing just great. We should see him in his room around noon. His head will be a little swollen because they loaded him up with fluids for the kidney to be jump started. It sounds as though he was in a funny position. The surgeon said the kidney looked great. Neal will be about an hour longer. The doctor said he usually discharges his patients 2 days after surgery if they are feeling well.

12:45 pm - We heard around 12:00 that Neal is doing fine. The kidney worked immediately, which is great news. We just saw Ryan and he is doing great. He said the worst part is over. His only pain now is his throat. They put a tube down his throat during the surgery, so he is pretty dry. We are just waiting to see Neal now. Both of the guys will need a lot of rest. Everyone is happy this day has come and the worst part is past us.

5:00 pm - Neal is doing great. The kidney is working like crazy. They are loading Neal with fluids and his output is 2 Liters an hour. Compared to zero, this is a miracle. Ryan is doing great. Both of the guys need rest. Tomorrow they should be moving around. We will be headed up there shortly. The guys both received a kidney shaped pillow and we were all able to sign Ryan's! We had quite a crowd. Neal's surgeon looked at all of us as if we were crazy! Because I can.....Mom, Mike, UJ, Denise, Stacy, Matt, Dad, Dorothy, Les, Patty, Ed, Shawn, Mike, Connor and Kathy were all there. Thanks to all of you for everyone in this decision/day! It was a success!

All is going well. We are checked in to the hospital. Ryan is in room 905 and Neal 968 Rhodes. Basically today is for meeting with all of the doctors and getting lab work and a chest x-ray. So far so good. The day could go a little faster, but at least we are here. Surgery is on for 7am. Ryan will probably be taken around 6:00 or 6:30 and Neal shortly after. They plan to get both of the guys up and about fairly quickly. It certainly was weird for us to be checking in instead of rushing to the ER. It is very strange for Ryan actually being a patient! The surgeon feels very good about the success of this operation, which is nice to hear. Until tomorrow....

One kidney and one day to go!

I am at work (bad decision on my part) and the tears have begun. Finally some good tears! I am so excited the day is finally here! We were able to spend last night with some of our family. It was nice. Neal is at dialysis this morning and we are meeting Ryan and Les at the hospital at noon. We are packed and ready to go. I cannot believe this day is here.

If Neal's posts have not clued you in, the transplant is in 3 days. The guys are checking in on Monday afternoon and the surgery is scheduled for Tuesday morning. Monday morning will be Neal's last dialysis treatment. We are very excited and nervous. Neal and I have barely slept all week and are trying to keep ourselves busy. Ryan and Les should be pretty busy playing the Wii my Mom and Mike bought them.

My Uncle Jim is flying in from North Carolina and Ryan's brother Sean is coming in from Arizona for a couple of days. With them, our parents, siblings and friends, it will be a packed house. It will be nice to have everyone here for support. If you are looking for us we will be the big group sporting the Donate Life paraphernalia. I am sure Tuesday will be the longest day for those that are not under anesthesia. I will be looking forward to the McHenry hug the guys will have hopefully on Wednesday when they are up and moving around. The hospital stay for Ryan is 2-4 days and for Neal 5-7 days. I will post frequently throughout the week. We just bought a new camera, so I hope to post some pictures as well. There is nothing like 2 men in those hospital gowns/dresses.

We want to thank everyone for their support and gifts throughout this year. We also want to thank Ryan and Leslie for giving us this amazing gift given the year they have had. There is nothing we can say to them that will ever explain how thankful we are and how completely selfless they are. We are lucky to have friends that would literally do anything for us. We also want to thank their families for being so supportive of their decision. The final thank you to Neal's regular drivers Leslie and Stacy. We do not know how we would have made it through the last two months without you.

Just a note that the hospital does not allow flowers on the floor the guys will be staying in. I will post when visitors are allowed.