Out of ICU

This is Jenny again. Nathan is doing really well today. His blood pressure is up and his kidney is making more and more urine each hour. He's putting out almost as much as the doctors are putting in. He was on the liquid diet for lunch and he ate everything on his tray (except the iced tea). They upgraded him tonight to the full menu. He wasn't quite ready to eat real food yet so he had pudding and some soup.

The surgeon came in this afternoon and was so pleased with Nathan's progress that he moved him out of ICU. He is now on the transplant recovery floor. If he continues to do as well as he has done today they doctor says he will probably get to go home on Tuesday.

For those of you who live in the area and want to know exactly where Nathan is...he's at Baylor All Saints in Ft. Worth (on 8th Ave off I -30). He's in Building A, 8th floor, Room 17. Now that he is out of ICU we can turn our cell phones on in the room. Feel free to call either number you get the latest information.

Thanks again for your prayers!

Transplant Surgery

This is Jenny, Nathan's wife. Nathan decided to let me post once again. They took Nathan down to surgery at about 9:45 last night. The surgeon came up to talk to us at about 3:30 this morning to tell us that things went well. He said that everything went very smoothly, all of Nathan's other organs were in exactly the right place and he was able to put in the new kidney in the perfect spot. The surgeon's only concern was that the new kidney did not immediately pink up when he connected it. He said that sometimes the kidney can be in shock and may take a few days to become fully functioning. . Once the kidney did pink up it began to make a little urine. The doctors and nurses said they will watch the urine output very closely and it should continue to improve. Nathan's blood pressure was also a little low last night ,most likely due to medications given during surgery. When I left they were just about to give him some new medication to raise the blood pressure. They doctor said that a higher blood pressure would also help the kidney to put out more urine. I called the ICU at about 8:45 this morning to check on Nathan and they said he was doing very well. His blood pressure had come up and he was asking when I was coming to visit.

Nathan will be in ICU all of today and probably most of tomorrow. Then he will be transfered to the transplant floor to continue recovery. The ICU allows 2 visitors at a time for short visits. There are no visitors allowed in ICU from 6-8am and 6-8pm because the nurses are changing shifts. Once he is transfered upstairs he can have visitors as long as he feels up to it. We would ask that if you are not healthy please do not come visit until you are well.

Please feel free to call Nathan's cell phone or my cell phone if you have questions or want other updates. We'll try to post again in the next few days.

We really appreciate all your prayers. Continue to pray for healing and that the kidney continues to make urine and his body does not reject it. Thanks for reading!

Transplant Scheduled for Today

Well, I am here at Baylor All Saints Hospital in Fort Worth. The doctor came in at 1:00 to tell me that I have a negative cross-match. The doctor said that there are two donors, and four recipients today. The surgeries started at 2:00 pm today. I am not sure when my turn is, but it will be this afternoon.

Please pray everything goes well. I will have Jenny post an update after surgery some time.