Help Zachary » Family

My Montage

elsenpeters — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 18:44:41 +0000

Summer is over

elsenpeters — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:20:07 +0000

I can’t believe that summer is over and the kids are back in school. Zachary has had a rough summer with surgeries, hospital stays, and lots of procedures to see why his bladder is not working right. The Doctors are still trying to figure out what will be best for Zachary. It sounds like we might have to go to Milwaukee to see a specialist about his bladder. He had labs draw on Friday that came back a little scary for all of us. His potassium is really high and sodium is low. That could cause him to go into Cardiac arrest. His creatinine and the rest of his labs were also way off. The Doctors started him on 4 new meds and changed his Blood Pressure med to hopfully get him back on track. On Monday we are back in for lab draws again, Please pray that these meds help control his Electrolites. If this doesn’t get under control he Doctors said they will have to start him on Dilaiysis . We are definately NOT ready for another Transplant. Zachary is also on a strict diet, not that he eats alot because he is still J-tube feed . Zachary loves cheese and that is one of his restricted foods.

On the good side Zachary finally has his own room, with the help of our Kidney friends The Schmitz family. Their son Layton who is 4 just got his Daddy’s kidney 1 month ago and he is doing great!!!! Wade’s friend Dave helped out with the finishing work, Thank’s Dave.

Zachary also is starting school on Monday. Depending on his labs, If they are way off we are back in the hospital for more testing.

Our family went to St. Patricks Church on Saturday for there fall festival. We all had a great time, Zachary and Austin loved the clown show. After the show I ask them it they would donated there time for a special event for Hope Kids, which is a great organization for kids with a life theating illness. The clowns face just about fall to the ground. They are also a Hope Kids family. Their son had Luekemia and is doing great, what a small world.

On Sunday Hope Kids had there Annual Festival. The Kids all had a blast!!! They had 10 Inflatable bounchers, Mini Golf, Rock climbing wall, Petting Zoo, Horse back rides, Lots of food and the Gopher Athletes put on sport clinics for all the childern. Kiley thought it was pretty neat to meet all of the gymnast. They even spotted her on some tricks. Zachary also got to meet a lot of his favorite Super Hero’s. Check out the picture’s.

Once again our family is walking in the National Kidney Foundation walk on October 11, at Midway Stadium. If you would like to walk or sponser our family. Go to www.kidneywalk.org MN Go toTeam Zachary

Zachary’s youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLt1V56w4aM

Kiley’s video http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/auth_preview?work_id=7256395

Elsenpeter Family

Camp Sunshine

elsenpeters — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hello, to all of Zachary’s fans!!

Zachary is doing great, his kidney function goes up and down like a roller coaster but, overall he is hanging in there. This winter he only had one hospital stay that lasted 4 days. He did miss a lot of school from having colds and other childhood illnesses. As a result this summer Zachary gets to go to summer school! from June 5-8. Our family just got back from a 4 day vacation at Three Bears Resort in Warrens, WI. We were invited to go to the very first Camp Sunshine for kidney and lupus kids. We met so many great family’s that are going through the same things as us, we are not alone. They provided a beautiful log cabin with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, laundry , 3 meals a day and a golf cart to get around. Zachary, Kiley and Austin all went to day camp while the parents had discussion, played games, and told their story’s about their amazing children. During our free time we had a blast in the amazing indoor water park! They had a great doctor on site , psychosocialist, and many wonderful volunteers. We are so grateful for the opportunity to go to Camp Sunshine and to have expanded our support network!

The Elsenpeter Family

Zachary turns 4 today!

elsenpeters — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 01:57:00 +0000

Happy Birthday Zachary!!! Zachary turned 4 years old today, wow where did the time go. December 1st also was a special day, Zachary’s 3 year kidney anniversary . Sorry for the late updates. Zachary has had a rough couple of months. It started with a funny sounding snort that turned into clearlying of the throat and some rough nights of not alot of sleep and now Pneumonia induesed from him aspirating. So on his 4th birthday back to the hospital for a G-J tube. Zach will be hooked back up to J-tube feeds untill spring time, they want his lungs to heal. The kidney has had a lot of ups and down, we had a scare about a month ago with a high creatinine level which is the kidney function, and just not good labs. they had to draw labs every other day for about a week, not fun. Zachary is having another surgery on Jan 7 to remove his adenoids and scope his esophagus with some biopys of the lungs, tonsil, stomach and check to see how much of his nissen has come apart. Zach had a nissen a year ago to help with his throwing up and from not aspirating, which is not working any more. A nissen is when they tie off the top part of the stomach so his acid and food would stay down. It did’nt last long and boy that was a hard surgery on him for nothing!!!

