On Wednesday December 28 we were blessed with another baby boy !
His name is Austin Eric Elsenpeter. He weighed in at exactly 7lbs and is 20in long. Everything is going good. Stacey and the baby will be coming home on Saturday. Zachary and Kiley are so excited!!

We are all home again. Zachary’s surgery went pretty well. He did not get in until 12:00a.m.. Yes, Thursday was a very long day. They removed the stent which goes from the kidney through the ureter and into the bladder. They replaced it to help get the rest of the infection out. Unfortunately, somewhere from the O.R. to recovery it got kicked out. ? The stent was scheduled to be removed on the 24th of the month, so they decided not to put him back under to replace it. Hopefully, the antibiotics will clear the rest of the infection out quickly.

Even with all this going on, Zachary still found time to show off his new walking ability and flirt with the nurses !

Kiley is doing well, riding her bike and constantly wanting to play with her neighbor friends. She starts vacation bible school this coming week and is very excited.

Wade

Let’s talk about Zachary first. He is continuing to scoot, crawl, and monkey crawl everywhere. Zach is still climbing stairs when opportunity arises and walking behind his walker! We try to feed him by mouth about 3 times a day. Sweet potatoes and squash are his two favorites.

Tomorrow I am having a hernia repaired from after the transplant. They are planning on keeping me overnight. Recovery should be 3 weeks, than I am planning on returning to work.

My sister and baby Cadence left today to return to home. They were here visiting for 6 days. It was wonderful to meet our niece for the first time.
She is about four months old and so precious.

Wade

Zachary’s development is surprising us everyday. He just completed his morning stair climb. It is 15 stairs and the only obstacle is his pajama bottoms. He is crawling, but still prefers to scoot on his butt. Zachary is pulling himself to standing and climbing up on the furniture.

We received news last Friday that Zachary has tested positive for Epstein Barr virus. They told us before transplant he had a chance of contracting EBV. He contracted this virus because I had anti-bodies for the mono-virus and Zachary did not. The virus can cause lymphoma cancer cells. He is being treated with a drug called valcyte which is a cancer fighting drug and is still relatively new. He is tested monthly, so they are confident that they caught it early and told us to stay off the internet so we don’t stress ourselves out. vb dvxc hbh vccvvvvvvvcc . Oops, Zachary’s typing.

Kiley is doing pretty good, she is able to write the alphabet and enjoys putting puzzles together. This is when she’s not on the computer, we finally had to set some time limits.

Stacey and I went to the Dr Tues and got put on an antibiotic ourselves. Sore throat, snezzin, runny nose, all that good stuff. Besides that, I ended up getting a hernia after the transplant, so that needs to be repaired. They are supposed to call today with a date. My boss has already volunteered take care of it for me, but I will leave it to the professionals.

All things considered we are doing pretty well, I am so grateful to all the people at Qwest for donating vacation time to me to be home with my family.

Wade