His Mercies Are New Every Morning

It has been a great day so far! After a few rocky hours last night, Samuel's fever went away sometime in the wee hours of the morning. When I came down to see him at 7:30, he was sitting up in a chair looking fantastic. By 8:30 he was moved up to the transplant floor. At 9:30 he had a bowl of rice krispies. By 11:30 he had walked the loop around the floor two times on his own initiative. At 12:30 he ate a hamburger! By 2:00 he had done three more laps. All this in less than 24 hours after getting out of surgery! Unbelievable!! But wait, there's more....his creatinine was 2.4 this morning!

Hannah is feeling like she got hit by a train and is having some pain from the leftover carbon dioxide that was used to inflate her abdomen. Her foley catheter was removed and her IV was disconnected, though not removed from her hand. Those changes are making it easier for her to get around. She still has a tiny catheter inserted into her incision that is delivering some steady pain relief to the surgical site.

Samuel was determined to visit Hannah before she visited him, so as he was being transferred from the ICU to the transplant floor, he took a little detour to the 5th floor to surprise Hannah. Amanda Weichold, our wonderful exchange coordinator here in Texas, happened to be there with Hannah and we all had a nice visit.

Hannah later returned the visit and claimed the title of the first to walk to visit the other. That's Tom's cousin, Nancy Copeland Kelley on the left. Another cousin, Katherine Copeland Blume is pushing the back-up wheelchair and following behind. Both ladies arrived yesterday afternoon to join in the fun.


Here are my two amazing children. You would never guess from looking at them that they had both just had surgery.

News of the historic paired exchange is spreading. A local TV reporter, Wendy Rigby at KENS5, interviewed Samuel while he was in pre-op yesterday. Her story was carried by our Burlington station, WCAX. This morning at breakfast in the hotel, family members were surprised to see a clip on CNN.

Samuel's only compliant about the video was that he thought he had said a lot of great things about the exchange, but they only included him saying, "I think it's really cool." He was also disappointed that they didn't include his shout out to his dialysis buddy, Josh. :)

If you haven't seen the video, here is a link you can copy and paste.

http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=13493686

This exposure is great! The more people who know about the option of paired exchange, the better! Let's get a kidney for Josh and Molly and Chelsea and Stephanie and Mary and Katie G. These are just a few of the 87,000+ people who are waiting.

If you would like more information about becoming a living donor for someone who needs a kidney, please find the nearest transplant center and give them a call.

If you are in Vermont or northern New York state, you can call the toll-free donor hotline at Fletcher Allen Health Care. The number is 877-467-5102.

It could make a world of difference for someone who is waiting.