Hello?

Ryan never answers his cell phone. Whether he is screening his calls or simply does not have it near him, I will never know. Now I think this is rubbing off on Leslie!!!! My solution, Connor is going to have to have a cell phone. One of them has to be near him, right? Hopefully when Ryan is back at work things will go back to how they were.

The Dispatch reporter stopped at our house tonight. It went really well. We did not get to any good stuff because it took us so long just to walk through Neal's medical history. We will be seeing her again. I do not believe the article will be out for a while.

Neal is doing good. He is having to adjust his medicines after blood draws, which is normal. He is moving around a lot more although very slow. The Wii has not been busted out yet. At that point I will know he is back to normal. Tomorrow Ryan and Les are coming over. It will be the first time Neal has seen Ryan and Les since they were discharged. From what I know Ryan is doing good. He still gets warn out, but from what I have read that is normal. I guess normal is all we can hope for since we are rarely normal.

I posted the information regarding the NKF walk to the right------------------>

People always ask what can we do for you....

I found a local walk to raise money for the National Kidney Foundation. At this point, Neal is unsure if he will be ready, but I certainly can do it. I have named us Team McKoth on behalf of the guys. I am not exactly sure when the E was dropped from our name, but I think Dave knows. Perhaps it was when Neal was testing the Medical Center systems under his alter ego Dr. Kothe. Anyways, the walk is on March 15th at Polaris Mall. It is one mile, indoors. There are more details at http://www.kidney.org/site/310/walk.cfm?ch=310. If you want to join my team, just let me know and I will add you (I am not sure you can add yourself). If you would just like to make a donation, there is a link below. I think this was meant to be as it falls on Neal's 31st birthday. Given the year he had I think we will recelebrate his 30th birthday too. Leslie, maybe Connor can roll it in his stroller! Mom, I already signed you up!

I have never really done anything like this, unless you count selling boxes of M&Ms to raise money for who knows what in grade school. This will be much more healthy as I will not have M&Ms laying around the house for 30 days to eat. My Mom and Dad probably had to buy more boxes than my sister and I sold. Although, if the walk travels past Cinnabon and they are open....that could be a problem. Stacy, don't worry, I will not leave your sight. We do not want a lost child or I guess lost adult alert.

http://www.firstgiving.com/mckoth

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.

It is true. When I think back on my life (only 29 years of it!) I rarely ponder on the things I have done, but the things I did not do. Would I have changed a lot... no, not really. I would have enjoyed life more and not worried about the little things or made my job my top priority. However what I had done is what got me to where I am. Now I will probably never do anything close to what Ryan and Leslie did, but they are not the norm. They were strong enough so that they will never have to look back and be disappointed for not giving their friend a better quality of life or wondering what if. As Neal's doctor told him a year ago, the ones that love you will be happy to give you a kidney in exchange for getting you back to your old self. I am slowly becoming a believer of the things happen for a reason theory.

I got to see Ryan, Les and Connor today. I guess I really saw Connor most of the time. He is just too cute. We had a lot of fun if only for an hour. Sorry Ryan and Leslie for ignoring you! Ryan is doing good and continuing to push himself. Leslie is taking care of the household. Connor has his casts off now and is back to his skateboard. I guess he was pretty unhappy yesterday, but I think he is already adjusting to the bar between his legs. Who wouldn't be unhappy the first day you attach a bar to both of your feet? One day we will tell Connor about all of this and we will have to show him a picture for him to believe it! Below is his picture at 3 months. He is gonna be a heart breaker. Neal was not quite up to a ride in the car, but hopefully we can all get together later in the week.

We had some visitors today as well. Raegan was able to put a smile on Neal's face, which was great to see. She was very energetic when she walked through the door! Mom and Mike dropped off some food and I have already ate half of it. Neal is still very tired. He tried to sleep upstairs yesterday, but could not get comfortable so he is back on the couch. He is moving around much better but still having some pain. We are hoping to meet with the Dispatch early this week. I am heading back to work this week. Neal has a blood draw Monday and Thursday and an appointment for follow up from his seizure on the 31st. Other than that we will just be relaxing at home.