Now with our family life, Kiley is doing great in school, she is once again one of the top spellers in 2nd grade. Starting in Jan, Kiley will be moving up to Team in Gymnastics, they are getting her ready to compete.

Zachary is in preschool when he is not sick, He has great teachers and is loving the interaction with kids his own age. The eatting is getting alot better but still only little bits here and there.

Austin is weighing in at 31.5 pound, more then Zach, Austin will be two years old on December 28. Wow where did that time go. Him and Zachary love to wrestle around and jump of all the furniture.

Wade is doing great, he has all week off before Christmas to hang out with us. His job is alittle slow with the freezing tempture.

Stacey is doing great, spending lots of time at doctor appointments and lots of laundry.

Merry Christmas,
Please keep us in your prays, for a good year to come.

Love,

The Elsenpeters

Make a Wish trip to Disney World

elsenpeters — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 06:18:00 +0000

More pictures and updates coming soon!!!!!

Zachary seems to like the the hospital this year

elsenpeters — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 20:46:00 +0000

Zachary seems to like the hospital this year. On Jan we made our way back to the Uof M for a week visit. Zachary had server diarrhea for about two weeks. So his Doctors thought that it would be best to see what was going on. After they did an x’ray of his tummy they just about fell over. He had a blockage and his colon was the size of his pelvic bones. The extra fluid was going around the blockage causing the diarrhea. So one painful fleet enema he was able to pass it. The Doctors think that part of his colon might be dying off. So they sent him home on two new meds to help keep his Bowels moving . It was camp week at the hospital {Camp Get A wella} Zachary had his Hair cut, Grandma Gina had her nails done. face painting, tie dyed shirts, como zoo brought some animals,puppy dog show,and crafts everyday. The funnest stay ever at the hospital, it was almost hard for us to leave. NOT!! But we did have a lot of fun. Then In March Zachary had surgery to repair the tip of his penis,they also scoped his bladder and urethra, all went well. APRIL Zachary started speech and OT down at the U of M twice a week and also started having problems with his Creatinine levels{kidney function} going high. So labs 3 times a week things did settle down His cretinine settled at 0.9 higher then they like but we will take. MAY came and Zachary was driving his Lighting McQueen car and passed out, we think from a high fever {103.8} so back in the hospital for a three day stay, some labs IV fluids, EEG that showed he is having some sort of tick syndrome going on. Zachary has been blinking his eyes lot for about a year now. He had a ERG on his eyes in Feb. that showed that his retina looks a little thin . Not to concerning just a eye check up with Dr Sommer’s every 6 months.We are all home for now ,with colds so Please pray we are all healthy for Zachary’s {Make A Wish} trip to Disney World on June 25.
Thank you for all your support and prayers
The Elsenpeters

New Years visit to the hospital

elsenpeters — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 01:36:00 +0000

New Years Day Morning we woke up to Zachary having a fever of 105.2, so we packed our bags and drove to the Hospital. Great way to start off the New year!!!! Well a 3 day stay and lots of test and lab draws. Zachary had some sort of viral infection that really knocked him down. They sent us home Wednesday night we had them leave his IV in his arm. Zachary had a eye surgery we had previously scheduled for the next morning. After settling into our third room we really wouldn’t have minded staying over night to avoid the hassle of packing up and going home only to return at 7:00a.m the next morning. Zachary did very well with his eye surgery. While he was out they did a exam and performed a ERG (Electroretinogram) this is an eye test that evaluates the function of the film (retina). Their intial thought is his retina looks a little thin. We will not have the results back for a couple of weeks. We are all home and well. Hopefully, this year will be a healthy year for all of us. Zachary had a doctors appointment today at the U of M with Dr. Najara, (his kidney specialist) for his 6 month check. She didn’t like that he hadn’t made any significant weight gain. His speech is delayed and he is still being feed through his g-tube. I have tried everything, two years later and still struggling. We meet with a new speech and feeding specialist on Jan 25 hopefully we have progress. However, she was impressed with how he has matured. He was very cooperative and eager to be looked over. Not at all how he acted a year ago.
The rest of the family is doing great. Wade has an appointment next Friday to have a physical and to check his one good kidney. {Which is long over do, 2yrs}.
Kiley is doing great in school and gymnastics. Kiley will turn 7 on Jan 25, the day we meet with the speech specialist.
Austin is getting so big and sharing clothes with Zach. He is walking all over and trying hard to talk.
Stacey is busy making Doctor appointments, going to doctor appointments , taking kiley to gymnastic and lots of laundry. Just all that fun stuff.

