WOW!!!
I CAN’T believe that 4 years ago on December 1, 2004 our lives changed forever. My Husband our HERO gave Zachary the gift of life. I remember that day like it was yesterday. That feeling in my stomach when they wheeled my husband in to the Operating room to give Zachary the ultimate gift. And than when they took Zachary out of my arms, I felt like someone was ripping me apart.
Zachary has taught us not to sweat the small stuff. We’ve come to realize that life is about living in the moment and to stop to smell the roses, listen to the kids when they are singing a silly song {kiley}, read a story and stop at Diary Queen for ice cream. That would be Zachary, he loves ice cream.
Now 4 years later, Zachary is in preschool and running around like a normal 4 year old should. You would never be able to tell that he has over 25 surgeries, multiple procures and countless infections. He is such a neat little boy. He is always laughing, smiling, running and jumping of the furniture. He is a crazy little boy. And we love every moment of it.
We are so thankful for all of the support from all of our family and friend’s; we would not be able to survive with out all the help. In the last 4 years we have had a lot of ups and downs with many surgeries, infections, complications and with Zachary in chronic kidney failure again. Transplant life is never going to be easy for Zachary, It is not a cure it is to help improve his quality of life.
Zachary has been having a lot of problems with not emptying his bladder for about a year now. The U of M Urology wants to do a surgery to help him, It is a very complicated surgery for Zachary and it could go great or he could have major complications. Nephrology at the U of M thinks if we do this surgery we could cause more problems, they call this a gray area. So we went to MAYO clinic in Rochester On December 5 for a second opinion and they feel the same way has the U of M. So we have 2 doctors that say he NEEDS this surgery to save the kidney and 2 that say you could cause more problems. HELP where do we go NOW!!! It is in the Lords hands. We pray for some answers. We will be in contact with the Mayo Doctors after the Hoildays for more answers.
Zachary is still fed by a j-tube, but is starting to eat about 200-300 cals- a day on his own, which is a huge step for him. We also has his IEP meeting with his school to talk about Kindergarten for next year. WOW!! I can’t believe he is going to be 5 years old were did the time go.
On December 1st we rented out Adventure Park, its a big play area with lots of tunnels to climb through. Zachary was running and laughing, it was so great to see him having so much fun. This last year has been a tough year on him. With him in chronic kidney failure his electrolytes have been out of control, so Zachary is back on some of his pre-transplant meds again. This makes his medication list up to 20 medications daily. He also is hocked up to his feeding pump for 8 hours a night. But during the day Zachary is a normal little boy playing lots of video games on the Wii, going to school and wrestling his little brother to the ground.
Thank you for all of your support and prayers through these difficult times.
Happy Holidays
Wade, Stacey, Kiley, Zachary and Austin