Nothing much is going on. Neal is doing fine. We had a night of really high blood pressure and a night of a little vomiting, but have made it through. The worst part has been that our cable is out. I have become quite the cable guy and was able to rig it so that we could have cable or internet, but not both at the same time. But as of right now it has been fixed thanks to the real cable guy. According to him he really set us up. Whatever! Unless my bill is reduced 50% and I have every channel imaginable, I still feel ripped off. Neal is still not moving around much. We got his labs back from yesterday and all looks well. The dogs have been great. I put a blanket in the kitchen for them and they have been sleeping there.

Ryan is recovering as well. Sounds like the biggest issue for him is tiring out easily. From what I have read, this is pretty common. I am hoping to make it over to their place this weekend to see them.

Neal is home. The drive home during rush hour made me second guess if it was too early for him to be going home, but he made it. I am very nervous having him home as I always am his first day home. It is always a day to early in my opinion. I am not a trained nurse and do not try to be one. I will spend his first night home watching him breath for 8 hours. Now it is a challenge to keep Tippy and Luke away from him. Those of you that know our dogs realize this will be impossible. Right now I have Tippy muzzled and both of them locked out of the living room by a child's gate. We will see how long this lasts, I am guessing I will be working the rest of the week locked up in our bedroom with the dogs. We will not have to venture out again until Thursday for blood work. Hopefully that ride is smoother.

I did not really get to catch up with Ryan and Leslie. All I know is that they spent a good hour and a half with a writer from The Columbus Dispatch. The only thing that sticks out is that Leslie was not in our wedding! Neal and I will never live this down or the fact that Matt was not in our wedding. I have accepted that I will be taking crap for this the rest of my life. Perhaps Neal and I will renew our vows and have these two front and center wearing the nicest of clothes to steal our thunder. Once Neal is up to it we will have the reporter over to our house.

Thank you for all of the posts, we appreciate them.

There isn't a person anywhere who isn't capable of doing more than he thinks he can.

I took the title quote from another blog I read. It is so true! Neal was in quite a bit of pain last night, but I believe they now have it under control. He was starting to not make sense and laugh in his sleep, but it has worn off since. He will be getting his last dose of medicine to kill off his T-cells tonight. So far he has had no reaction. Considering the last time he had it this is wonderful news. The other good news regard the cost of prescriptions. Luckily I put Neal on my insurance because they cover much better. From what I can read it will only be $270 for 3 months supply of his new medicines.

Ryan is doing good. He is going to be playing some Wii today. I think he is progressing a little slower than he anticipated, but he did not know what to anticipate. Neal has been through many major surgeries, so he know what to expect. He was a healthy man going into surgery, therefore I would assume this is a shock to his system. I am sure by the end of the week he will be in much better shape. He is getting around just fine on his own. As the guys keep saying whatever the doctors say is normal may not apply to them. For some reason, nothing is ever normal around us!

Who is out there? We like to hear comments, so please post or at least let us know you are out there. I never did figure out my counter.

I am went back to work this week until Neal comes home so anyone that is healthy can visit. He is still pretty tired, so he may doze off.

"I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!"
--Dr. Seuss

Neal is still in pain and is not moving around quite as much as he should, but by tomorrow I am sure he will be more comfortable. He did get his catheter out today, which is a step in the right direction. His inputs and outputs are looking great. He should be coming home on Tuesday. His numbers continue to look great. I cannot tell you how many bananas he has eaten. We requested a consult with a Neurologist and he came in today. Unfortunately they will not clear him to drive until early April.

Ryan is doing well. He is comfortable in his house. He seems to be getting around pretty well. I was able to snatch him another pair of non-stick socks to wear around the house. His appetite is slow to come back, but hey, it is the Neal Kothe diet. Nothing like ice water. Connor is back at home with his parents and doing well.

We got a call from 10tv news today. I will post when/if they do a story, but they are asking when they can meet with the guys. Hopefully they can inspire more people to be organ donors.