God bless you all and Happy New year

Thank you for all your continued thoughts and prayers

The Elsenpeters

TWO YEARS AGO DADDY GAVE ME HIS KIDNEY

elsenpeters — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 03:17:00 +0000

Hey all!!, Zachary’s two year anniversary is December 1st. Wow that went fast. Zachary had labs today and his creatinine was down to 0.6, Yippy. That is the lowest it has been in about 3 months. Well the rest of Zach is doing alright, his EBV( related to cancer) has gone up and down like a rollercoaster from 4600-17,000. I’ll take the 4,600 anyday. Zach had a EEG done today for the blinking of his eyes which we should get the results back by Monday. They think he might have a little tick. He has a couple of procedures coming up in the next month, an MRI on Monday for his chest and a EER for his eyes. They think that his retina might be detaching. Since they are not sure, it’s better to be safe then sorry. Some more good news! Zachary loves CHEESE, Not the smile – the food! He will eat and swallow a whole piece.

Now the rest of the family: Kiley is doing great in school, She has gotten 100% on every spelling test but one. Way to go Kiley!! Austin is getting so big 26lbs and growing, not walking on his own yet but all around the house with his push walker. Wade is working so hard just to support his family what a guy, you can’t ask for anything more, and me, just doing research everyday on the diagnoses they keep coming up with.

The baby featured in the photos is Zacharys baby doll and he has been taking such good care of him. The doll has also been equipted with a mickey-button(feeding tube) just like Zachary!

God bless you all and Happy start to your Holidays.

-Stacey-

A LOT GOING ON!!!

elsenpeters — Thu, 25 May 2006 14:27:00 +0000

I am so sorry that we have not updated this in a while, a lot has been going on. Zachary’s EBV which detects cancer, jumped from 5,100 to 17,500, this is a very big jump. They did a full body CAT scan on him and found enlarged lymphnodes in his neck, which they are concerned with. He has his EBV drawn monthly along with his weekly labs, so they will still keep a close eye on that.

On Tuesday, May 23rd, he had another surgery called an endoscopy. In this procedure they go in with a scope to see what is going on in the esophagus and the stomach. The doctor said that the esophagus looked pretty bad, so we met with another surgeon today to talk about another surgery called a nissenfundalplacation. This is where they would go in and tie the stomach so no acid can come up to eat away at the esophagus.

Besides all of that – Zach is doing great. He is still not eating by mouth and has his G-feeds during the day and J- feeds at night. We hope after the nissen he starts eating more by mouth. His speech is coming along slowly, he can say mom, dad, no, yes, but everything else is babble. It is very frustrating trying to understand a two year old that is trying to tell you something. We have a speech theraphist who comes out weekly to help him with his speech and sign language.

The rest of the family is doing great, Kiley has only 5 more days left of school, so she is pretty excited about summer. Austin is almost 5 months old and is about 19 pounds!! Big happy boy. Wade is working 4-to midnight so he can make all of Zach’s Doctor appointments. I am doing pretty well, just trying to hold it all together for the family.

-Stacey-

New photos added

Zachary’s J-Tube replaced

elsenpeters — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 03:55:00 +0000

Zachary has had a chronic cough since October. He has been on many antibiotics but nothing seemed to be working. They sent us to a lung specialist which determined that he has been aspirating into his lungs, which was causing the chronic cough. Zachary had surgery on Feb. 7, to put his J-tube back in so that he would hopefully not aspirate anymore. Two weeks later he had a chest X-ray that showed his lungs are still damaged but look alot better. We meet with a lung specialist again in one month to talk about another possible surgery called a nissenfundoplication. Long word, but what it means is they will wrap the stomach around the esophagus. It’s a major surgery so we are trying hard to avoid it. We think Zachary may also be having problems hearing. He had a hearing test done last week and didn’t do so well on it.

On March 13th, Zachary had another surgery called a Bronchoscopy,Direct Laryngoscopy and a ABR hearing test,which he past on both ears! No hearing problems. The rest of the tests all came back fine so far. However, we will get the final results of the tests back next week.

News about the rest of family! Wade has a Birthday on March 16, Kiley is doing great in school. She also started Gymnastics, and is having lots of fun!! Austin is getting really BIG and Zach is having lots of fun with his brother. And me, I am tired as can be, but enjoying the precious time with my family.