Otter pops and Ice Cubes

Tomorrow Mark goes to get his blood drawn at Mayo to see whether Tori's blood works with Mark. Everyone keep your fingers crossed.

Mark has been doing an amazing job (except a few times) watching his liquid limit. Mark can only drink up to 800 ml, which turns out to be about 3 1/2 cups of water daily. So much of the food we eat contains water as well, so it really can be frustrating for him, especially during our hot summer. This is really hard as well because Mark used to drink gallons of water in a day. He is doing well, and this helps in keeping his levels and water retention low. Mark can always tell when he hs drank too much because his wedding band will be difficult to come off or on his finger. I know the first thing Mark will do once he recieves a transplant is drink a ton of water. Until then ice cubes and otter pops!

Another amazing individual!

So, since the last time I posted there has been another wonderful person who has stepped forward and began the process to be tested for Mark. I simply cannot believe how blessed we are to have people willing to do this for Mark. Words would never be able to explain enough our gratitude. The testing will begin next week, and the first big obstacle is to make sure the blood is a match. Keep your fingers crossed.

The Good and the Bad

I came across an article yesterday about how scientists have built an artificial kidney that could possibly one day be implanted in humans. Right now, the device is too large for implantation, but in the next 5-7 years they plan on having a much smaller device that could perform the many functions of the kidney. Simply amazing!

So I have officially become scared to go to doctors now. I am getting those doctor/dentist/eye appointments in before the start of the school year (can you believe in 2 weeks I start already!) and it has been a while since I have done these. Well, in years past I never really thought twice about regular appointments, until now. I was kind of freaking out inside while I was waiting to be called back, just thinking that the doctor would find something really wrong. I think I now associate the doctor with bad news, makes me put myself in Mark's shoes and how it must be for him to go to the doctor. I actually told the denist yesterday to stop talking about a possible procedure I may have to have because it was making me feel a bit anxious.

It will be nice to be able to go to a doctor finally and recieve good news of how awesome Mark's new kidney is working. Until then....Mark and I will freak out together! At least we have each other.

One step back...

The news is in....our neighbor will not be able to donate his kidney to Mark. It was a bit of a heartbreaker, but like always we are moving on and moving forward. It was a blessing for our neighbor though, so I suppose there was some "good" news throughout the process.